It’s time for competition in the wearables world to heat up as Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer puts its hand in the game, vowing to design a smart watch that will conquer the market.

The new device marks a link-up between Tag Heuer and Google, which provides the Android mobile environment, to compete with the soon-to-be-released Apple Watch.

• Windows 10: what we know about the OS so far
• Should you buy an Apple Watch? We weigh up the pros and cons

The watch is expected to hit stores by the end of the year, Tag Heuer chief Jean-Claude Biver told the Baselworld watch fair.

“Silicon Valley and Switzerland are going to conquer the market of the connected watch,” he said at a press conference at the world’s largest trade show for timepieces, in the northern Swiss city of Basel.

Biver, an industry legend who also leads the watch division of TAG Heuer’s owners LVMH, did not reveal how much the watch would cost or which functions it would feature.

“We don’t want the competition to know what we are going to do,” he said.

“We want them to be surprised.”

In a statement, the three companies said their partnership “signifies a new era of collaboration between Swiss watchmakers and Silicon Valley, bringing together each company’s respective expertise in luxury watchmaking, software and hardware”.

On March 9 Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled its new gadget aiming for wrists, the Apple Watch, slated for an April 24 release.

– with AAP