Skip to main content

Don’t expect to get a virtual Omega, Cartier or other big-name watch face on your Apple Watch

Anyone thinking that their Apple Watch might provide a virtual copy of a well-known watch face is likely to be disappointed, reports TorrentFreak: big-name watchmakers are issuing cease-and-desist notices to those creating smartwatch versions of their designs.

Big brands including Omega, Tissot, Certina and Mondaine have taken exception to ‘pirate’ faces being made available for cutting edge smartwatches. 

TorrentFreak has learned that IWC, Panerai, Omega, Fossil, Armani, Michael Kors, Tissot, Certina, Swatch, Flik Flak and Mondaine are sending cease and desist notices to sites and individuals thought to be offering faces without permission.

Watch companies are variously citing copyright, design rights and registered trademarks, with download site owners being given as little as 24 hours to remove the content. One watchface download site, FaceRepo, says that it is now using keyword filtering to exclude infringing content before it can even be uploaded.

“If these [brand names] are found in the face name, description or tags, this will cause the upload to be rejected with a message stating that sharing of copyrighted or trademarked material is prohibited,” FaceRepo’s owner notes.

Back in 2012, Apple was forced to pay $21M in compensation to Swiss national rail operator SBB for using its famous clock design in iOS without permission.

The launch date for the Apple Watch isn’t yet known, Apple saying only ‘early 2015‘ while a leaked comment by retail head Angela Ahrendts said that the launch would be in “the spring.” Once it is available, Morgan Stanley predicted that up to 10% of owners of the iPhone 5 and up are likely to buy one.

Via Gizmodo

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

  1. George Howse - 10 years ago

    Kinda reminds of the buggy whip manufacturers trying to deal with those new “horseless carriages”.
    They should be embracing change and offering to sell licenses to their watch faces.
    He who fails to learn from history is doomed to repeat it.

    • iSRS - 10 years ago

      To be fair, we don’t know that they aren’t working on licensing to vendors. Heck, perhaps they already have an exclusive agreement with Apple.

      I have zero issue with them protecting their image

      • George Howse - 10 years ago

        That’s a good point. It will be interesting to see which vendors embrace change and which ones fight it.

        Is it just me or are there a lot more mid to high end watch commercials this holiday season? I would think existing mid to high end watch vendors would be pretty uneasy this Christmas.

    • 1sugomac - 10 years ago

      He who does learn from history must watch helplessly while others repeat it.

  2. iosser - 10 years ago

    I can’t wait for the parodies… hOmega. I can just see the logo turned into a pair of legs.

  3. jrox16 - 10 years ago

    All they have to do is remove the name logo from the face and maybe make a minor modification to some aspect of the face to get around this. No big deal.
    Personally I wouldn’t want a face to have the real name/logo anyway, that’s just cheesy.

    • Aunty Troll (@AuntyTroll) - 10 years ago

      Do what? Hold on a minute – folk clamber all over Samsung etc for ripping off Apple etc, then all of a sudden it’s ok because it would be Apple doing it?

      • Wyatt - 10 years ago

        Actually, that’s incorrect. Apple isn’t copying watch faces. Third parties are and have been doing it for decades even though it’s illegal.

      • Aunty Troll (@AuntyTroll) - 10 years ago

        Wyatt: I never said Apple where ripping off watch faces. I was responding to jrox16 comment suggesting that that’s what they do.

        However, now that you’ve mentioned that third parties have been doing it for decades, I remembered that Apple did in act rip off a clock face use by the Swiss Federal Railway Service and had to pay $21m for the honour of using it in iOS.

        Glass houses and all that.

  4. t3d (@robotstorm) - 10 years ago

    If I had an Apple watch I can’t imagine even wanting it to look like any of those.
    Wouldn’t that be a like taking a big step backwards?

    • Aunty Troll (@AuntyTroll) - 10 years ago

      Because owning a $5000 watch is a real step backwards from owning a $500 on isn’t it.

      • flaviosuave - 10 years ago

        You’re a real step backwards for humanity.

      • André Hedegaard - 10 years ago

        $5000 for telling the time, or $500 for telling the time, talking, Siri, Apps, messages.
        I can understand why watch makers are really screwed and serves them right. All they have to do is lower their artificially-inflated prices to something like $100 and then it might stand a chance to compete with Apple Watch.

  5. howardbrittain - 10 years ago

    How will we EVER get over it !!

  6. rgbfoundry - 10 years ago

    Anyone that knows about design patents knows that you can change one tiny aspect of a popular design proceed to market with it.

    • jwchelena - 10 years ago

      So are saying that SAMSUNG is at no fault and that Apple does not have a leg to stand on?

  7. praxiz - 10 years ago

    Honestly, in the last 40 years, I would have refused getting one of this watches, even for free. It only reminds me of being shackled in a industrial society and this brands have some real artificial sizes in the head of some people – for just a single function device…! From the same time other devices also loosing its value for us: “The super professional 36 picture Kodak chemical film roll” – for ten times the price of any “NoName 36 pictures” film roll. Digital photos did free us from this shackles.

