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TAG Heuer Announces Smartwatch Plans as Threat From Apple Watch Looms

wdowell said:
They seem open to partnerships - so perhaps it'll be Android Wear powered. It would make sense - they focus on the jewellery aspect, and perhaps even have a third company helping with electronics, and have Google provider the software lawyer.

Or are you suggesting Android Wear is rubbish (seems great to me fro what i've seen - It's the ugly watches that it's currently stuck on that does my head in !)

I can well imagine a scenarios where many vendors, swiss and otherwise, can make Android Wear as big as Android's ecosystem.
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Indeed, it would be an interesting world if, every other watch brand from the cheapest to the most high end swiss models adopted Android wear, even if it was a transparent overlay on a very very high quality mechanical watch, whilst Apple were totally isolated and on their own with their one Apple watch.

It could happen.
 
Relax, don't do it.

This is analogous to a high end steakhouse being worried that McDonald's is going to bring out a new steak supper option. While McDonald's might sell more steaks overall, make more money on them, and might even overlap into a market of people that would value going to McDonald's for steak instead of a high end restaurant, realize that there would be a large number of people upset about a high end steakhouse deciding to sell cheap hamburgers out of sterile plastic restaurants to compete with McDonalds'.

Also realize that if you have clientele that will no longer eat at your establishment because they will now only eat McDonald's steak, then that is probably not clientele you want to keep.

Apple is releasing a 21st century Timex watch, the hamburger of watches, steakhouses should not be worried.
 
Shaun said:
I can see the advantages if you're an iPhone user like us but as 90% of smartphones run Android that leaves a whole lot of market for the rest of the watch industry to exploit.

I don't think the Apple Watch will be the roaring success some people are predicting.
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The actual market isn't people with smartphones but people with flagship smartphones capable of interacting with the watch. In the flagship market, iPhone is by far the most prolific...but nobody ever wants to talk about those numbers. Regardless, what you refer to is the "long tail" of the market.
 
Thanks pal said:
Are you saying that the Apple Watch will not have an enduring quality or the smart Tag Heure will not have the endurance of their quartz/mechanical watches? Or are you saying all smart watches will be disposable after a year? I'm not clear what you mean.

My thinking (and this has been brought up before) is that the 18K gold Apple Watch will have a case that opens up and the internals are replaceable/upgradable throughout the life of the watch. Every few years you send your watch in for a $300-$500 "service" which includes upgrading the processor.
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So you think now Apple cares about people who will make an investment upwards of thousands of dollars by having upgradable components?

Excuse me a moment...
 
brendu said:
People with a LOT more money than you or I.
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Note: Not all rich people are stupid.
Some are VERY careful with money and don't throw it away.
they buy very expensive things as they know they are quality and will last, and perhaps even appreciate in value over the years.

Sure there are some dumb ones that just throw their money away, but I might suggest they are just the media ones that we see in the trashy papers.
 
Piggie said:
Indeed, it would be an interesting world if, every other watch brand from the cheapest to the most high end swiss models adopted Android wear, even if it was a transparent overlay on a very very high quality mechanical watch, whilst Apple were totally isolated and on their own with their one Apple watch.

It could happen.
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Yes, it could happen and still wouldn't hurt the Apple Watch. In fact, it would probably make it more exclusive and would cause the same sort of fragmentation in watches that we see in Android phones, leaving Apple with the only one that's guaranteed to work with all of their ecosystem.

In any event, Microsoft Band is probably the direction most of these watches will go in - compatible with any smartphone, extra compatible with a select few.
 
ozziegn said:
It'll be a smash hit whatever it's called.
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I predict it will be a failure pushed to Apple Tv status. The design has been deemed overwhelmingly ugly and the fact that its largely useless with a giant IP in your pocket means sales will be less than stellar.
 
JGRE said:
Well, it actually happend the other way around, the quartz almost killed the 'normal' winding watch, as response to this treat the Swiss watch makers came up with the self-winding watches.....and appeared to be very successful in doing so.

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hmmm, Apple is just making upgrades impossible on all other devices they produce......
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Rolex has produced the Oyster Perpetual since the 1930's whereas the quartz watches didn't appear until the late '60's. The quartz didn't spur on the birth of the automatic movement as it had already been in production for decades. The quartz was more a response to improved accuracy (15 seconds fluctuation per month rather than 15 seconds per day with mechanical movements) rather than the need to wind a watch every night.

As for upgrades, it is true that Apple is sealing their products and making it more difficult for "us" to upgrade. But I'm guessing (and only guessing) that Apple would feel differently about upgrades if they knew they were getting paid $300-$500 for the "service" to upgrade.
 
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So when Tag Heuer releases its smart watch are people going to complain about it being too expensive, not timeless, poor battery life etc?

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TWSS37 said:
This might be an instance in which not controlling the hardware design might be a good idea. As it stands, only Apple will make iWatch, so by default every other watchmaker who wants to get in this space will have to use Android. This seems short sighted to think that Apple knows how to design a better luxury watch than TAG.
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So basically Almost 360 and every other current Android Wear watch is screwed. Because if we're saying Apple can't complete with a Tag Heuer in the luxury space then certainly Lenovo, LG, Samsung and Asus can't either.
 
Not really new news.

If Tag makes a smart watch it should be a real watch, not a gadget with a power hungry screen.

It just needs to be able to summon your BMW.

