Are Swiss watchmakers finally coming to terms with the Apple Watch?
No one can say that the six-hundred-year old Swiss watchmaking industry didn’t have it coming. The watch itself, whether it’s powered by movement, batteries, mechanically wound, or powered by the sun, it’s a piece of technology that is in constant evolution, and subject to the passage of the very dimension it keeps track of: time.
Its case could be made of wood, plastic, or metal, and it could be as simple as a stick in the sand, or as complex as a suspended crystal reacting to sub-atomic vibrations that border theoretical realms. With that said, the stubbornness that has characterized the stance of the traditional Swiss watchmaker, is beginning to wind down (no pun intended), from the push-back attitude initially shown as a reaction to the Apple Watch.
The irony was, the Apple Watch wasn’t even the beginning of the process that would eventually lead watchmakers to embrace the smartwatch. Lawsuits and other legal battles have peppered the humble beginnings of the smartwatch, particularly in reference to the Motorola Moto 360, and virtually any other circular-faced watch capable of being customized with watch faces resembling anything from a Rolex to a Tag Heuer, Tissot, and more.
Suddenly, anyone with an LCD display on their wrist, could wear something that resembles a $2000 luxury watch, in a similar way as anyone driving a Toyota Celica can paint it to make it look like a Ferrari. While the Italian luxury car maker hasn’t gone on record for sueing Celica owners, nearly every luxury watchmaking company in Europe has banded together, at one point, against websites offering and sharing smartwatch modding tools and resources for enthusiasts of the most unattainable brands.
In 2016, after an overwhelming response in favor of the Apple Watch, one has to wonder why we are still discussing the “take down” of the Apple Watch 2, at the hand of Swiss watchmakers, especially as nearly all largest manufacturers of luxury timekeeping devices, including Tag Heuer, Swatch, and Tissot have began investing in the same technology they initially dismissed as a passing fad.
LVMH's Tag Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver has gone on record saying that: "...We totally underestimated demand, we were too cautious... Next year, we'll have a real collection, a new version with six to eight models...", and further elaborated, stating that "...Nobody knows what will happen with smartwatches. Of course, we could just watch this train from afar to see where it goes, but I prefer to be on board...".
Just like LVMH, Swatch is another company that has decided to invest heavily into the market of wearable tech, with its upcoming line of Smart Touch watches. While that may be a far cry from being anywhere near a competitor of the Apple Watch, this is also a sign that the industry may be going through a stage of merely trying to retain existing customers, while devising a viable strategy to gain new ones with completely new, high-tech luxury timepieces.