“French luxury group LVMH [Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton S.A]’s watch brand TAG Heuer has plans to launch its own smartwatch, the head of its watch business told a Swiss newspaper,” Silke Koltrowitz reports for Reuters.
“”We want to launch a smartwatch at TAG Heuer, but it must not copy the Apple Watch,” Jean-Claude Biver told Sunday newspaper NZZ am Sonntag,” Koltrowitz reports. “‘We cannot afford to just follow in somebody else’s footsteps,’ Biver said, adding the Swiss watch industry would present smartwatches at the latest at the Basel watch fair next spring.”
“He did not give further details on the planned smartwatch,” Koltrowitz reports. “Apple which has so far been absent from the smartwatch market, unveiled its Apple Watch last week.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So-called smartwatches without ecosystems are stupidwatches that are doomed to failure.
Related articles:
Old school watch makers don’t get Apple Watch – September 12, 2014
Apple Watch, the world’s first real smartwatch, will be a massive hit – September 9, 2014
Why I’m not yet sold on the Apple Watch and why Apple offers so many options – September 11, 2014
Apple iWatch designer Jony Ive: Switzerland is in deep shit – September 4, 2014
TAG, you’re not it. Good luck widdat.
Interesting that the OS that might be used would probably be Android. A little confusing; a high end brand running on a poor mans OS??? A platform that refuses to pay for anything?? This should be interesting.
It’s no problem. Apple is going out of business because they didn’t release the Apple Watch six months ago.
FACT!
🙂
It’s Nokia all over again.
TAG will sell their whole company to Microsoft in two to three years for $5 billion.
Longer run that might be close to the truth though Microsoft might be sold off to someone else by then.
“Watch guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.” -Tim Cook
Wait, did I do that wrong?
Actually, just as with the iPhone making calls, the “watch” part is one the less important aspects. Apart from the brand, TAG Heuer brings nothing at all to the table. As of last week, “watch” no longer means what it used to, and they are in the wrong business. TAG makes the equivalent of “feature” phones, and feature phones is a business that will soon vanish.
My thoughts completely, they have serious problems deciding where their future lies. Wonder if it would be worth Apple introducing a Car/Home type platform that others like them (only up market brands) could in fact invest in as the premier car manufacturers have. Depends I guess if Apple is aiming to replace these premium brands or happy to sit just below them. Seems likes its the former as things stand but will be the longer game of the two choices.
I think their only hope is to go with Withings’ approach. That actually looks pretty cool and makes use of iOS rather than reinvent it. Clearly it’s for watch-wearers who DON’T care for having apps, etc — just movement and sleep kinda stuff — in a fairly elegant solution. In other words they’re not going to compete for the same product space. Wise, or they’d get their asses handed to them. As a long time Apple fan, I have no doubt no one will touch the Apple Watch directly, but there may be room to participate in wearables doing much less and not just seem pathetic. We’ll see.
http://www.withings.com/activite/en-US
Future MDN headline:
Apple Reassigns Lawyers from Samsung Trial to Investigate Rolex.
It will not happen. There is no way for actual “watch companies” to copy Apple Watch, because they don’t have iPhone. Apple Watch exists and works only as an extension of the iPhone user experience. No iPhone, no Apple Watch (or copy of Apple Watch).
The threat of copying Apple Watch comes from the usual suspects. Microsoft could use its Windows Phone platform and (in-house) Nokia, to copy the concept of extending the smartphone onto the user’s wrist with a secondary screen, interface point, and multi-sensory. And the Android platform plus Samsung (and the rest) could do it in a significantly more disjointed way.
Exactly~ Apple has positioned their Watch in a unique position that only Apple will be able to excel at because it makes the most of the existing and very strong ecosystem and interoperability of iPhone, iPad (and the Mac one day?).
It would be comical if high-end watch makers used Android. I could see them working with Samsung to build an ecosystem around Tizen… that would be a smart move on Samsung’s part, but then they’d becoming Microsoft… an OS provider to hardware makers. We all know how well that worked out.
Microsoft watch. Horrors. Check the time and see the BSOD.
“Apple which has so far been absent from the smart watch market…”
Is it really a market if no one is buying your product?
It should say: “Apple which [launched the smart watch market, as it] unveiled its Apple Watch last week.”