And the Swiss make a lot of quality embedded software, no need for Android.
 
Apple, The Great Disruptor!

First the portable music industry
then the mobile phone industry
then the computer industry
then the payment middleman industry
now the watch industry

still waiting on their home entertainment disruption though..
 
Razeus said:
Real watches are automatic anyhow.

Real watches aren't obsolete with the next version of hardware or software.

If Quartz didn't kill the business, neither will this.

I don't see the Apple Watch taking off and will be a niche market for them.

I'm not paying $250+ for a watch made in China.
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What does a watch have to do with it. It's ok for a phone or computer to be assembled in China but not a watch? Says who? As long as the product is high quality nobody other than watch connoisseurs are going to care whether it was manufactured in Switzerland or not. And watch connoisseurs will probably never be buying smartwatches anyway.
 
TWSS37 said:
This might be an instance in which not controlling the hardware design might be a good idea. As it stands, only Apple will make iWatch, so by default every other watchmaker who wants to get in this space will have to use Android. This seems short sighted to think that Apple knows how to design a better luxury watch than TAG.
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It seems short sighted to think TAG can design a mobile computer like device better than a computer giant.
 
winston1236 said:
I predict it will be a failure pushed to Apple Tv status. The design has been deemed overwhelmingly ugly and the fact that its largely useless with a giant IP in your pocket means sales will be less than stellar.
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I would definitely wager you are wrong. It will sell like crazy. Things like apple pay immediately make it useful to people who never really though about a smartwatch.
 
Iconoclysm said:
Yes, it could happen and still wouldn't hurt the Apple Watch. In fact, it would probably make it more exclusive and would cause the same sort of fragmentation in watches that we see in Android phones, leaving Apple with the only one that's guaranteed to work with all of their ecosystem.

In any event, Microsoft Band is probably the direction most of these watches will go in - compatible with any smartphone, extra compatible with a select few.
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It depends how isolated Apple wants to be.

At the moment anyone with any other devices can buy an iPhone, and iPod, and iPad, and iMac etc.

If Apple keep the Watch as needing to have an iPhone, and not make it work with anything else, with Android constantly outselling iOS and growing all the time, it would leave Apple more and more isolated if they kept to this policy.

I suspect in time they will make the watch work with other brands of hardware as otherwise they are limiting their market far too much.
 
goobot said:
It seems short sighted to think TAG can design a mobile computer like device better than a computer giant.
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It seems shortsighted to think that Apple can design a watch better than a watchmaker giant.
 
Razeus said:
Real watches aren't obsolete with the next version of hardware or software.
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how do you know AW will be? do you know what their plans are regarding upgrades to the SoC, or trade-ins? i sure dont.

I don't see the Apple Watch taking off and will be a niche market for them.
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"No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame"

I'm not paying $250+ for a watch made in China.
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but youll pay three times that for a phone made in china.
 
Shaun said:
I can see the advantages if you're an iPhone user like us but as 90% of smartphones run Android that leaves a whole lot of market for the rest of the watch industry to exploit.

I don't think the Apple Watch will be the roaring success some people are predicting.
Click to expand...

Apple wants people buying Apple hardware. What a shock. :eek: Apple will work to make the watch as independent from the iPhone as possible before they'll ever think about making it compatible with competitors hardware.

Btw, as I'm typing this CNBC flashed across the screen that Google stock is at a 52 week low. So much for that 90% market share meaning much.
 
brendu said:
This won't be made out of fear. They are preparing for a possible shift in the market they participate in. The problem I see is that unless they use android wear they won't have a product worth selling. I don't see any of these high end Swiss watchmakers being particularly good at making custom software that will be able to compete with what Apple and Google have (and haven't yet) shown us.
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It's not just about making software. It's about developing an entire platform. System architecture, frameworks, APIs. Not easy stuff, and not something a company can just learn overnight. And then just partnering with Google for the platform side, results in a commodity generic product. They can add all the Swiss craftsmanship in the world, but it won't change the fact that it's still just an Android Wear product. They have no control over the platforms destiny and functionality, and are at the mercy of some other company getting things right.

Being a vertically integrated platform starts to make a whole lot more sense when you try to inject a platform into something as personal as a watch.

The Swiss will fail. They can mock Apple all they want, but in terms of creating a PLATFORM and overall product, Apple is miles ahead of where they will ever be. Look at how the Apple Watch makes heavy use of Extensions and Continuity to offload processing on the iPhone. That's ONLY possible for Apple to develop and architecture like that, because they develop the platform, they develop the software, they develop the smartphone, and they develop the watch. All these pieces start to align.
 
MasterRyu2011 said:
Apple, The Great Disruptor!

First the portable music industry
then the mobile phone industry
then the computer industry
then the payment middleman industry
now the watch industry

still waiting on their home entertainment disruption though..
Click to expand...

Well, first was the personal computer industry.
 
funny but a mechanical watches are a timeless thing. If you have a nice quality brand you can pass this to generation after generation. My brother have my grandfather Piaget. Beautiful watch.

While I don't mind the :apple:Watch, I think the biggest flaws are the lack of waterproof and the need to have an Iphone paired to it. Once Apple are able to overcome these restrictions I could potentially think in getting one but I have hard time ditching my Omega Seamaster.

What I really was looking for is a band tracker the I could use in conjunction with my time piece. I hope the rumors of Nike/Apple working on it are true.
 
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