TAG Heuer’s Gorgeous Golf Smartwatch Comes With One Big Drawback

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- Luxury watch brands have moved a lot of product over the years by associating themselves with golf. Occasionally, the connection to the game has to do with timekeeping—a giant Rolex clock counts down the minutes until players tee off at the Masters—but in general, the associations are superficial.

Professional golfers almost never wear watches when they play. My journalist colleagues at PGA Tour events used to joke that winners took so long to emerge from the clubhouse and hoist the trophy for the cameras because they were looking for the watch they’re contractually obliged to show off.

I recalled this recently as I tested TAG Heuer’s $2,550 Golf Edition of its Connected line of smartwatches, a luxury timepiece designed to be worn during a round of golf and incorporated into it. It’s the pet project of Frederic Arnault, son of Bernard, the chairman of LVMH, which owns TAG Heuer. Arnault, 25, was digital director for the brand for less than two years before ascending to chief executive officer this month.

TAG Heuer has been chasing the visibility of leading brands in the golf segment, such as Rolex and Omega, for years. Tiger Woods was its “ambassador” from 2003 to 2011, and the company ­introduced a professional golf watch in ­collaboration with him in 2005. The timepiece wasn’t a functional golf watch per se, merely a luxury watch slim enough to wear while competing, which Woods occasionally did.

For years I’ve been using the shot-tracking setup from Arccos Golf. Its lightweight sensors screw into the end of the grip on each of my clubs, and its app, which can be paired with an Apple Watch, does a great job of logging each shot and distance automatically. After the round, I can review my shots, correct any detection errors (the wrong club can be registered by accident), and visualize how to play smarter next time, based on the accumulated data. I was eager to see how the Golf Edition measured up.

For starters, it’s gorgeous. It looks and feels every bit the way an aspirational luxury watch should: solid and substantial on the wrist, with a vivid organic light-emitting diode display, a sapphire crystal touchscreen that works handily with a rotating crown, and two flanking pusher buttons. The watch is a bit bulky, but it didn’t interfere with my swing.

By my third round, I came away impressed with its basic golf functions. The colorful map of each hole displayed on the screen is easy to read in bright sunlight. By twisting the crown, or dragging your finger on the touchscreen, you can move the focal point wherever you want—a hazard, a turn in the fairway, the green—and the watch provides the distance. Those distances, computed by GPS sensors, were dead-on, compared with the numbers I got from my reliable laser rangefinder. The pushers made keeping score on the watch a snap.

Off the course, the Golf Edition adds utility, too. Its fitness functions, built around Google’s Wear OS system, can track cycling, running, and other activities. The default strap is white, with a golf ball-like dimpled texture, but it also comes in black rubber that, when paired with one of the traditional watch face options, could pass muster in the boardroom.

The fatal flaw for me, though, is that recording each shot is a two-step manual process. First, you must press the top pusher button (or tap the screen twice) before each swing. Then, when you reach the ball, you have to push or tap the screen again to register the distance—and then once more to record which club you used. Despite my determination to remember these steps, I forgot one a half-dozen times in each of my rounds.

Even worse, you can’t go back after the round and insert a shot you forgot to record—which you can do with Arccos and several other GPS golf apps. It got to the point where, if I remembered quickly, I’d run back to the spot where I hit the shot and press the right button, much to the consternation of my golfing buddies.

TAG Heuer intends to update its software frequently and add a user’s manual, which it currently doesn’t have. In time, no doubt, the Golf Edition’s user-friendliness will improve. In terms of function, however, the company has a way to go to catch up with Garmin, Bushnell, SkyCaddie, and other mass-market com­panies that have been at this game for years and offer much less expensive watches. For now, I’m sticking with what I have.

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