TAG Heuer's 1-Up on the watch industry x Super Mario collab
Woohoo! After a short 5 day wait, its here! But you better start smashing some coin blocks if you want to get your hands on one.
Retailing at £1800 and being limited to only 2000 pieces, TAG Heuer’s new Super Mario Connected (SBG8A13) watch sold out pretty much immediately. Now the only chance of getting one is through the used market, but you may want to press pause on that idea as we are currently seeing them reach over £5000 on reselling auction sites such as eBay.
In all honesty it’s no shock that this watch sold out straightaway and gained the staggering reception that it has. To put it simply, this watch is ground-breaking. We have never seen such an interactive, video game themed watch make an appearance from any of the big luxury brands before.
This creation has certainly opened new doors within luxury watch making and has triggered many conversations regarding the boundaries and potentials of future Swiss watch making. It’s no secret that e-watches have taken the world by storm and are increasingly gaining in popularity. This, combined with the growing desire to own unique pieces certainly seems to be a winning recipe for success.
So let’s take a look at this unique watch in a bit more detail.
Bezel The bezel on this watch is very in-keeping with what we expect to see within the Connected line but with a few added twists. The mid way numeral markers are highlighted with a striking red, Mario’s signature colour, and the 3, 6 and 9 markers feature the Super Mushroom, Warp Pipe and Super Star that appear in the Super Mario games.
Dial The dial on this watch is customisable, whereby the user can switch between 4 exclusive watch faces as well as an exclusive splash screen and Mario animated watch face. All of which are very quirky and well designed with the Mario franchise at the heart of the theming.
Features The watch is powered by Wear OS and includes an array of features such as Google pay, Music Controller and Agenda. The watch can also be used as a fitness tracker through the Wellness and Sports apps that monitor heart rate, calories, steps and performance metrics.
As we all know, Mario is a pretty active and playful guy, so it’s no shock that TAG have used these character traits as inspiration for their design, focusing mostly on the fitness elements of the watch.
The watch encourages its user to increase and monitor their physical activity levels by creating challenging milestones. When a user passes their milestones the Mario watch face animates. The more active the wearer is, the more animated Mario becomes and the more rewards the user unlocks.
Crown TAG have very nicely given the crown and pushers the same red accents as on the bezel to pull the theming throughout the whole design. Additionally, they have swapped out the typical TAG shield logo that we find on the other Connected watches for Mario’s signature “M” logo. This is a great little feature.
Strap The 45mm stainless steel watch is sold with 2 interchangeable straps. The first being a leather construction with black and red palette and the second is a full red perforated rubber strap.
Overall, I am very happy to see how this watch has turned out and think that it’s very brave of TAG to push these boundaries. I can't wait to see what other innovations this company bring out over the coming years. Did you manage to get your hands on one of these beauties? Let us know down below.
