GQ: This is the third iteration of the TAG Heuer Connected watch. What has the original launch taught you?
FA: The first is that there is demand for a luxury smartwatch and there is a strong potential. We saw that with our first and second generations and it really motivated us to invest in this category. Another was that our price positioning was not an issue to really finding a market. Some customers really want to differentiate from the smartwatch that everyone has on their wrist; they want something special, something different, and because you are touching the wrist with something so intimate, it needs to be special.
And then on the tech side we learned that it’s very different from developing mechanical watches. It really requires a dedicated team, a specific skill set, different reasonings, different partners – so we have developed our own team based in Paris to take over the development and the product management. We have software developments, we have hardware engineers, programme managers and having internal technological capabilities is very helpful for driving the product forward. In the two first generations our main differentiation was the design and now we decided to go one step further in refinement but also invest in software.
The new watch is clearly a refinement on its predecessors. Can you enlarge on the thinking behind the changes?
We really spent a lot of time on the design and engineering, the finishing, the choice of materials, ceramic bezel, the polished case – that’s really important, but then you have the watch faces. Users are looking for different features and they want to personalise their watch as much as possible, so there are lots of customisation options. And not only copies of, or inspirations from, mechanical dials – we decided to go much further this time.
We had to reinterpret the brand in the digital world so the Orbital and Carbon watch faces take some inspiration from watchmaking but the experience on the watch is not only based on the watch, so we’ve developed our own TAG Heuer ecosystem around sports.
We believe most of the uses are around
health and fitness and we believe we have a strong point of difference in that market. As you know, our brand is avant-garde and our strong roots within sports are really legitimate. So we are launching one of the most legitimate, if not the most legitimate, products in watchmaking and we are reinforcing this with the best user experiences in golf, running, cycling, fitness, walking but also warm-up and we will really refine these features and listen to what our customers ask for.
The brand has a strong heritage around motorsport. Do you envisage this being a key pillar or possible attribute for further developments?
Around
motorsports, we are very often asked this question because it’s a strong sport for the brand historically. But with the Connected watch we really wanted to focus on the features that made most sense and to date we haven’t identified motorsports as a priority. It wouldn’t be used as much as the other sports and the demand on the market wouldn’t be as strong as for the sports that we are focusing on. But there is a road map and it is constantly evolving so this is just the beginning. We already have more sports that we will launch later this year, with more to come.
It’s interesting to note that whereas a mechanical watch leaves the factory effectively ‘complete’, from a technological point of view, the Connected watch remains a work-in-progress, reliant on regular updates to its functions and services. Maintaining that functionality becomes a new business for TAG Heuer.
Absolutely, and while we are able to track [certain aspects] of a mechanical watch’s user experience, here we will track and make sure that the watch is actually used. And that’s not something we can do with mechanical watches. And if we notice that there is a decrease in the usage we will be able to react really fast and make sure we meet expectations in terms of usability.
So the relationship with your customer changes…
Completely. And the relationship between the product and the customers is completely different. This product is a companion that follows you in your day-to-day activities and you’ll learn to live with it.
Whereas a mechanical watch is fundamentally an ‘accessory for life’, there is inevitably an element of inbuilt obsolescence with a Connected watch. How important is the aspect of sustainability?
Sustainability is very important to us as a brand and also on the Connected watch. The way we approach it is the product will be usable for several years and we will continue to invest in updates. Today we have users still wearing the first watch we launched in 2015 and this is very important to us. And then we will build a recycling programme because this is a technological product so it doesn’t have the same essence as a mechanical watch – it won’t last for decades. It will last for several years, and much longer than people would have in mind for a technological product, but eventually it won’t be maintained like a mechanical watch. But we will offer a recycling programme to the customer.
In 2015, the first iteration of the Connected watch came with the promise of a replacement mechanical model at the end of its life. It sounds as if with the new model, the requirement to model a solution by which a TAG Heuer is never obsolete has shifted somewhat.
We decided to separate the promise to the customer with the smartwatch on one side and the mechanical watch on the other. Both are really complementary and we have customers who enjoy having both. We don’t have to have the promise in the same product.
Do you think the Connected watch appeals to an existing TAG Heuer customer or a new one?
We have a bit of both. A lot of TAG Heuer lovers and collectors are interested in our proposition and it also allows us to bring some customers to the brand, clients who perhaps haven’t had a TAG Heuer or even a watch before, who eventually might be interested in purchasing a mechanical watch. In terms of numbers, a significant number of customers for the Connected watch say they are interested in purchasing a mechanical watch later. So it’s a way of bringing customers into the brand but also the world of watchmaking.
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