With the Swiss watch conference, Baselworld, underway this morning, we’re expecting to find out how traditional watchmakers are going to respond to the Apple Watch. Tag Heuer is first in line, announcing a smartwatch version of one of its best-selling models, the Carrera, in partnership with Google and Intel.
TAG Heuer, Google and Intel have announced a partnership to launch a Swiss smartwatch powered by Intel technology and Android Wear. The effort 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.
While the company did not go into details, Reuters reports that the watch “will be a digital replica of the original Tag Heuer black Carrera, known for its bulky, sporty allure, and will look like the original.”
Sincere or not, Tag Heuer CEOÂ Jean-Claude Biver says that he welcomes the launch of the Apple Watch …Â
Biver repeated his view that smartwatches will increase the size of the market for watches of all kinds, traditional and hi-tech. In a somewhat snide dig at the Apple Watch, he said:
Apple will get young people used to wearing a watch and later maybe they will want to buy themselves a real watch.
The “real thing” argument is also the line being taken by Hermes and Patek Philippe, both companies saying they have no plans to launch smartwatches.
“When you are buy a Patek Philippe, you buy a timeless piece of art,” said Patek Philippe Chairman Thierry Stern. “It would be as if you told people to no longer buy paintings but TV screens projecting the image of a painting.”
Tissot yesterday revealed a solar-powered touchscreen watch, the T-Touch.
Tim Cook said in an interview yesterday that he was relaxed if people didn’t immediately see what they would want to buy the Apple Watch, using the same iPad analogy I did in my earlier opinion piece.
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I see Tag Heuer’s entry into the smart watch market as yet another legitimization of what Apple is doing. Certainly none of these “established” brands jumped in when any of the Android based watches entered the market; instead it seems they took a “Yeah, so what. That’s no competition to us” attitude.
Now Apple comes in with a whole new generation and ecosystem and the existing “Quality Brands” (Read status watches) take notice and start to introduce their own brands of smart watches.
Competition within the market is always healthy – copy-cat-clones are not.
Two Thumbs Up to this.
When Android released smartwatches, nobody bats an eye. When Apple releases smartwatch, everybody loses their mind.
thanks for posting this up, Ben! Another thumbs up to you. ;)
I plan on buying an Apple Watch. I will mainly use it for fitness. However, I don’t see it replacing my Omega. I agree that the Apple Watch will get young people to wear watches again, however, I don’t see it replacing the more expensive brands any time soon!
they’re all gonna end up like Nokia
I don’t like the looks of the high end Carrera. That’s me not understanding all the dials and different numbers. Give me an Apple Watch with all of its purposes designed with what we need in this day’s world. There is room in the world for all kinds of watches and to me the Apple Watch looks like the one. I’ve had other watches that have been very nice but are boring after two days.
Watches first became popular because they were the finest mechanical things money could buy, like artwork in your pocket or your wrist. That’s hardly the case anymore.
The reason most people carry wrist watches these days is not because they need to know the time, but because it’s a fashion statement.
On the other hand, the Apple Watch isn’t just an ornament on your wrist. It adds to its user’s life in meaningful ways by measuring your health and providing you with access to information.
Mobile phone makers found out the hard way that denial is a dangerous strategy. It looks like many watchmakers are about to make the same discovery.
Case and point. My watch battery died a year ago….Do I care? No. Have I got it replaced? No. Why? Because it is merely a fashion statement that I wear with a nice business outfit.
Time is omnipresent. Watches that do nothing more than tell the time are useless. Classic time pieces or not, the classic watch does nothing to SAVE ME TIME. The Apple Watch and the functionality it brings to the table will both make my life easier and SAVE ME TIME.
Classic watches just can’t compete. Once battery tech in smart watches gets better and we have watches that go weeks without a charge, the world is going to be a much different place….
I agree that the demand for features additional to time, date etc. have risen. But I hardly disagree with the conclusion that this marks an end for mechanical watches!
Why have many car companies changed back to classic dial gauges? Or why are people buying bigger cameras with mechanical buttons even they could get compact once with the exact same features only accessible through a touchscreen menu? Because a (touch)screen simply can’t display information as clean, clear and fast as a mechanical displays!
And to be fair, apart from ApplePay the iWatch doesn’t introduce a single feature that haven’t been introduced by other watch makers before. It’s simply their marketing budget and global attention that pushes the product – even prior to release. Taking away all the info/features it only gets from an iPhone, the iWatch is a quite poor product.
Traditional watch companies have introduced barometric altimeter, real compass and GPS-functionality INTO their watches and still offer way better battery life. In connection with a smartphone they show notifications or allow interactions (e.g. Suunto Ampit, Garmin Fenix) but they don’t demand you carrying your heavy iPhone during your workout to display the essential info.
Mr. Biver is wrong when he says that their watch will also have GPS. The Apple Watch doesn’t have that functionality.
Apple watch can feed you GPS results via its screen by leveraging the GPS from the iPhone that it is paired to. Technically, the Apple Watch “has access to GPS features”. But you are right. GPS hardware is not built directly INTO the Apple Watch itself..
