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Swiss watch makers not jumping on the "Wearable Tech" wagon

Rogue Trader

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[h=1]Smart watches? Not at this time, say wary Swiss[/h]Silke Koltrowitz
Published: March 31, 2014 - 12:00AM

art-Thierry-Stern-2-620x349.jpg


With their hundreds of years of watchmaking experience, Swiss watchmakers can afford to take a long view of technological fads and fashions. Smart watches, packing computing power into a wrist-sized gadget, aren't in their plans for now.

Technology groups from Samsung to Sony are counting on wearable electronic devices able to hook up to the internet, melding fashion and technology in what could be the next mass consumer trend.


art-Samsung-Gear-Fit-Gear-2-365-620x349.jpg

Wearable tech: Samsung's Gear 2 smart watch and Gear Fit fitness band. Photo: Reuters

Yet so far the Swiss see little appeal in such devices.


"There's a lot of noise about smart watches, but you don't see them on people's wrists," Francois Thiebaud, head of Swatch's Tissot brand, said at a watch fair in Basel.


"We don't want to do anything that doesn't add value for the customer, we're not interested in launching a gadget watch," Thiebaud said.


Family-owned Patek Philippe and La Montre Hermes, the watch unit of luxury goods group Hermes, don't see smart watches as a threat for their business, their heads said.


Both Patek's Thierry Stern and Hermes' Luc Perramond said their target market was different from the young buyers who might be looking for something to wear on their wrists.


"When they grow older," Perramond said, "that may be a watch."


Yet no consumer goods maker can afford to turn a completely blind eye to global technological advances.


Thiebaud said Tissot, together with parent Swatch Group, had set up a group to assess the potential of launching a watch connected to the internet, but no final decision had been made.


Huge potential


Swatch chief executive Nick Hayek said earlier this month the company, the world's biggest watchmaker, had been approached by several major technology companies for a partnership in smart watches.


But Hayek was not keen on entering any new venture, after past deals with Microsoft and Tiffany & Co ended in litigation.


Analysts, however, see huge potential in wearable electronics, with Credit Suisse for example estimating the market could reach $US50 billion by 2017.


Swatch Group's Swatch and Tissot brands could be best placed for a partnership in the area, since their ranges are in a similar mass-market price band to the target market for smart watches, said Jean-Claude Biver, head of the watch unit of luxury goods group LVMH.


"I'd love to be in the right spot to do smart watches, but I don't have access to the technology," Biver said. "Also, a watch costing thousands of francs, like a Hublot, cannot afford to become obsolete after a year."


But Tissot's Thiebaud said he was not interested in launching a smart watch, citing previous tech-oriented gadgets, such as the Tissot High-T and the Swatch Paparazzi – both of which offered limited computer-type functions and were fruits of a collaboration with Microsoft – but which had not met with the hoped-for success.


Despite Swatch Group's scepticism on smart watches, its Swatch brand has just launched a model able to communicate with a smartphone via bluetooth.

For Thiebaud however the key focus remains on the company's mainstream timepieces.

"At Swatch Group, we like to focus on our core business instead of meandering."
 

johnny333

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I remember the last tech shakeup in the 70's when everyone was only interested in LED watches.
Now the in thing is smart watches.

It's safer to stick to what they know & they don't have to face competition from the chinese
 

Devil Within

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The key point to luxury watches is
Biver said. "Also, a watch costing thousands of francs, like a Hublot, cannot afford to become obsolete after a year."
.

That is why fully mechanical watch is still appealing to me. It will still run even after a hundred years if maintain properly. No batteries needed. The only other digital watch I have is good old Casio G-shock I bought in the 90s.

Now with smart phone giving you the time, I seldom wear watches unless I'm doing sports or travel.
 
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Microsoft

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Generous Asset
Smartwatch damn lehchek...mus chg it almost daily...function oso not tat impressive...no thanks moi stick to mickey mouse watch...:biggrin::biggrin:
 

Rogue Trader

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The tech industry is running out of ideas for smart phones and now trying very hard to push "wearable tech" to the masses. I was very tempted to get a smart watch (pebble seems to be the best)... but remembered the lesson learnt from my sony mini disc gamble :(

The problem now is there is no killer app for smart watches. Why would anyone spend money on a heart rate monitor/mp3 remote control/watch?

..... Maybe only when all phones become 6 inch phablets?
 

Cestbon

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Those expensive switch watch are machanical with moving gear and spring. If the go in smart watch it will be come low class.
Everyone can make digital smart watch easily with today technology.
 

Rogue Trader

Alfrescian (Inf)
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The key point to luxury watches is .

That is why fully mechanical watch is still appealing to me. It will still run even after a hundred years if maintain properly. No batteries needed. The only other digital watch I have is good old Casio G-shock I bought in the 90s.

Now with smart phone giving you the time, I seldom wear watches unless I'm doing sports or travel.

The watch is almost obsolete now that everyone's carrying a phone. Spec for spec, a watch will never beat a smart phone loaded with apps for alarms, time zone, temperature reading, calculator, stop watch etc etc

If anyone's going to wear a watch nowadays, it will be a status symbol.
 
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