Author: Marcus Henry

Smartwatches are a pretty purpose-built genre. For the most part, they’re designed to exist unobtrusively on your wrist and are shaped entirely around their function. 

Popular companies such as Garmin and G-Shock love to use incredibly light materials, such as resin and titanium and are sure to advertise the utter weightlessness of their product.

But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if you could find a smartwatch that didn’t hide its design but embraced it? A watch that wants to be seen and felt in its position on your wrist.

I know that was a bit of a theatrical intro, but the TAG Heuer Connected is really just that. It’s a smartwatch you’ll want to flash around a little. 

Not in a “look at me, I’m wearing a luxury smartwatch” kind of way (looking at you, Hublot Big Bang e Titanium Diamonds), but in a way that whispers, “this is a quality product that is built to last.”

If you’re still reading this, something about that speaks to you that’s worth investigating. So, let’s take a look at TAG Heuer’s Swiss smartwatches: the Connected E4 and the Golf Edition.

History

The TAG Heuer Connected collection turns one decade old this year. At its unveiling in 2015, then-CEO and industry legend Jean-Claude Biver proudly declared that the watch exemplified “Silicon Valley meets Switzerland,” and I think he was certainly right to do so. 

It was originally created through a partnership with Intel and Google since the watch is powered by Google’s Wear OS but features TAG Heuer’s iconic design. 

It was designed from the start to be a luxury Swiss smartwatch alternative, for those looking for just a little extra class on their wrist but with all the functionality of modern smartwatch tech.

The collection has evolved over the years—the current edition is the fourth, the E4—but the basic DNA remains the same. 

TAG Heuer didn’t want to create a distinctive smartwatch, but rather a smartwatch that looks in every way like a normal watch, with all the elegance that they know how to infuse in everything they make. 

This is reflected in the case profile and the ceramic bezel, as well as the display, which throughout the collection’s history has been based on various watch faces offered by TAG Heuer.

Case

At first glance, anyone could be easily fooled into thinking the TAG Heuer Connected is really a mechanical TAG watch, and a large part of creating that elegant appearance is the case structure. 

TAG offers either a 42mm or a 45mm case with two pushers and a crown, much like you might see on a chronograph. Thankfully, TAG Heuer is careful to compensate for the large diameter by adding shorter lugs, making for an overall very wearable smartwatch.

The buttons and crown are specifically designed to be extremely ergonomic, comfortable and easy to use, and they sure look it. Personally, I’m a big fan of the tapered pushers, which have such a sleek shape and really accentuate the structure of the lugs. 

The crown is engraved with TAG Heuer’s logo and looks much like a standard watch crown, really helping to sell its watch identity.

In particular, the PVD ceramic bezel is an exceptional luxury touch that you’d be hard-pressed to find in nearly any other smartwatch on the market today. 

Not only that, but the sapphire crystal actually extends over this bezel, meaning that it won’t impede your usage of the touchscreen—so you get a touch of luxury shine without sacrificing the practical usage of the watch. With this case, TAG Heuer has really pushed the boundaries of what a smartwatch can be.

Display

If the case is the outfit your watch wears, and the movement is the beating heart, the display is the face, perhaps the most important element in creating an overall elegant presentation. TAG Heuer definitely put quite a good deal of attention into creating the different display options for their Connected E4, and all of the dial options are available directly from the company. 

While this means you don’t have the incredibly wide variety that you’d get with a Garmin, where people can design dials and sell them on the Garmin store, this also ensures that each dial will be high-quality and have razor-sharp clarity.

The dial options are simple but very clean. Most come directly from watches that TAG Heuer offers—even some that are directly inspired by their mechanical offerings, such as one face that features a virtual flying tourbillon (which may just be the single most ironic thing I’ve ever seen on a watch, but I digress). Another that replicates a mechanical skeleton dial.

The display itself is a touchscreen covered by a hard sapphire crystal, so you won’t acquire too many scratches on that lovely clear display. The screen is AMOLED, so it’s very bright when it’s active. 