So Tag covers the bases, smartwatches are not a real watch he says because they’re a serious watch company, but they’re going to make one anyway !
Even if Apple Watch does blow up and become the next big thing, I really don’t see any smartwatch (Apple, Android or otherwise) replacing the craftsmanship, elegance and heirloom qualities of a Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet or other luxury watch. There will always be a thriving market for it and for those with a more discerning taste.
Then you my friend are ignorant. People wear ONE watch. If that watch turns out to be able to tell you to move some more, warn you about a possible future heart attack etc. etc., that device/watch, will become the preferred commuter on your wrist. Yes there will be people buying classical watches for thousands of dollars, but it will become a niche market… The established watchmakers need to embrace themselves. Times are a changing. Nokia and Blackberry (and partly Microsoft) got a taste of the last changes in the tech world.
How fascinating for YOU to call some one ignorant. H. L. Hunt once said, “the rich are different” to which I have always added “which is why those who aren’t will never understand them.” I know plenty of people who own more than one expensive watch. They wear the one for each occasion that suits their mood at the time. Apple understands that the watch is more than a mere time piece. The CEO of Patek Philippe also gets this too. There was a book once “How To Get A Good Table In New York.” The maitre d’hôtel at Mortimers said for a gentleman unknown to us, we look at his watch to ascertain whether he will be seated or not. I will buy the Apple Watch. It will serve it’s specific purpose. I shall also continue to wear my Johnson Mathey platinum watch with the 18k yellow gold markers made from a solid block of platinum and my 18k Cartier Panther as well. There are others that I own. The only one I don’t wear is the 18k gold Van Cleef & Arpels version of the Tank watch my parents gave me for graduation as it has a special meaning. I am sure you will have some rejoinder to this post to whit I say, since I won’t bother to respond to it,…haters gonna hate. Be well and enjoy your one watch. You really should think twice before calling someone with a legitimate point ignorant.
This is not a zero sum game, but techie boyz always manage to insist otherwise. Often a symptom of religious fervor.
Well, Vandy75, you seem to know it all don’t you. If you read his comment and mine again, then you’ll see that he said there will always be a market for these luxury classical watchmakers. I didn’t disagree on this, but I merely pointed out that the market will be there yes, but to an exeetingly lesser and lesser extent, where it will turn less lucrative as well.
You can tell me all about your watch-life-story, but I’m quite certain that my argument will favor in the long run. Always is a bold statement.
“Exceetingly?” And you call someone ignorant? Whether that or just sloppy before posting, I’d suggest being a bit more sagacious before name calling. It is generally the provenance of the truly ignorant.
Watch out everybody! Someone on the Internet is using fancy words to feel superior.
http://www.quotecounterquote.com/2009/11/rich-are-different-famous-quote.html?m=1
To your argument – How many people can afford / need to own the Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet or Rolex watches that you quote?
IMO – they are “Statements” – as to what they are statements of, that’s up to the person who wears them and the person who notices that person wearing them.
They do not perform their primary functions (Telling time accurately) with the precision of my Citizen SkyHawk that syncs to the atomic clock daily – and my SkyHawk costs considerably less.
IMO – the “prestige brands’ feed the ego of the people who wear them / display them. I’d rather invest the price between the prestige and the Citizen. If I do my homework, it’s a much better investment.
YMMV
Check out this: http://atomicdelights.com/blog/a-glimpse-at-how-the-apple-watch-is-made
Apple has the scale to have the highest levels of craftmanship in the world easily.
After reading that feel free to then watch the video below of a Rolex being made. Then you’ll maybe understand why comparing a watch crafted by artisans in a company with 110 years of history to a watch with a circuit board manufactured on a production line in China is pointless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnQ1lWEIxdQ
@AuntyTroll: That’s very amazing. Rolex no doubt as as good a craftsmanship as Apple… we all stand in awe at their mechanical prowess.
But at the end of the day, you have a large device on your wrist that does one thing – tell time. Sure it may have a few other complications tacked on, a handful of other abilities… out of the box the Apple watch will be as stylish, while able to do much more. And as the year progresses the world of what the Apple Watch can do will expand and expand.
I don’t think a company like Rolex will ever go out of business, because there is a timelessness to what they do. But they will be used less when there is so much more you can actually do with an Apple Watch, so I think it is as wrong to be dismissive of who will willingly wear an Apple Watch, even in place of a Rolex at times.
In a 100 years the only people I see wearing a “dumb” watch will be the hipsters trying to stand out and those so wealthy they pay others to manage their lives.
The luxury watch market is and always will be niche. To say smartwatches will encroach on that market is like saying digital Casio watches are a perfect substitute for a Patek. They’re not. Neither is an Apple Watch. A gold casing around cheap components does not a $17,000 watch make.
There will always be a market for real luxury watches, and individuals who buy them do so to stroke their ego but also as investments and family heirloom pieces. Imagine giving your grandson your first gen Apple Watch Edition which can’t even function properly cos the chipset is so far outdated. He could use it as a paperweight maybe? Ha. Also – lots of people DO own and wear more than one watch. To think otherwise is what is ignorant.
