HANDS-ON: The TAG Heuer Connected Modular 45
If you’ve ever looked down at your smart watch and thought, ‘If only I could change that case out for a real mechanical watch by a recognisable Swiss luxury watch brand,’ boy are you in luck because that’s exactly what TAG Heuer’s new Connected Modular 45 allows you to do. Going one step further than just a strap hack, the watch also has a tiny masterstroke in that you can change the lugs too, which can have the effect of changing the whole appearance of the watch. All in all, it does the equivalent of unleashing the Swiss hounds on Silicon Valley, by introducing something new to the smart watch suite that the tech community will never be able to. TAG Heuer’s first Connected was the luxury watch industry’s only serious foray into smart watches and the stakes were high. “This will either be my greatest success or biggest failure,” said TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver at the time. It turned out to be neither, because while the sell-through was apparently very good (Biver would have you believe it was unprecedented and the most sold TH model since it was released), it has just been superseded with a new version that is not, unfortunately for…
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Mechanical watches are very important to me. Not only are they the way I earn my living, they’re also a real passion. So it was with a sense of very real unease that I prepared for this review. Not because I have a fundamental aversion to quartz, connected or smart devices, but because I was concerned, deep down, that what the Apple Watch offered might be more compelling to me than the bridges and barrels I love so much. You see, while I’ve been a ‘watch guy’ for the past decade or so, I’ve been an ‘apple guy’ for far, far longer. I learnt to type in ClarisWorks, to create in Paint. And later, the covetable objects of my teenage years were iPods, iBooks and (later) iPhones. I’m typing this right now on an iPad, surrounded by a sum total of five Apple screens, so it’s fair to say I’ve drunk deep from the Cupertino Kool-Aid. And if any smart watch can win me over, it’s likely to be the Apple Watch. The hardware From its launch in 2015, the Apple Watch has evolved from a few products into a fully-formed ecosystem. Now offered in two sizes, numerous case materials and finishes as well…
Over the years, I’ve worn many (many) watches for review purposes, and to be honest it’s rare that I’m still thinking about that watch months or years after the fact. The Puck, from Canadian micro-brand Halios, is one of the rare exceptions. I wrote up the DLC version of the original Puck over on Hodinkee, way back in 2013 and it’s been stuck in my head ever since. So when I noticed some early renders of the Puck II on Instagram last year, I immediately contacted Jason Lim, founder of Halios, to get my hands on it ASAP (for purely impartial review purposes, obvs). Fast forward to a few weeks ago, and I was eagerly ripping open a DHL parcel to get my first look at the prototype. Halios made their name with the sort of unashamedly serious dive watch that guys on watch forums go nuts for – a beguiling combination of Spartan style, solid build and great value. The brutal Puck – named for its resemblance to a hockey puck – epitomised this approach. Polarising looks, an over-the-top 1000m depth rating and circa $1000 price tag ensured it was a runaway success, and expectations are high for version two. So, how…