If a traditional manufacturer of luxury watches ventures into the field of electronic smartwatches, it may seem like an affront.

TAG Heuer from Switzerland took the risk and has been offering its own computer watches with Google's Wear OS operating system since 2015.

The company is successful with this.

Because even a TAG Heuer with electronics has a high-quality effect, and the dials are designed with as much love and detail as on a mechanical watch.

Michael Spehr

Editor in the "Technology and Engine" department.

  • Follow I follow

We tried the Connected Caliber E4 for a while.

In addition to the version we wear with a 45 millimeter case, there is a small model with a diameter of 42 millimeters and a narrower bezel.

The case of the six model variants consists mainly of stainless steel, only the most expensive comes with titanium.

In addition to a stainless steel bracelet, there are others made of rubber or leather.

The case back is screwed, the note "Made in China" is stamped on it.

The prices are between 1700 and 2400 euros.

Under the scratch-resistant sapphire glass you can see a powerful OLED display, which has a resolution of 1.28 inches in the small version with 416 x 416 pixels and 454 x 454 and 1.39 inches in the large version, and you are happy about the brightness and Brilliance of the display, which is always on in always-on mode, but falls into a power-saving mode after a few seconds of inactivity.

High processing quality and successful design

To operate it, you have to swipe your finger across the display, from top to bottom, from bottom to top, from left to right and from right to left.

How it works takes some getting used to.

However, you get all smartphone functionalities from Google on the watch, namely the Google Assistant, push notifications, Google Pay and music playback with Google Play Music, which has eight gigabytes of storage space for your own pieces.

Music can be streamed to paired Bluetooth earphones.

The charging station, which does not use inductive charging, is unworthy.

With four pogo pins on the back, you have to dock exactly to the mechanical mount.

This doesn't always work on the first try, the mechanical fumbling from the old days doesn't go with a modern and chic watch at all.

The battery barely lasts until the early evening.

Several apps are used on the smartphone: Google's Wear OS in the older version 2 to make basic settings, select a dial from the TAG Heuer collection, customize it and transfer it to the watch.

The dials in their beauty are the unique selling point, there are currently ten variants, some of which can be varied.

The Fit app is used to evaluate sports activities in the Google ecosystem.

The third app is TAG Heuer Connected, which shows sports activities in detail.

The watch collects GPS data and heart rate, which it does quite well, but the supported sports programs are few: running, cycling, walking, golf, swimming, indoor running and others.

The watch is water resistant to 5 bar.

You cannot make phone calls with the TAG Heuer Caliber E4.

Overall, the high processing quality, the successful design and the almost perfectly drawn dials are also convincing on this TAG Heuer.

From this point of view, the excursion into the world of electronics succeeds without becoming an affront.