What moste People her in this thread don't understand is that the coloboration with swatch has nothing to do with the cheap swatch watches. More with the development and manufacturing of the watches, and the design expirience of omega or breguet. There was an interview with a swatch ceo this spring, which told it was the right thing to say no to apple as it wold damage the brand of the own high price watch brand if his swatch company wold get known to be produce the iwatch. But at the same time he told it maybe would have made sense to create an new swatch group company to deal with apple needs.
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Swatch Denies Report It Is Working With Apple on iWatch Wearable
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I'm willing to bet that had the headline been "Swatch teams up with Apple for iWatch" your response would be something along the lines of "Thats excellent. Swatch are perfect for Apple. All hail Swatch"
This rumor had nothing to do with Swatch the plastic watch.
For then n-th time, this collaboration would have been betwen the Swatch Group (12 watch brands !) and Apple.
Most of the Swatch Group watch brands like Omega and others sell for a lot more than the median TAG Heuer (Tag Heuer belongs to LVMH and they also have more upscale brands like Hublot.)
The next iWatch MR article must state that every major watch manufacturer is in talks with Apple, and that potentially any major manufacturer *could* work with Apple developing a watch. The only problem... Apple's new device is not going to be a watch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It will tell time, but that's the only thing in common that it will have with a watch. And maybe the fact you can wear it on your wrist, but what's to prevent you from removing the band and adding a clip? Me shivers just thinking about the possibilities.
I could have stated the Swatch rumour was BS!!! No need to post the story in the first place as we all know it's not true, the Swatch group have already previously made their position quite clear on any possible Apple iWatch involvement.
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Couldn't agree with you any more mate. It is getting rather ridiculous.
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Couldn't agree with you any more mate. It is getting rather ridiculous.
Maybe they are "doubling down"
My view is that Swatch corporate does not have any formal relationship with Apple. However, like most Swiss businesses, everyone of any value has something else going on the side. Thus, I bet a bunch of guy working with Swatch in different manners is working with Apple on the iWatch on an individual level.
Exactly. Casio, Timex, Seiko - companies much more likely to manufacture Apple's watch for them. Most Swiss watch manufacturers are only good at stuffing a $200 Swatch movement inside a fancy case and charging the hell out of it.
His post makes perfect sense if you understand the watch business.
Again, many don't understand the implication.
Swatch owns more than watch brands.
They own retail distribution. All the high end boutiques in the various "Beverly Hill's Rodeo Drive" equivalents in Paris, Luxemburg, Tokyo's Ginza district, Hong Kong Kowloon, to the top hotels, luxury cruise liners to airport gift shops.
They own Tourneau. If Apple wants to have their watches show-cased at Harrods in London, Swatch is the company to use. However, that is what the Tag Heuer hire is for.
They own manufacturing and testing equipment.
Apple needs Swatch more than anything. Swatch has worked with rare materials including Liquid metal. Their subsidiary knows how to bend and make curved sapphire crystals with anti-reflective coating. They know how to assemble that same crystal in cases (that they manufacture) that has high tolerance like going 3000 feet under water. This is expertise in manufacturing.
They know a few things like metallurgy and dealing with allergens. Some people strapping a piece of metal on their wrists gives them allergies. Swatch (through their brands) have decades of expertise that Apple has no experience with whatsoever. They know how to work with precious metals.
They make the little crowns, pins. So if Apple wanted to make a case that use a $600 alligator brown calfskin leather strap, well, Swatch owns the widget companies that make those parts.
The point is, Apple needs the expertise of someone like the Swatch Group if they want to break into to the mid-range to Luxury market.
If the Swatch GROUP was an electronic gadget company it would be comparable to an imaginary company that owns all of these under one umbrella: Qualcomm (for SOC), Sharp/LG for screens, Gorilla Glass, Panasonic for batteries, HTC as a brand, Fox-Conn as the assembly plant, and Best Buy as the retail distribution channel all-in-one.
This is all theoretical as I doubt Swatch would ever want to get in bed with Apple. At most, they treat Apple as just another consumer who wants to buy from their suppliers.
Once again, we're not just talking about the multi colored plastic Swatches you can buy at the mall. Swatch Group owns Breguet, Blancpain, Omega, Harry Winston, Longines, Hamilton, Rado, Tissot and others...
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Victorinox is considerably down market compared most of the brands within Swatch Group.
Apple would be extremely fortunate if they could get a company like the Swatch Group to help them.
They saved the Swiss mechanical watch industry from insolvency decades ago and continue to make popular luxury and semi-luxury watches.
