2025 TAG Heuer Connected (E5) - Discussions Thread

S sonic

I was told $210 this past weekend from my contact at my local boutique and I just texted him to confirm. If he says anything different I'll let you know but they have told me twice. I think the trade-in value is a joke.

https://imgur.com/a/XCJ8KqH

T Tognola luca

I'm totally disappointed: They really developped their own OS. According helpdesk this mean NO 3rd party-apps. No Google Maps, no calendar and so on. Really? What a strange decision for a traditional watch crafter to now spend millions in the develpment that in the end makes the TH just an expensive version of Garmin.
Sad....

R Ryan Gray

This right here. You changed everything about how the watch works. Ok that's fine. But now you take away the trade in that's been a thing since the beginning? These can sit in the Chinese warehouse.

T Tognola luca

Yes but the decision to make an own OS could mean that we can forget about updates for E4... Again. Already before the update philosophy of TH was rediculous for a luxury watch. Every cheap samrtwatch gets more updates. Still stuck on security update from 1st of April 2024, in word twothousandtewntyfour!!

Anthony.

You can definitely respond to text message and it has a calendar. Not sure where you got that information.

Feanor

The E4 will get no more updates, not because TAG Heuer made their own OS and forgot about Wear OS, but because Wear OS 3.5 (the one right after the 3.2 that we are stuck with) is the Wear OS version that removes iPhone compatibility. All this nonsense that we have to accept with TAG Heuer dropping Wear OS and replacing it with a lesser OS is because Apple actively seeks ways to discourage customers from leaving their brand. And Google, not seeing commercial success with their efforts to try and break through Apple's closed ecosystem, gave up iPhone support.

Feanor

The E4 will get no more updates, not because TAG Heuer made their own OS and forgot about Wear OS, but because Wear OS 3.5 (the one right after the 3.2 that we are stuck with) is the Wear OS version that removes iPhone compatibility. All this nonsense that we have to accept with TAG Heuer dropping Wear OS and replacing it with a lesser OS is because Apple actively seeks ways to discourage customers from leaving their brand. And Google, not seeing commercial success with their efforts to try and break through Apple's closed ecosystem, gave up iPhone support.

S Saintsman

Just read a review saying that they thought Tag were right to develop their own OS as it makes everything faster. No consideration that that might be due to the new Snapdragon CPU? It's a near certainty that this is built on AOSP, so they've basically cut the Play store and Google proprietary stuff just to gain an Apple logo that means very little.

R Run339

Yes… just spotted this on the Tag website; “**TAG Heuer OS is based on Android Open Source Project. Android is a trademark of Google LLC.”

T Tognola luca

I'm totally disappointed: They really developped their own OS. According helpdesk this mean NO 3rd party-apps. No Google Maps, no calendar and so on. Really? What a strange decision for a traditional watch crafter to now spend millions in the develpment that in the end makes the TH just an expensive version of Garmin.
Sad....

T Tognola luca

According customer care no third party apps allowed. No Google account either.
That's what they told me 4hrs ago..maybe the guy didn't know any better 😉

S SDor

I don't know. I've tried using maps on my e4, and it's not very useful to me because of the tiny screen, and google maps already integrates with my car, and that is where I use google maps 98% of the time. Google Pay makes you put a pass code on the screen, and then not every place takes Google Pay so it never became 2nd nature so after I changed phones a few months ago (which required a watch reset), I never set it up again and don't miss it. +1 for adding the microphone so one can answer calls. This is something that I originally thought was silly on my galaxy watch, but actually turned out to be pretty handy.

Assuming it can do notifications - which I do see in the video - about the only thing I see missing is Google Messenger... which could be a deal breaker. Maybe there's an open api now for both Google and Apple Messenger? My e4 is still in great shape so I wasn't going to run out and buy one of these anyway. I figured I'd wait a year or two for the new OS to actually work well, and look at the trade-in deals and go from there. For me, the most important features are a) it looks nice - wife calls the Galaxy my "dork watch", b) heart rate monitor - I have a heart condition and this is handy for keeping an eye on it and c) notifications/messaging - let me triage interruptions and possibly make simple responses without the phone. I'm not looking for full feature "smart watch"... leave that to Samsung, Google and Apple.

I think Tag was in a tight spot. Apple probably dominates their target demographic so do you really want to exclude ~80% (guess) of your target audience? Also, with WearOS they're kind of at the mercy of Google, and their dictates to, for example, first integrate with the Wear app... no wait, build it yourself... If you don't own the platform, do you really own your product? Leaving so much customer experience in the hands of Google is not a great path for a luxury brand. Garmin seems to be able to build a decent watch without Google (or Apple), maybe TH can do it as well.

I see no reason to upgrade today, but I'm not going to rule it out a couple years from now... assuming Tag hasn't given up.

S Saintsman

They don't own their platform with this AOSP either. Google own AOSP - what Tag have committed to do is build out all the stuff that Google would provide (for a fee) and that Apple don't really allow them to build anyway. As for their market, I suspect that globally it's nowhere near as Apple dominated as you might suspect. What we have in the E5 is a Garmin MARQ without the real functionality that Garmin have developed but with Tag branding

cassis

And great watchfaces which Garmin does not have at all (I owned a Marq II)... At the end, wearing a "luxury" smartwatch is also about the look, hence the watchface...