The Other Obsolete Jewelery Thread: Will the Apple Watch Kill the Classic Watch?

[Mac 128]

Many current makers will not adapt and many of those will fail because of it (this will happen- I'm looking at you BlackBerry), but you're right that others will most certainly change with the times. They are smart enough and have to.

Yes, this is as sure as Apple will not be the only smartwatch maker to achieve success in the marketplace, just like they aren't the only smartphone maker.

Watch companies went out of business and merged with each other during the 70s quartz revolution. And you are right, some of these watch companies are not just smart, but they are innovative, and have even higher quality standards than Apple. They will make formidable competitors if they get the software right. Heck they don't even have to develop their own OS, just integrate it with Apple's and whomever else's.

In the end, I'm not convinced that everything will go the way of the smart watch. Semi-smart watches with programable chips, and/or sensors embedded in traditional watches, may be enough for most, or make great alternates for days when a full blown smart watch is not required.

 

[AFDoc]

How do you think the Apple Watch will affect the market for "classic"/"dumb" watches? How do you think the two markets will interact/have already interacted?

Will smart watches render classic mechanical watches obsolete? Will hybrid mechanical-smart watches arise? Will people have two watches--a fashionable one and an Apple one? Or will Apple's watches just become fashionable--either because it will realize its dreams of ever-slimmer aesthetics or because the standards of aesthetics will change?

Perhaps Apple watches will have unexpected effects--like affecting the prices of classic watches?

I personally expected Apple, given the attention they lend to thinness in notebooks and phones, to make this watch slimmer and for them to have a round option, but perhaps my preferences will be addressed in future iterations.

What other impacts do you think this watch will have on society? I can imagine how test/exam proctors/makers who previously prohibited smart phone calculators and other gadgets might soon regulate what watch you can wear while taking an SAT.

Is this a real question or an onion type question? If real I fear for the world.

 

[MadDane]

I have been holding off for a while to get a luxury watch until after I had tried out the Apple Watch. I am in my mid 20's and have been wearing a watch for 20 years (yes, I started out very young). Well, I tried the Apple Watch and since it didn't seem to add any value to my daily life I decided that now was the time to buy that expensive Omega watch that I have wanted for the past 5 years.

Yes, I think the Apple Watch and other smart watches will affect the traditional watch makers in one way or another. But there is going to be a desire for traditional mechanical watches for a significant time to come.

 

[redman042]

The digital watch didn't kill off the mechanical watch and neither will the Apple Watch. Just as the car didn't kill off the bicycle, television didn't kill the cinema and so on.

But the digital watch only did a tiny bit more than a mechanical watch. The Apple Watch, however, does a ton more. It's much more likely to displace mechanical watches on many wrists

 

[NovemberWhiskey]

The Apple Watch won't touch luxury timepieces like Rolex, Panerai, etc. Those will always have a market, for brand, aesthetics, exclusivity, social status...

But I think the Apple Watch can kill off brands like Hamilton, etc. These watches are relatively expensive (over a thousand for some Hamiltons) and aren't really too exclusive or luxurious. Why spend $1k on a Hamilton when you can buy an Apple Watch.

 

[jasonklee]

I'm assuming the Apple Watch will do to mechanical watches what PCs did to typewriters.

 

[Samtb]

I'm assuming the Apple Watch will do to mechanical watches what PCs did to typewriters.

I don't think it will in its current format though. It's battery life is far too short compared to mechanical watches and it relies on a phone, Bluetooth etc. it's also too fiddly at the moment as the screen just feels too cramped.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

Smartwatches will replace most of the "classical watches" in less than 10 years. But will never take completely the place of the luxury timepieces.

 

[JPIndustrie]

The most striking and unique thing about the Apple Watch is how closely they have come to building a watch very similar to a comparable mid-tier (and face it these are strictly mid-tier watches) Citizen Ecodrive or Seiko ($300-600~). This means that feel you expect from jewelry such as decent every day watches is there, its a very remarkable merging of the best/powerful technology that will go will with any outfit even a work suit. The best part is - with its diminutive size, beauty, amazing construction, and square face it is cut above everything else, let alone the jokes like the fitbit or pebble.

 

[JPIndustrie]

I don't think it will in its current format though. It's battery life is far too short compared to mechanical watches and it relies on a phone, Bluetooth etc. it's also too fiddly at the moment as the screen just feels too cramped.

This is the format. Battery life is arguably longer than expected and will improve with each software/hardware iteration.

I also don't understand the obsession of phone reliance for higher level features. As it stands the Apple watch does more than regular wrist watches without the iPhone in range!