The dial will go into an ambient mode when not directly in use, but the screen merely dims instead of going fully dark, so you don’t have to flick your wrist around and get the watch to turn on fully just to be able to see the time. 

To me, this is yet another proof of TAG Heuer’s intentionality in producing a smartwatch that works just like any other watch they make—easy to use and just as easy to tell the time as a mechanical timepiece.

Depending on which edition of the watch you spring for, you can also get different faces. The Golf Edition, for example, comes with 5 unique golf-inspired faces. 

In the past, TAG has also made Connected collaborations with Porsche and—believe it or not—Super Mario, so if you pick up an older one of these, you can even get custom dials featuring everyone’s favorite cartoon plumber. 

Oh, and there’s a current collaboration with the Oracle Red Bull Racing team with plenty of special dials inspired by the team’s colors. Outside of the special editions, however, you’ll be stuck with the much more restrained standard dial features.

Smartwatch Features and Battery Life

Let me preface this section with a brief disclaimer. You will probably be disappointed by the features the Connected E4 has to offer. I was, anyways. It’s not exactly a winning combo. In TAG’s defense, however—that’s not really the point. 

The watch is elegant, simple, and made to have a luxury feel and design. It’s not about cutting-edge technology. Would that have been nice to see here for a watch of this price? Absolutely. But at its essence, that’s not what it’s all about.

In any case, I’m not here to make an apology for the Connected E4, so it’s up to you whether the overall design and the features that are available are worth it for this watch. Let’s start off with the battery life, which is just one day (or two if you don’t use it late at night). It’s not exactly the 40-some days you can get on a Garmin with solar charging, but it’s also not built for the things the Garmin is, like adventuring off the grid. 

You’re wearing it around your home and around town, not to go explore uncharted waters. But a little bit longer would have been nice. Thankfully, the supplied charger is pretty cool, and I love the little TAG Heuer logo which lights up when it’s charging.

In terms of basic specs, the Connected E4 comes with a heart rate monitor, a GPS, and an accelerometer for swimming, running, and other activities. These all perform relatively well, with the possible exception of the heart rate monitor—I’ve heard a few complaints that it undercounts, which can also impact other calculations like your calories burned. These basic hardware features power each of the applications the watch has to offer.

If you’re a world-class athlete, you’d be much better off training with a Garmin or COROS than this TAG Heuer. TAG’s suite of wellness applications is relatively limited when compared to most others on the market. You do get real-time calories burned and energy management for races and other competitions, along with training sessions. 

In this latter category, you can actually follow programs made by top athletes (presumably TAG Heuer ambassadors), which is relatively compelling, and also follow along with a display of how to do specific exercises on the watch screen. It’s more of an everyday hitting-the-gym companion than an athletic trainer, to say the least.

Outside of the sports and fitness applications, you do get most of the other functions you’d expect from a modern smartwatch, like notifications, weather, calendar, and music syncing with your phone. The baseline is there, and it’s pretty strong, but it’s not exceptional cutting-edge tech.

Lastly, let’s touch on the golf-specific apps, which are, of course, exclusive to the Golf Edition of the Connected E4. These are actually pretty fantastic, and I was pleasantly surprised to see pretty much everything a golfer could ask for here. You’ve got automatic scoring for you and scorecard-keeping for everyone golfing with you. 

2D and 3D maps of 40,000 golf courses around the world, plus 3D mapping of all your shots over the map as you progress. Stats and feedback on how you did after your trip is over. Recommendations on which club to use for each shot. 

I’m not much of a golfer, but I really can’t think of much more you could ask for. If you’re looking for a golf companion, the TAG Heuer Connected really stands out from its competition.

Straps

There’s not too much to say about the different strap options here, as TAG Heuer has kept it pretty simple. Almost every option comes—if you don’t configure it—on a rubber strap, which is perfectly fine, honestly. Not much to comment on, but it gets the job done and is what 99% of people who are wearing a smartwatch will be looking for. 

Can you easily swap it out for leather if you so wish? Absolutely, TAG even gives you that option upfront when buying the watch, and you can just as well swap out for your own leather strap. But it’s a simple, workhorse option that comes right with the watch, and most people won’t have any need to swap anything out. 

