Good luck, TAG Heuer. You have large and difficult mountain to climb with Apple at the very top of Smart Watch design. I'm always eager to see other companies try.
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TAG Heuer to Combine Swiss Watch Expertise With Technology in 'Different Craftsmanship'
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It's always been cool to wear a half decent watch hasn't it, and by that I don't mean a Casio G-Shock but a Tag or Omega?
TAG in its own industry is nowhere near where Apple is in its own.
They're famous for QC issues, crowns breaking off, falsely claiming to have developed technologies in house (that watch nerds online saw the macro photography and noticed it was bought from elsewhere, causing the CEO to issue a non-apology).
The sad thing is that Heuer used to be a very innovative and high quality watch company with a long history, until the TAG merger.
They make luxury watches, regular customers like you aren't their audience and likely won't still be with this new smart watch
Yeah, but "cool" is not enough to make me buy or wear a watch. I quit wearing a watch long before the iPhone, because my cell phone was always with me, and it would do everything the watch did. The watch became superfluous, and I don't wear jewelry.
To get me to buy, the watch needs to be compelling. Notifications aren't enough. A pedometer isn't enough. But notifications plus pedometer, plus pulse rate plus Apple Pay plus plays well with my iPhone may be enough. We'll see when the Apple Watch comes out.
"Cool" doesn't hurt, but if you think you can sell me with "cool", you're going to be writing off a loss for your mistake.
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
I think the Iwatch has created panic (tsunami-scaled) across boardrooms in luxury watchmakers all across the world.
Of course we only wear one watch at a time but that doesn't mean we only own one watch. I have five here with me at my work apartment and seven more at home. Watch people buy watches like shoe people buy shoes.
There's a big difference between fine, mechanical watches, and computers worn on the wrist. I see it as two different things. I also don't believe they are hurting. Even in times of economic recession, retailers like Tiffany & Co. for instance, show steady or even increasing sales.
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The people who are going to buy a smart watch are not the same people who would buy a fine, luxury swiss timepiece.
What about Samsung?
Samsung can integrate their phones with a watch perfectly, and their designs and build sucks.
Maybe they can strike a deal with LV or Swatch Group... and get some low-tier brand like Tag or whatever for their most expensive watches.
Samsung can integrate their phones with a watch perfectly, and their designs and build sucks.
Maybe they can strike a deal with LV or Swatch Group... and get some low-tier brand like Tag or whatever for their most expensive watches.
I get what you are saying. I can't recreate a census of poster opinion from so many years ago, but I do clearly remember all the howls of derision when the iPad was announced. No slots, USB, camera, published specs, it will never replace a laptop, it doesn't run OS X, childish comments on the name, and so on. For sure lots of people here had it pegged as Project: Fail. Anyway my point here is to not discount the gearhead factor on these boards. If a product isn't buzzword compliant the geeks are never going to like it. Or the fans who will buy anything Apple makes, I guess.
This is all very silly. I'm not going running or doing any real exercise with my Rolex. I need a watch that can take a beating and still go on ticking.
Most people who buy smart watches are definitely not likely to buy a fine, luxury Swiss timepiece.
On the other had, many people who buy fine, luxury Swiss timepieces will also buy a smart watch.
Then the question becomes: which one will they wear?
These days, millionaires and billionaires wear blue jeans, drive Priuses, and tweet using iPhones or Android smartphones that are just like the ones we can buy.
This isn't to say that they don't also have Bentleys and an Aston-Martin sports cars in their seven-car garages, and bespoke dinner jackets in their palatial closets. I'm just saying that when they get a craving in the middle of the night for Taco Bell, they won't grab the keys to the Rolls-Royce Wraith, don their custom tailored white linens and strap on their Rolexes. And when their partners text them to say "bring me back a seven-layer burrito," they'll be just as thrilled as the rest of us to feel that taptic tappity-tap on their wrists as they maneuver their Chevy Volts into the drive thru lane.
Most people now buy zero watches, so I doubt there's a huge rush to own two or more for the majority of people.
Except that wristwatches have existed for over a century and that traditional watchmakers sell products that go well beyond their functionality; you can check the time on a dollar watch as well as on a $10,000 timepiece and yet people still continue to buy the more expensive models.
Exactly. Quartz watches with superior accuracy and heaps more functionality were introduced more than 40 years ago. Many have tried slapping gold or premium materials on quartz watches to target the luxury market and failed to make a dent.
Do people not realize TAG Heuer and these other Swiss watches cost upwards of $10,000to $20,000 and up? They can't compete with Apple in the $350 to $500 range, otherwise they cheapen their existing products. There is a reason why only a portion of the population can afford a TAG Heuer or a Rolex, and the other portion can only afford a Kenneth Cole. Apple is targeting the $500 to $2000 watch crowd.
I think the correct sentence is "Apple at the very top of Smartwatch's hardware and software design". Because the aesthetics department... ... ...
In case you haven't noticed, they both go on a person's wrist. And most people sure as heck won't be wearing both. I would call this direct competition.
And like wealthy fur people bought fur coats, and wealthy horse people bought thoroughbred race horses. And they still do. However the size of those demographics has changed and will continue to change, and often it changes enough that the size of the supporting luxury product industries contracts rather than expands in relation to the economy.
Um... what? Where are you getting your numbers from? They are completely false.
Those high prices go for haute horlogerie pieces, which are essentially mechanical artwork.
Lines like TAG and Tissot are in the Apple Watch price range and, as observed by watch journalists at the event, are completely outclassed in build quality by the Apple Watch.
Among sports watch makers (which TAG chiefly is), you're looking at TAG at the low end, Omega at mid-high with Rolex, etc. The most expensive non-precious metal models by those makers all clock it at well below $10,000. And you have Seiko, which makes everything from low-end reliable watches to high end watches that leave their European competitors in the dust.
Perhaps it will help for frame of reference to know that low-end 'Swiss Made' watches barely have anything about them made in Switzerland.