Tag Heuer Connected Specification and Suunto 7 Comparison

Well, well, well, even a cursory look at the new Tag Heuer Connected Specifications shows a similar beast to the Suunto 7, albeit at a somewhat higher price.

The 3rd generation Tag Heuer was announced last week as the world instigated lock-down proceedings.

Expensive, smart fitness watches like this get good press coverage in the mainstream publications and sell better than you would think, just not from your local running shop.

Like the 2 previous iterations, the Tag Heuer Connected is a Wear OS watch thus, perhaps surprisingly, the nearest competitor could be argued to be the Suunto 7 (although the Montblanc Summit 2 Plus with LTE is even ‘smarter’). These are both fitness watches delivered in a premium, sport-ready case. They both have GPS, both have oHR and both have a proprietary sports app. In fact, they both have the same Snapdragon processor inside and so will probably each work with a similar level of smoothness as you navig\te yourself around the apps on the watch.

Apart from the price, these two fitness watches merit direct comparisons. Well, they would if Tag sent me a sample and if there was also a decently detailed list of specifications online. Thus, in the absence of a ‘hands-on’ and pesky ‘facts’ I shall continue with a lighthearted tone.

Confession

My first ever watch that I used for sport really was a Tag Heuer. Naturally, my sporty endeavours were watch-free for many years before I acquired it but at some point, a Tag Forumla One made its way onto my wrist and I still have it sitting alongside my far-more-modern, sporty watch ‘collection’. Of course, the Formula One was supposedly a ‘dive’ watch but I wore it for piste-based activities and for timing my runs around the block before I discovered Polar.

My non-tech remnant of 1990’s shabby chic has now made way for you to buy a highly sophisticated piece of kit in the Tag Heuer Connected, which really is a SMART (FITNESS?) watch, unlike my Formula One model. Of course, the Tag Heuer Connected is by no means a watch for serious athletic endeavours but then neither is the Suunto 7.

Tag Heuer Connected Technical Specifications

TAG Heuer Connected app

Smart Features from Google’s Wear OS

Both the Tag Heuer Connected and the Suunto 7 run the same version of Google’s Wear OS on the fastest Wear 3100 chip which means that you get great smart features like contactless payment, Google Play Music ‘streaming’, Google features like Assistant & Maps

Sports Features from Tag

The Tag Heuer has the necessary sports sensors. Without performing tests, I’ve no idea how accurate or useful any of them might be.

It’s also unclear to what degree the Tag running and cycling apps even exist. For example, the links on Tag’s own website (as of 14 March 2020) fail to point to anything of substance. The Golf app DOES exist and was present on a previous watch, so that’s probably cool.

Thoughts

I do like the looks of this watch and there are some interesting physical aspects to the design such as the use of wider pressers rather than buttons.

It exudes the appearance of quality from the bands, to their connection mechanism to the integration of the ohr sensor into the watch body. The apparent excellence of the detailed design is taken all the way through to a screen which rightly fills up the available space inside the bezel with useful imagery rather than the black ring of apathy found on very many other watches.

Yet, if you’re buying this for any sport other than golf you’ll be waiting for the app to do the job…at least for a while. Even then will it do the job required by you for your sports of choice? Of course, just like you will find with the Suunto 7, there will already be very many sports apps elsewhere on Wear OS (Play Store) just waiting for you to use FROM DAY ONE.