If you spring for the Golf Edition, you’ll get a rubber strap with a little extra texture, inspired by golf balls in a way that’s not super obtrusive or gimmicky, but actually works pretty well.

That said… TAG Heuer does also offer the option to pair a steel bracelet with a steel case watch in either size. I can’t help but love it. It feels so ridiculous in so many ways. A luxury steel integrated bracelet on a smartwatch? Where do I sign up? It’s like Hublot putting their dress watches on a rubber strap. 

It just makes no sense, and yet it works perfectly for this watch. The bracelet itself is pretty darn good, too, with very little gap between links and mirrored central links contrasting with the brushed ends. Frankly, it has no right to look this good.

On-Wrist Experience

TAG Heuer manages to nearly perfectly accomplish what they set out to do: create a smartwatch that has an immaculate luxury look and feel. The watch is big, to be sure, and for those with smaller wrists, you’ll definitely want to go for the 42mm size. 

That said, TAG shortened the lugs a little to make for a watch that’s ever so slightly more wearable than how its measurement sounds. This means you get a larger display, which is perfect for its smartwatch nature, with extra wearability.

The look is definitely the biggest draw of the watch because most of the smartwatch features won’t cut it for a lot of people who are looking for a serious tool to wear. The heart rate monitor and pared-back fitness features are perfectly fine for a guy like me who just drops by the gym to stay relatively in shape and spends most of his time safely ensconced within civilization. 

For me, I really appreciate the luxury look and feel of the watch, and I don’t mind as much not having the latest tech and tactical features. It’s a watch I feel comfortable wearing with most outfits and even taking out to more formal events. That’s really the draw of the watch for almost anyone, I’m sure.

A last thing I want to touch on in terms of the watch’s everyday wearability is the way it integrates with your phone. It doesn’t have any sort of built-in cellular, so everything comes directly from Bluetooth with your phone. Since it runs on Google’s Wear OS, this can cause some problems for some (but not all) iPhone users. 

I’ve heard a few reports that the watch often struggles to pair with their phone. To really get it to work well with your iPhone, you end up needing to download the Google Wear OS app, as well as the TAG Heuer Connected app, which can be problematic for both your storage and the space on your home screen. 

You also can’t directly reply to notifications on the watch with an iPhone. It just integrates a lot better with Androids as a consequence of its Google-powered innards and can be a little frustrating at times to use with an iPhone. 

If you’re an Android user, this is all well and good and can be a little extra advantage with having the watch. If you’re an Apple fan, be sure to save a little screen and storage space for the apps you’ll need.

Price & Availability

The TAG Heuer Connected E4 currently goes for around $1,450, or $1,950 for the Golf Edition. This is sort of an average value, since there are different prices for the normal one depending on case material and how you choose to configure it, but it hovers around there.

Interestingly, the retail price of the watch has been steadily going down over time, which I actually really appreciate. TAG Heuer has shown an awareness of the market, and of how competitive their product is with other smartwatches that are available right now, and since the technology of the E4 has been outstripped in several ways recently, the price has gone down accordingly. It’s still not cheap, but it’s significantly lower than it was before (well over $2,000!), and I appreciate the intentionality from TAG here.

It’s certainly an expensive smartwatch option, but it’s also a luxury item that comes with the TAG Heuer brand name and is built to last. Yes, it costs more upfront, but it can also last you longer even while others are upgrading to the latest iterations of whatever smartwatch they’re into and end up spending more money.

Note as well that TAG also offers a trade-in program, where you can sell your E4 to get some money back towards a newer edition of the watch. If they release a new collection in the future, you won’t have to worry about missing out just because you got an older version of the watch.

You can find the TAG Heuer Connected E4 for sale on the company’s website at around $1,450.

Conclusion

It’s not a watch that’s going to stun your friends with its crazy features and long battery life, but it sure is beautiful. And in the end, that’s what TAG wanted. Whether you like it as it is or not, TAG Heuer hit their goal dead-on with this one, and I think there’s something to be respected in that. 

