When news broke earlier in the year Baselworld 2015, that Tag Heuer would be partnering with Google and Intel to design a luxury smartwatch, the collective tech industry was intrigued. For a long time, very few smartwatches had a truly premium feel about them. Now Tag Heuer has finally unveiled the device - the Connected Watch.

At a reported $1500, we must say that we were expecting a little more. The device's body is constructed from titanium, but from a distance simply looks like a more expensive version of the LG G Watch R (review). As such, for those expecting something closer to the Carrera model of Tag Heuer watch, sadly the Connected still resembles many of the Android Wear devices seen to date.

That said, Tag Heuer has made efforts to make the Connected Watch a level above its rivals. The screen (360x360) for example, features a "transflective" coating to ensure it can be viewed clearly in direct sunlight, according to Tag Heuer. As aforementioned, the Swiss watchmaker has also teamed up with Google and Intel, handling the OS and internal hardware respectively. Similar to the likes of the Sony Smartwatch 3 (review) and LG Watch Urbane, the Connected Watch sports a version of Android Wear to take care of the UI. Tag Heuer has, however, integrated a series of custom watchfaces to add a little uniqueness. Powering the Connected Watch's processing is an Intel Atom chipset, which clocks at 1.6 GHz. Added to this is 1 GB of RAM (a fair deal more than other smartwatches) and 4 GB of onboard storage.

As far as release dates go, the Connected watch will be arriving in the United States as of today, and reach Japan by 12 November. Those residing in South Africa however will have to wait on official word from the Swiss watchmaker on local availability and pricing.