Hands-on with the TAG Heuer Connected — $1,500 of Android Wear

Let's be perfectly clear here — if you pay $1,500 for an Android Wear smartwatch at this point, you're on your own. That's not really something we can recommend for most folks out there, particularly since we're still not 100 precent sure how current-day Android Wear is going to hold up in the long run.

On the other hand, if you have $1,500 to spend and the patience (and another $1,500) to spend on the eventual mechanical replacement for the TAG Heuer Connected, then have at it. We're just getting our first look at this guy, and on one hand it's very much still just an Android Wear smartwatch, only very nice looking. And it's an interesting mix of a very nicely designed body — a lot more angular than just about anything else we've used — and a dual-layer LCD with a decent view. (Insofar as we could tell in the blue lights of the Intel booth at CES.)

It's not a bad fit, either. It's a large watch — as nearly every Android Wear watch tends to be — and the rubber strap we used is, well, rubber. But we did appreciate the butterfly clasp.

Everything was in demo mode, but TAG did have its trio of watch faces loaded up. That's maybe the most subjective (and easily changed) part of these watches though. But they looked damned nice, even being as busy as they are. (I generally prefer something simple. But to each their own.)

The charger is a pretty standard plastic puck, really close to what LG has used on its watches. Nothing particularly special there.

Aesthetics may well be secondary here, though. It's one thing to wear a smartwatch, still a novelty for most folks. It's another to being wearing one with the TAG Heuer logo — letting everyone know just how much you paid for your watch.