TAG Heuer, the famous Swiss watchmaker who’s name is notoriously difficult to pronounce (it’s actually pronounced “tag hoy-yer”), has just announced the TAG Heuer Connected Module 41, a smaller version of the Connected Module 45 that was launched in Q1 of last year. As the name would imply, the watchface on the Connected Module 41 measures 41mm in diameter (that’s one and five eighths of an inch if you love fractions and imperial units), which isn’t exceedingly small for a watch, but which should hopefully begin to address one of Ryan’s largest complaints had with the Connected Module 45.
TAG is releasing seven standard models of the Connected Module 41, as well as nine different straps (including three new colors: pink, blue, and white leather). The watch runs Android Wear (obviously), but TAG hasn’t specified exactly which version it’s running. Since the Connected Module 45 is set to “eventually” receive an update to Oreo, it may be reasonable to assume TAG’s new watch will also be getting Oreo soon, if it isn’t launching with it already. The Connected Module 41 will also retail for less than its larger cousin: prices start at $1200 instead of at $1550 for the 45mm model, though for some that may still be too hefty a sum to pay for a smartwatch.
Of course, the Connected Module 41 is a luxury smartwatch, so it does come with the sort of quality and craftsmanship you’d expect from a premium watchmaker like TAG Heuer. In addition to boasting a scratch-resistant sapphire glass screen, the Connected Module 41 is built from materials such as titanium, or gold for the more expensive configurations. It also comes with all the functionality of its larger sibling: the new watch is waterproof to 50 meters, has NFC, Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi, and GPS, and works with Android Pay (erm, I mean Google Pay). The display is an AMOLED with a resolution of 390 by 390 pixels and a pixel density of 326 ppi, and TAG says that the brightness of the screen has been improved and now goes up to 350 nits (Ryan also thought the display on the Connected Module 45 was too dim).
Internally, the watch has received a significant update, doubling the RAM and storage to 1GB and 8GB, respectively. TAG hasn’t said whether they’ve kept the Intel Atom Z34XX processor that’s on the Connected Module 45 (the specs on their website say they have, but they also state the storage and RAM figures of the 45mm model, so someone clearly just copied and pasted the numbers), but it wouldn’t be surprising if they had.
