Three smartwatches to get before the robots take over
These Tag Heuer, Suunto and Alpina timepieces are technically advanced to combine function and form
I’m fully cognisant of the fact that the world is on fire and we’re all going to die, but, seriously, artificial intelligence is not a panacea, people. It is the beginning of the end. Our robot overlords will have us working in their battery factories within a generation. You have been warned.
Having said, nay, screamed all that, as a watch writer I have to accept that technology in the guise of smartwatches is here to stay. So, this week, we’ll look at three new smartwatches that have that little extra about them.
We begin with Tag Heuer’s latest, the Connected Modular 41, a welcome smaller version of the game-changing Modular 45, which, arguably, saved the company. As the name suggests, the Modular 41, which uses AndroidWear software, is sized at 41mm, so it’s a more comfortable fit but you do sacrifice some screen space, which to many might be a negative but for me is a good trade off.
Size, however, isn’t the only thing that’s new here. Tag Heuer, which makes the watch in collaboration with Google and Intel, has upped the specs with a brighter and better screen and bumped up storage to 8GB and RAM up to 1GB, meaning this little piece of kit is as powerful as most entry-level mobile phones. There’s a lot of tech, which means when it comes to features such as notifications, activity tracking, sleep tracking, contactless payments and so on, this watch is among the best on the market.
The case is steel and water resistance is up to 50 metres, while the strap is easily changeable with nine options available. The Modular 41 is priced at HK$9,700 for the all-steel version and HK$11,700 for the steel case with ceramic bezel version.