My friends mostly wear Rolex but I couldn't get myself to choose a Rolex or current model Patek Philippe over a (Swatch) Omega Speedmaster Professional.
It was the only watch to have passed NASA's secret tests on March 1965 to be supplied to the astronauts of the Gemini and Apollo space missions.
I would have gladly paid 10x its relatively modest price (compared to a Patek Phillppe) for the watch.
Some of you claim Swatch to make low quality watches, but I couldn't disagree more. (Swatch's Omega Speedmaster Pro is still the only approved watch for extra-vehicular use on space missions).
They saved the Swiss mechanical watch industry from insolvency decades ago and continue to make popular luxury and semi-luxury watches.
My friends mostly wear Rolex but I couldn't get myself to choose a Rolex or current model Patek Philippe over a (Swatch) Omega Speedmaster Professional.
It was the only watch to have passed NASA's secret tests on March 1965 to be supplied to the astronauts of the Gemini and Apollo space missions.
I would have gladly paid 10x its relatively modest price (compared to a Patek Phillppe) for the watch.
Some of you claim Swatch to make low quality watches, but I couldn't disagree more. (Swatch's Omega Speedmaster Pro is still the only approved watch for extra-vehicular use on space missions).
Or in a shorter form, they would be Samsung.
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Somehow I doubt that NASA is spending very much effort in testing and approving watched for space missions. More like:
"Does this - what's it now, Omega? - work?"
"It does."
"Great, we'll use that then. What else is on the agenda for today?"
http://www.omegawatches.com/planet-omega/space/speedmaster-history
You may do a reasearch in future instead of posting bs.
In the space race with the Soviets, there was not enough time for NASA to create their own timepieces for use in space. Instead, they purchased and tested off-the-shelf watches instead of creating proprietary watches and subjected them to 2 years of testing.
Some of their testing criteria:
High temperature: 48 hours at 160 °F (71 °C) followed by 30 minutes at 200 °F (93 °C)
Low temperature: Four hours at 0 °F (−18 °C)
Temperature cycling in near-vacuum: Fifteen cycles of heating to 160 °F (71 °C) for 45 minutes, followed by cooling to 0 °F (−18 °C) for 45 minutes at 10−6 atm
Humidity: 250 hours at temperatures between 68 °F (20 °C) and 160 °F (71 °C) at relative humidity of 95%
Oxygen environment: 100% oxygen at 0.35 atm and 71°C for 48 hours
Shock: Six 11ms 40 g shocks from different directions
Linear acceleration: from 1 to 7.25 g within 333 seconds
Low pressure: 90 minutes at 10−6 atm at 160 °F (71 °C) followed by 30 minutes at 200 °F (93 °C)
High pressure: 1.6 atm for one hour
Vibration: three cycles of 30 minutes vibration varying from 5 to 2000 Hz with minimum 8.8 g impulse
Acoustic noise: 30 minutes at 130 dB from 40 to 10,000 Hz
Only Swatch's Omega Speedmaster survived all the above tests. Keeping time during space missions and moon landings were critical.
In 1970, after Apollo 13 was crippled, Jack Swigert's Speedmaster was used to accurately time the critical 14-second Mid-Course Correction burn which allowed for the crew's safe return.
For decades, Swatch's Omegas were the ONLY tools on board spacecraft to coordinate missions and for the astronauts to calculate their flight path. These were the days of using mechanical watches and using slide rules for calculations, although the HP-35 calculator (first scientific calculator made) was also critically involved.
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I know exactly who and what Swatch is, and I agree with you. I also agree with the rest of your post - Swatch could be Apple's partner with ease. But what you don't seem to realize is that companies like Casio, Seiko and Citizen are exacly the same. These companies are older than Swatch, have way more experience with electronics, and make everything in-house as well. Not under one umbrella, but as one company. Their high end watches are as good or better than any Swatch owned brand. I also believe that Swatch is more 'conservative', or traditional if you will, perceiving computerized watches as a threat. Or at least more than the Japanese manufacturers.
Swatch just confirmed that it will do its own smartwatch / fitness device in 2015...
http://www.cultofmac.com/288997/forget-iwatch-swatch-planning-smart-watch-2015/
Probably an updated Swatch or Tissot Touch line.
Swatch already supplies many components (small batteries, micro controllers etc.) to smartwatches, many people don't know this.
http://www.cultofmac.com/288997/forget-iwatch-swatch-planning-smart-watch-2015/
Probably an updated Swatch or Tissot Touch line.
Swatch already supplies many components (small batteries, micro controllers etc.) to smartwatches, many people don't know this.
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