Pitch for TAG Heuer's smartwatch hails Swiss-US link and 'eternity'

New York

IT wasn't quite the frenzy of the Balmain x H&M event last week, but by noon on Monday, lines were snaking outside the TAG Heuer store in Fifth Avenue, and stretched at least partway down the block, as watch aficionados waited to check out what has been thought of as the first real luxury competitor to the Apple Watch: the TAG Heuer Connected, a Swiss-engineered smartwatch with an Intel chip and a Google platform.

This timepiece has been billed many things by the men behind it - including TAG Heuer chief executive Jean-Claude Biver, Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich, Google's vice-president of engineering for Android David Singleton, and even Bernard Arnault, the chief executive and majority shareholder of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the conglomerate that owns TAG Heuer.