Intel and Google both offered their support to Tag Heuer, the 155-year old Swiss watch maker, to release the Tag Heuer Connected, which is an Android Wear-powered smartwatch. On Monday, Tag Heuer unveiled the watch, which is made of titanium and features custom watch faces, at a price of $1,500.
Not the first
The Swiss firm is shipping the watch with an interesting promise: buyers can trade in their smartwatch after two years of use when it becomes obsolete for a $1,500 mechanical watch. At its launch event in New York, the company said the mechanical watch will have the same appearance as the Tag Heuer Connected smartwatch.
Tag Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver said, “We are the only brand where you can buy a connected watch and transform it into eternal.”
According to Google, this is the first luxury watch powered by Android Wear. There are already a handful of luxury Apple Watch models in the market that are priced as high as $17,000. LG also sells a gold smartwatch called the Urbane Luxe priced at $1,200. In reality, Tag Heuer’s smartwatch is not even the first Swiss-made smartwatch.
“Mondaine technically beat it to the punch,” says Venture Beat. It is not the first Intel-powered Android Wear smartwatch as Fossil already released one such watch in October itself.
Analysts positive on Intel
Separately, Sterne Agee CRT analysts improved their outlook for Intel’s earnings outlook. The firm believes that the chip maker plans to substantially increase its production of 7360 modem chipsets by the middle of fiscal year 2016. The analysts see it as a positive sign for Intel.
For FY16, Sterne Agee CRT increased its revenue forecast for Intel by $850 million owing to increased modem production. The firm believes that Intel’s NAND technology will significantly drive revenue in FY 2017. Sterne Agee CRT analysts reiterated their Buy rating on Intel and set a target price of $38.
“We also view INTC’s new $3.5B memory investment as a potential source for incremental revenues in 2017, and not material enough to cause oversupply in the NAND market,” the analysts said.
On Monday, Intel shares closed down 1.45% at $33.35. Year to date, the stock is down by over 8% ,while in the last one month, it is up by almost 4%.