    The craftmanship inside a swiss watch is real impressing, no doubt, not just in this Omega, Tissot, Certina and Mondaine brands. But a new age is showing us even more impressing craftsmanship inside a iPhone, iPad and iWatch.

    Using names and a face of this old fashion devices, will transform an Apple device to an cheap snob device IMO and it will miss its purpose of an much more advanced smartWatch. Now it’s about having a lot more possibilities, its about measure aspects of our health and so much more, then in 80s and 90s:

    There it was about: “See me! I can afford one of this single function devices for $ 10000xxxx, with this particular name on” and all this single mindet stuff. Using their Brand in 2015 its cheesy, snobbish and about going a huge step back – as mentioned by -jrox16- and -t3d- in their comments.

    • Aunty Troll (@AuntyTroll) - 10 years ago

      Do you have an iPhone or Mac? Beautiful aren’t they – incredible feats of engineering. Most people who own one class them as a status symbol – Samsung, HTC, Acer, Dell etc are brands to be ridiculed even though the iPhone isn’t the best phone, and the iMac isn’t the best PC – I’m fairly certain you will agree with me.

      So why then do you in your last paragraph do you make it sound like owning a status symbol like an Omega, Tissot, Certina and Mondaine watch is to be ridiculed when you class your own iPhone or iMac as a status symbol?

      • praxiz - 10 years ago

        Why do you use words and creatures like Troll from my country, even you don’t have the slightest idea what it means and what it stands for? They are a brand in Norway and can give you real trouble, using it in your name and campaign agains Apple products.

        As IT Engineer I do work with all kind of computers since the 70s and did repair all kind of Brands and devices, more then you can imagine. I think I know perfectly what’s on the inside and for me it is function, not Brand – and therefor I did shift privat to Apple computers and devices too. It give me a much better computer and everything fits much better in a Apple environment, then any other brands on earth. Combining Apple and NeXT was the key.

        This discussion is about using a brand from a single function device on a much more advanced device like iWatch or Pebble or any other Brand in 2014.

        For me, your different comments here have the same patterns. It sound’s like you hate Apple and try to find some negative sides in all articles. Or it sounds like you get bought one of this 5000$ single function devices and try to defend it here aggressively. Swiss watches are masterpiece inside – yes no doubt – but why using their name on a more advanced device in 2014/15….?

        Its like using a Kodak App on your Smartphone or digital camera with ability for just 36 pictures. It will perhaps be a gig for one day, but totally useless in your life…

      • Udo Heib (@4uHyper) - 10 years ago

        When it comes to Battery life, number of processing cores and such values, yes the iPhone is not the best in ranking. BUT when it comes to benchmarks the picture starts changing. In other words, when we come to user experience and usability, there is no Phone on the market, that beats the iPhone.
        Mac’s are the best computers. I was a Microsoft guy since MS Dos 3.0. I loved to build up my own PC with components. But I always hated to work with Laptops. Now I have a rMBP and it’s a complete different user experience. The difference is galactic. And the Mac’s are running so smooth. You don’t have to care about anything. It just works! No problems because this driver is wrong or that driver is too old.

        For me a Rolex skin makes no sense on an iWatch.

      • Aunty Troll (@AuntyTroll) - 10 years ago

        Praxiz – “Why do I use words and creatures like Troll from my country”. Meanwhile your using my native language to tell me not to use words in your language. Oh the irony.

        I have an iPhone 5S and an iMac and I love them. I couldn’t imagine going back to anything else actually. I also don’t have a $5000 watch and would never buy one – I’m more likely to buy the iWatch. However, just because I have Apple stuff doesn’t mean I believe they are impervious to criticism. They aren’t. Your exactly right, my comments do tend to be different to others – does that make me hate Apple or does it simply mean I have a different opinion to yours and others? Do I come on here, criticising Apple, yet extolling the virtues of Samsung, Blackberry, Microsoft and others? Nope.

        If you don’t like what I have to say because my comments upset your delicate sensibilities then don’t read them – simple. There are plenty of others on here who will willingly pat you on the back and say “great comments Praxiz”.

  8. Alex (@Metascover) - 10 years ago

    And that’s perfectly normal.

  9. realgadgetblogger - 10 years ago

    You can’t even create watch faces for apple watch…yet. Apps yes, but no watch faces.

    • praxiz - 10 years ago

      No the article started with: “Don’t expect to get…”
      What would you create if you had the possibility?

  10. Omega, Cartier, etc, ¿are they big brands?, come on.
    Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Piaget, Chopard, Grisogono, etc. these are real big brands.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


Ben Lovejoy's favorite gear

Manage push notifications

notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
You are subscribed to notifications
notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
You are subscribed to notifications