A luxury Swiss watchmaking house stuck to its guns and made something following its own ideals, its own design, and its own character, and this is the product. Love it or hate it, it’s a pretty darn good watch that deserves a round of applause.

Scrolling through the list of collections on Rolex’s website reveals just one icon after another. Datejust. Submariner. GMT-Master II.

The list reads more like a hall of fame for watches than a company website. You have to scroll past most of these other legends to reach the Explorer collection towards the end, almost as if Rolex is keeping this one hidden away for those with a little extra intentionality.

That extra searching will meet with a full reward, I assure you, for the Explorer collection is one of Rolex’s very finest. It couples Rolex’s traditional heritage with the tool watch style that they do best. 

It’s simple and understated, which is central to Rolex’s historical identity. It is Rolex distilled to a single drop. No flash. No flair. Just a nearly perfect tool watch that works. And keeps on working.

Whether you’re scaling the highest mountains or clocking a 9 to 5, the Rolex Explorer captures the spirit of adventure in every moment. It can weather any storm, from a blizzard on Mount Everest to a rapidly approaching deadline. If you’re looking for a go-anywhere, do-anything watch by the watchmaking brand, look no further.

History

The Oyster Perpetual Explorer was first introduced by Rolex to commemorate the first-ever summit of Everest in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary. Contrary to popular belief, Hillary himself was wearing a Smiths watch, but his team was wearing Oyster Perpetuals. 

As such, the Explorer itself wasn’t on the first summit of Everest, but mountaineering is in its DNA. From the inside out, it was designed to provide extreme precision even in extreme conditions.

The Explorer was one of Rolex’s first Professional watches. It’s far from the elegant flair of a Cartier Tank—essentially, it is for professionals, those pushing the limits of what is possible.

In the most extreme conditions, you don’t want a cheap battery-powered watch on your wrist that’s barely waterproof and could die at any moment.

Or at least, so the pros say. I wouldn’t know myself. The current editions of the Explorer were relatively recently updated, with the current 36mm size introduced in 2021 and the 40mm in 2023. 

Thankfully for those of us who have a deep appreciation for vintage watches and heritage releases, not much has changed from the original edition of the Explorer—which actually first came out at the same 36mm size. 

In all, it’s a watch that has remained faithful to its past. No need for vintage reissues here: the Explorer is the real deal and looks pretty much exactly how the original 1953 Explorer would look if it was introduced today.

Case

The Explorer case gets the job done, and it does it in probably the most understated possible way. It’s very simply brushed, creating a utilitarian tool-watch appearance uninterrupted by any polished bevels or flash. 

This case can get beat up by pretty much anything anywhere and, thanks to the brushing, scratches, and divots, won’t be that visible or eye-catching. With brushed satin finishing, I often find that beat-up watches are able to wear their scars as a badge of honor in a way that highly polished watch cases really can’t, as any slight mark on their surface will interrupt their smooth shine.

The case is what Rolex calls their proprietary Oyster case. Originally introduced all the way back in 1926, it enabled Rolex to create the first-ever waterproof wristwatch.

At its core, it involves screwing the bezel and the caseback into place, using the tight seal created by the threads and by rubber gaskets to add water resistance. Today, the Explorer has 100m of water resistance thanks to this, which is more than enough to take it swimming, if not a little diving, without any worries.

As a watch nerd, I love the effect created by contrasting areas of polish on a case or bracelet. I’m a big sucker for that sort of visual contrast, and thankfully, the Explorer provides just that with its mirror-polished bezel atop the brushed case.

It’s a little extra flash and shine that pairs so well with the glossy black dial (more on that later) and really turns this watch into something that you can dress up when you want to.

That spectacular Oyster case construction that I touched on earlier is crafted entirely out of Rolex’s proprietary Oystersteel, a special type of steel in the 904L family.

According to Rolex (personally, I’ve never put one of their watches through its paces, but maybe one day), it’s significantly more corrosion-resistant and has a unique radiance when compared to standard stainless steel. 