Agreed. No one will be passing down an edition watch to a grandchild the same way they treat current premium watches. But the wealthiest in the world won’t bat an eye purchasing it for their teen son or daughter who wants the new trendy thing. And some will purchase it and add to their collection of rare and historic (eventually) pieces.
Tag heuer and Tissot will be dead in less than 10years. They spend all their rd money to create stupid ugnly useless watch with smart fuctions which have no sense without the whole OS app store system. Only Omega will survive, as highly historical manufactures like Piguet Patek and Co
This made me laugh out loud. As the owner of watches in the super premium category since I was in college, this smacks of desperation. I will never replace my 18K watches or platinum one with a super premium brand smart watch. What makes people buy them in the first place, aside from the brand, is the meticulous perfection of the craftsmanship. Can you see a Patek smart watch? Thierry Stern is precisely right. Tag Hauer and Breitling were the brands of the nouveau riche trader types seen in movies like Wolf of Wall Street. This second tier of watches are the most threatened by Apple watch. I’ll have an Apple Watch either the sport or the stainless. The 18K makes no sense for me since the “guts” are all the same and it may well be outdated in a year or two. Having money is not necessarily synonymous with being reckless.
I semi-agree with you. While luxury mechanical watches are a thing of beauty one could say the system on a chip, and OLED display in the Apple Watch are a thing of beauty as well. It took way more engineering and design hours to get these technologies to work than any mechanical watch ever has. Just because they are able to be mass produced doesn’t make them any less impressive engineering wise. Also most mid-range watches, like Tags, use Quartz technology anyway so those watches really aren’t all that impressive and can be easily replaced. The really complex mechanical watches will always be a niche market because they’re priced the same as luxury cars. Also they’re extremely poor at keeping time compared to a watch that can sync with the atomic clock and automatically adjust time. How often do you actually take time to sit and admire the moving parts in a mechanical watch anyway? That’s assuming you can even see them without opening the watch case. But I definitely agree that they’ll always be desirable and are arguably pieces of art that you can wear.
Those that will purchase the 10k watch make far more money than you and I. People buy it to show they can.
The craftsmanship is nice, but the most valuable piece on a premium watch is the logo of the company that made it.
I would much rather have any current Tag Heuer watch than the new Apple Watch. At least it would still be worth something in a few years.
iPod Classic is going for $600, the Apple TV 2 is going for $300.
Everyone knows that Apple products don’t sell well online…….wait…..
I have a SEIKO solar watch… and to tell you the truth… it bothers me MORE when I leave it at home by accident than it does when I leave my iPhone at home. Time is important to me and therefore, I need to have a watch on my wrist. I don’t really care about making a fashion statement, so having a watch just for that purpose is not for me. It is much more convenient to just took at your wrist than to take out the phone and turn on the screen to look at the time and then put it back into whatever you keep your phone in. Adults use watches… teens and children (who can’t tell time yet) use phones for their time telling. Taking your phone out just to look at time looks very tacky… It’s like a teen girl checking her phone every minute or so for text messages.
Why is there always so much rivalry between companies? Even if I buy an AppleWatch, I’m not going to completely stop wearing my Casio G-Shock. Certainly, the watch market is large enough for all companies to thrive. I don’t see how AppleWatch would disrupt the wearing of traditional watches. Not everyone is looking to have a smartwatch on their wrist at all times. There are billions of people on the planet and only a very small percentage have iPhones. I sure don’t think that’s going to kill off all other watch brands. Why can’t people simply think Apple is selling AppleWatch for consumers that are already into the Apple ecosystem and not necessarily the world outside of it. People who have lots of money are still going to be buying high-end traditional watches along with AppleWatch. It will just be another piece in their watch collection and may only be used on occasion. Honestly, I’d think traditional watch companies would be just as worried about consumers wearing a Garmin Fenix 3 than some AppleWatch which relies upon having an iPhone. I think everyone’s fears about the AppleWatch disrupting the entire watch industry are way overblown.
Interesting choice of words to say “real” watch. If the purpose of a watch is to display the time, then you can sometimes find them in happy meals as well.
The funny thing to me is that a number of people have complained about Apple watches being obsolete over time.
So doesn’t that mean any traditional watch maker adding computer hardware/software components has the exact same issue? It’s like the watch makers are defending to fight on Apple’s home ground, instead of focusing on making the most mechanically amazing things possible…
“Exeetingly”? and you call somebody ignorant? Either that or just sloppy whatever the case, I’d be a bit more judicious in name calling.
the new will never be innovative with minds yet in the past …
How does this classify as an “opening salvo”? Don’t you need more than vaporware? Otherwise, they are just firing blanks.
I applaud Google and Tag Heuer efforts, but I imagine their product will be a mediocre copy of iWatch’s software and functionality wrapped in a somewhat attractive case. Hopefully push Apple to further the development of the iWatch and offer more functions and case options.
Houstoache: as Dwayne Wayne said in A Different Worls: “paint it in the fence of my summer home”. How long did it take for you to look up sagacious?
Certainly less time than it took for you to decide ‘judicious’ wasn’t fancy enough. ;-)