“Swatch Group AG Chief Executive Officer Nick Hayek said he’s skeptical that an interactive watch could replace an iPhone, talking down the prospects for a project that Apple Inc. has hinted it’s working on,” Thomas Mulier reports for Bloomberg News.

Mulier reports, “‘Personally, I don’t believe it’s the next revolution,’ the chief of the largest Swiss watchmaker said at a press conference on annual results in Grenchen, Switzerland. ‘Replacing an iPhone with an interactive terminal on your wrist is difficult. You can’t have an immense display.’”

 

MacDailyNews Take: Siri doesn’t require an immense display. And who said anything about “replacing?” What about “augmenting/complementing?”

“In addition to size limiting the amount of information that can be shown, consumers often buy watches as a jewelry item and like to change them, Hayek said,” Mulier reports. “Swatch has had contact with Apple over many years about materials for products and so-called energy harvesting technology that would generate energy from physical movement, Hayek said today.”

Mulier reports, “The Swiss company said in 2011 it obtained a license to use alloys made by Liquidmetal Technologies Inc. (LQMT) in watches, gaining access to metal that’s moldable like plastic. Apple, based in Cupertino, California, also made a patent- licensing agreement with Liquidmetal.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: If Apple actually releases this rumored iWatch, Hayek’s “Personally, I don’t believe it’s the next revolution” quote has the potential to become the next:

We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in. – Palm CEO Ed Colligan, commenting on then-rumored Apple iPhone, Nov. 16, 2006