Again, Rolex is all about quality and simplicity. Corrosion resistance and a shinier, more precious-metal-like appearance? I’ll take both, please. The case is simple and fantastic. It gets the job done and protects the watch in a powerful and elegant way.

Dial

With the recent editions of the Explorer, Rolex has slightly altered the dial, with the primary changes being repositioning some text and switching the color from a matte black to a glossy black. 

I’m a huge fan of this change—the text is now in the same configuration as the original Explorer, and the glossy black dial is just so much deeper and more elegant than a matte black could be. It’s the elegant shine of a black silk bow tie—simple and timeless.

Overall, the dial is designed to be as legible as possible. It features numerals at 3, 6, and 9, which are even larger than those in the last edition of the Explorer, as well as square lume plots at the others and a triangle at 12:00.

This layout is so iconic and so legible that it’s been copied on hundreds of watches throughout history. I think I’ll let that speak for itself.

Both the applied indices and the hands are filled with Rolex’s special Chromalight lume, which is a bright white during the day and, when charged by UV light, emits an intensely blue glow at night. 

It’s a relatively recent development, from 2008, and it was updated in 2021 to make it an even more intense and longer-lasting shine.

Essentially, it’s a really high-quality lume that is definitely one of the key factors that will set the Explorer apart from similar but less expensive tool watches which will have vastly inferior lume.

The hands are quintessential Rolex, with the “mercedes” hour hand and simple pointed minute hand. I actually am quite fond of the seconds hand, with its round lume plot and round counterweight.

It’s just so visually and physically balanced and, to me, conveys a lovely sense of precision which is, of course, backed up by the powerful Rolex movement beating away inside.

Along the rehaut, you’ll find the iconic “ROLEX-ROLEX-ROLEX” repeated text engraved into the metal. A bit of a history lesson: all the way back in the 18th century, perhaps starting with Abraham-Louis Breguet, watchmakers were making fine and precision engravings in order to distinguish the quality of their work from that of counterfeiters. 

It’s a lovely way to both add that hefty Rolex branding and, by adding such a delicate and difficult-to-reach engraving, provide a way to authenticate the watch at a glance.

Finally, the printed text is very evenly spaced and balanced, with clean kerning (the space between letters) that shows a lovely attention to detail characteristic of Rolex quality. 

Every element of the whole dial shows a profound perfectionism, which is exactly what you pay for when you buy a Rolex or any other quality luxury watch. It’s legible and sporty but elegant, simple and restrained but refined. I really just can’t find any fault with it.

Movement

For a watch like the Explorer, you desperately need a movement that can take a few knocks in intense environments and keep right on ticking. Rolex has placed their in-house caliber 3230 in this role, which was developed in 2020. 

It’s an automatic movement with a whopping 70-hour power reserve, so if you wear this watch every two days, it’ll always be wound. It’s COSC-certified as a chronometer, and to this, Rolex has added their own certification process, earning it the title of “Superlative Chronometer”, which means it keeps time to within +/- 2 seconds per day.

So how does it stand up to life’s adventures, wherever they may be? The cal. 3230 features all three of Rolex’s recent watchmaking developments: the blued Parachrom hairspring, the Rolex Chronergy escapement, and Paraflex shock absorbers. 

Without getting too into the technical details of each of these, each one definitely brings some major benefits to the power and durability of this watch. The Parachrom hairspring increases the watch’s resistance to magnetic fields and also keeps great time even over a long span of time without regulation. 

It’s also more resistant to breaking than standard hairsprings and silicon hairsprings, which have become the standard for the rest of the industry. The Chronergy escapement is what gives the cal. 3230 such a long power reserve, thanks to a significant increase in efficiency for the movement.

In all, it’s a movement designed to resist whatever life throws at you, especially since it’s safely ensconced within its strong Oyster case. There’s not much else I can say about it—it’s a workhorse time-only beater that will power you through all of life’s explorations.

Straps

The Explorer comes normally on a classic Rolex Oyster bracelet, as if the heritage inspiration couldn’t get any better. Once again, there’s not too much to say here and certainly nothing to nitpick at. The bracelet was first developed in the 1930s, so its design actually precedes the Explorer collection, interestingly enough. 

