Lime green, black titanium and a digital caddie are not the usual ingredients of Swiss watchmaking, but TAG Heuer and Malbon Golf are! While plenty of brands remain focused on traditional movements and manufacturing, the La Chaux-de-Fonds watchmaker, founded in 1860, is putting its long history behind a very modern piece of technology.
Created with Malbon Golf, the Connected Calibre E4 45mm is a full-on course companion rather than another exercise in mechanical watchmaking. It brings together TAG Heuer’s experience in sports timing and Malbon’s more relaxed view of golf, delivering a watch designed to help from the opening drive to the final putt.
TAG Heuer was already well established in the sports-watch space when Malbon Golf entered the picture, but this collaboration brought a different attitude to the Connected line. The TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E4 45mm x Malbon Golf Edition takes the brand’s existing performance platform and gives it the colour, humour and clubhouse confidence associated with the Los Angeles label.
On the course, the watch works like a digital caddie, using GPS and automatic shot detection to track each stroke while displaying useful distance information and suggesting a club for the next shot. It also records enough statistics to keep numbers-focused golfers occupied long after the round has finished, although no amount of technology can rescue a snap hook—it can only tell you exactly how far the damage travelled.
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A 45mm watch was never going to disappear beneath a cuff, but the size makes sense when maps, yardages and scoring information are being viewed mid-round. The case is made from lightweight Grade 2 titanium with a sandblasted black DLC finish, while sapphire crystal, a ceramic bezel and 50 metres of water resistance give it enough toughness for regular use.
Malbon handles the louder details, adding turquoise, green and lime-yellow accents across the crown, pushers and leather-and-rubber strap. Eighteen markings circle the bezel in a nod to a complete round of golf, accompanied by the words “Golf Edition,” while a second black rubber strap offers a quieter option away from the course.
The collaboration also introduced two digital watch faces. One features the co-branded logo and Malbon’s Buckets character wearing a cap decorated with the TAG Heuer shield, with its colours changing as the seconds pass, while the second is exclusive to this edition and borrows its layout from TAG Heuer’s Heuer 02 design.
Underneath the Malbon makeover is a proper TAG Heuer Connected watch powered by Wear OS and a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100+ processor. It carries heart-rate, compass and barometer sensors alongside Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC and satellite positioning, while the battery is rated for a full day and takes around 90 minutes to recharge completely.
The watch arrived in collaboration-specific packaging with an additional black strap, golf balls and a removable ball marker incorporated into the clasp. TAG Heuer and Malbon also extended the partnership into a wider capsule containing a golf glove, co-branded leather head covers and performance clothing finished with the same turquoise and green touches.
The project also showed how far TAG Heuer’s Connected range had travelled since the first model appeared in November 2015 as the first Swiss luxury smartwatch. The collection initially occupied an awkward space between traditional watchmaking and consumer technology, but golf gave it a clearer purpose by turning the screen, sensors and GPS into tools that could genuinely help during a round.
Malbon was a fitting partner for that shift, having been founded in Los Angeles by Stephen and Erica Malbon in 2017 with an emphasis on creativity, inclusion and personal style rather than old country-club conventions. At launch in February 2024, the watch was priced at CHF ₣2,300 and distributed through three Malbon boutiques in the United States and two in South Korea.
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- Brand: TAG Heuer
- Model: Connected Calibre E4 45MM X Malbon Golf Edition
- Reference: SBR8A85.EB0338
- Diameter: 44 mm
- Material: Black DLC Titanium
- Display: OLED display 1.28’’, 416×416 pixels (326ppi)
- Battery life: 1 Full Day including Wellness monitoring
- Chipset: Qualcomm SnapdragonTM 4100+ Connectivity: BT 5.0, Wi-Fi, NFC
- Display: OLED display 1.28”, 416×416 (326 ppi)
- Calibre: Calibre E4 45mm
- Water-Resistance: 5 Bar (50 metres, 165 feet)
- Price: CHF ₣2,300
