Tag Heuer Upgrades Connected Watch, Trade-in Program With Calibre E4
PARIS — Tag Heuer is unveiling its latest connected watch, the Calibre E4 model, which will be available from March 10.
But don’t ask Frédéric Arnault, chief executive officer of the Swiss watchmaker, about what new digital bells and whistles are on board — although there are plenty of those, too.
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“We often get asked what is new or innovative [in our connected watches] or what it does. And yes, that’s important, but as a luxury brand, it isn’t necessarily what comes first. Design, associated emotion, attention to detail are the priority. This is the rationale of [this watch] as a luxury object,” Arnault said at a preview.
According to him, connected watches are the fastest-growing category for Tag Heuer. It currently accounts for around 15 percent of overall business owing to a favorable context for the watch industry and the brand’s ongoing investments in distribution and communication.
“We ended 2021 on a very positive note and are starting 2022 in a very dynamic way in our traditional mechanical and quartz watch segment. The connected one grows faster, and in a constant way, since the first launches [in 2015],” he said.
Beyond the new specifications of these Calibre E4 devices, “the key challenge is to ensure our clients are satisfied with this product and wear the watch every day. And if they do, after a while, they will wish to purchase and wear the latest generation,” said Arnault, noting that previously, the focus had been on convincing clients to forgo mechanical timekeepers for their connected counterparts.
Hence the extension of the trade-in program launched in 2021 to 20 countries. The brand plans to continue offering support for all connected watch generations, according to Tag Heuer’s software product director Guillaume Mathias. Arnault estimated that regular users of the first generation, which launched in 2015, still number in the thousands.
That didn’t stop the brand from making sure the Calibre E4 watches, named after their fourth-generation electronics, offered plenty of reasons to trade in, starting with the addition of a barometric sensor and two sizes.
The first is a slimmed-down 45mm model, set to retail for 1,950 euros, where attention has been paid to ease of use while in motion, with an upgraded ceramic bezel and larger crown.
Digital watch faces have also been revisited. While some designs continue to replicate traditional watch elements including other Tag Heuer ranges, others offer more abstract representations, owing to “go beyond the watchmaking elements of the brand to represent the idea of movement in an artistic way,” the executive said.
Courtesy of Tag Heuer
Entirely new is the 42mm watch, priced 1,700 euros and geared toward smaller wrists, with female consumers in mind. Rather than scaling down its larger sibling, it was redesigned to further blur the boundary between a luxury timepiece and its sports capabilities — with a focus on sports like golfing, running or swimming.
“You don’t buy a traditional timekeeper to help you on performance, but that’s a major part of a connected watch purchase, where it is a tool,” said Arnault, noting that this idea had guided the brand toward “sports that are actually practiced” by wider consumer bases rather than professional ones like Formula 1.
Also making its debut in this new model is the fitness experience, which includes seven-minute exercise routines developed by fitness coaching experts and illustrated with videos created through motion capture to give a true sense of the body, Mathias said.
“For most of our users, [change] starts with small things like calories or daily steps. That’s why we wanted to launch the fitness aspect, because after the COVID-19 pandemic, many have stayed sedentary, with gyms closed. We thought it was the perfect to this since you can do [a seven-minute routine] between two calls and get that little boost of energy,” Arnault said.
Other upgrades for this iteration include a new charger, which is meant to also serve as a stand to display the watch, a 30-percent improvement on battery life and faster data transfer speeds.
And for those who want to take it up a notch, the March 10 release of the Calibre E4 also see the launch of programs developed with the brand’s ambassadors, including tennis star Naomi Osaka and Olympian Sydney McLaughlin, who are the faces of this iteration of Tag Heuer’s connected watches.
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