Rolex has equipped this bracelet with both an Oysterlock folding clasp, which snaps over the buckle to hold it tightly shut and prevent it from coming open, and an Easylink rapid extension system, which can quickly add an extra 5mm to its length via a folding link. 

This latter tool is much more useful than you’d think—your wrist actually fluctuates a little in size throughout the day depending on your level of physical activity and other factors, so the option to quickly pop 5mm onto the length can be actually super convenient.

I would strongly recommend keeping your Explorer permanently on its bracelet. The 36mm version has a 19mm lug width, which is quite difficult to find a good strap for—although the 40mm version is at 20mm, which is much easier. 

That said, both of them are made with slots in the case wall between the lugs to better integrate the end link and make it look like it flows right into the case. This means that without the bracelet, you have those slots revealed, which can be a pretty ugly look from some angles. 

Thankfully, the Oyster bracelet is great, and it’s really not too much of a loss. You can try to put a strap on it if you really want, but like I said, keeping it on the bracelet is probably the best option.

On-Wrist Experience

The Rolex Explorer wears amazingly and has a super unobtrusive presence on the wrist—just like you would expect, considering all the rest of the under-the-radar details we’ve discussed so far.

The 36mm version, in particular, is quite small by modern standards, and its 19mm lug width keeps its wrist presence rigidly restrained. It can definitely take some getting used to its small size, so you might need to give it a little more wrist time to adjust to it. 

Once you do, however, I’ve found that it becomes natural and easy to wear, especially for those of us with smaller wrists. Honestly, 38mm is right around the sweet spot for me, so I don’t mind a 36mm version in the least, especially when it’s the vintage size.

The 40mm option is much larger and feels more modern in its sizing. It definitely doesn’t take over too much, but it’s enough to give it much more of a modern sports watch feel and look, sprawling over the wrist with its larger case size and lug width. 

I’m really fascinated by just how much of a difference the case size can make in the overall appearance of the watch. The 36mm is quiet, elegant, and simple, with a pronounced vintage feel. The 40mm is bold but not over-the-top, sporty, and fresh.

Both are great watches in their own right and completely identical on every other level. But the difference in size is definitely something important to consider when purchasing your Explorer.

It’s a watch that, as I’ve mentioned before, can take anything you throw at it. I’m not exactly the type of guy who wanders around climbing mountains, but you can really just feel a sense of bravery and confidence when you wear the watch. Maybe it’s the Rolex name, maybe it’s the solid build and structure of the case, but it just feels strong. 

In a way, it’s inspirational too. If I ever was going to climb a mountain, I’d wear an Explorer to do it. Maybe Rolex should test to see if some of the cal. 3230’s crazy high power reserve actually runs me, too, along with the hands when I’m wearing it…

Price & Availability

Currently, there are three different Explorer models available on Rolex’s website. There are two editions, all in Oystersteel, the 36mm and the 40mm versions. The 36mm goes for $7,350, and the 40mm is just slightly higher at $7,800. Finally, if you’re looking to really accentuate that elegant glossy black dial, you can spring for a two-tone yellow gold Rolesor model (only at 36mm) for $12,700.

I also want to touch quickly on the current market value of these watches since the gray market may be a better move if you don’t necessarily need it directly from Rolex, and they are, of course, expensive investments. 

The 36mm and the 40mm Oystersteel versions are currently reselling for around their market value, with the 36mm slightly lower and the 40mm slightly higher. The big difference is in the Rolesor model, which has a lower market price of around $9,169. 

Definitely not the watch to pick if you’re planning on reselling it, but that really shouldn’t matter. Pick the watch that you love, and that speaks to you!

Conclusion

Every time I take one of these deep dives into a Rolex collection, I walk away with a newfound appreciation for the simplicity and charm of Rolex’s work, and I hope I’ve conveyed that to you as well here. 

The Explorer marries simplicity, refined elegance, and utilitarian strength in a way that many others have striven to emulate since its inception in 1953. It is, in many ways and for many people, the tool watch. Will it be yours?