Apple launched the smart watch market by allowing calculated leaks concerning the coming of iWatch and then sitting back watching the androids of the world put out crappy products.
Good point. The low bar those set makes the Apple watch all the more impressive. Without something to compare it to it’d be more difficult to gauge. As it is, I can’t believe the power packed into that little box. Smooth fluid animation and scrolling? Particle effects as the doodles disappear? Seriously? That’s Open GL (or Metal) type stuff. On a watch. Holy crap.
Haha I’m sure that will go well.
On a serious note, Apple should take over Baselworld 2015 by kicking off Apple Watch sales that week. What better way to let these smarmy bastards know you’ve arrived than kicking in their door.
If I were a shareholder of TAG I would be questioning the wisdom of pursuing this market- it’s a complete waste of their money. They have no hope. Why bother? And they don’t even yet know what they want to do. It will take them years and by the time they come out with something, it will be obsolete. Just like Windows Phone…
What OS are they going to use? Some variant of Androcrap? Yehhhh, that so fits with a luxury brand. The only way they can stay at the quality of their name would be to develop their own OS and ecosystem. How likely is that?
Uhh, what would a smart watch not tied to any ecosystem actually do? Time, step counter, maybe pulse, any other standalone things that don’t require a connection to anything that will suck a battery dry in a few hours? I’m sure whatever they come up will be beautiful, but useful?
Seems like a dead end doesn’t it, they may have to accept either hoping to make an impact despite their smart watch capabilities and not loose caché or take the vinyl option and play on that traditional aspect but clearly accept a shrinking market. I guess they are in a better position than the mid range manufacturers who are as good as dead or at best become someone else’s bitch.
What about the OS Tag ? At least 50% of the s. watch is the OS.
Apple’s got hundreds of engineers, decades of experience and 150 billion plus to throw at OS development.
If T.H tries their own OS their smart watch is more dead than Palm. If they use some crap from Google they will be GENERIC commodity manufacturer fighting against others on price (differentiate with DESIGN? not with Samsung Xiaomi etc photocopiers … ). Ask how money losing HTC, Motorola etc think about the commodity war….
This is an amazing story. They see the writing on the wall and are doing this out of desperation. It is clear that they cannot succeed. They have just started working on it and yet they hope to show something next spring. Their only choice is to use android. Maybe they can skin it a bit differently. Clearly the Apple watch has rattled their nerves.
“We’ve spent many years working to develop tiny wearable SOCs, and the software/hardware ecosystems to support them. These wristwatch guys aren’t going to be able to waltz right into the smartwatch market and have success.”
My imagined Tim Cook response. 😉
That is exactly what the phone guys said when Apple entered the phone market.
The difference is that Cook’s (imaginary) response would be correct.
After watching the video again, I’m even more psyched to get one. I’ve been in the market for a new watch for over a year. I know rumor had it that Apple was working on one, but no one was sure if or when the rumors were true. I’m glad I found the patience to wait and see. I can’t wait to add the AppleWatch to my small jewelry collection. It’s not quantity but quality. The new watch has it in spades.
Too bad they couldn’t bring it out in time for the holidays. When they say early 2015, I hope they mean some time in the first quarter. Kudos to Apple.
I don’t know. TAG Heuer has tons of watch experience and, like Apple, has a loyal following.
Regardless of what it does, I’ll bet my bottom dollar that is has one feature that the Apple Watch never will: it will be built to last. It will be designed to still be usable and likable after five years. It will be serviceable with replaceable batteries. It will be waterproof.
Most Apple products are obsolete after 5 years. Most Apple products are in the landfill after 10 years.
Hey dummy, if it’s a “smart watch” that will be built to last, as in practically forever in your little world, how is it going to be usable in future years? Are they going to make an expensive shell that all of the electronic guts can be swapped out? No dude, they’ll just end up with a very expensive bauble with obsolete technology.
anything is ‘smart’ when a idiot like George looks at it.
There’s a brand new thing in existence. Recycling. Check it out.
It’ll also start at $2,000. Features like you stated cost money. Can you imagine the critics if the AppleWatch starting price was $1,000? They’re starting at $350, my guess, the gold one with one of the high end bands will run between $700-$900.
More like $1200..
By my estimation, the 18karat gold by itself, before casting, will be $1100 at today’s spot prices. Then you add the watch electronics, band, workmanship, overhead, etc., and that makes my estimate on the 18 K gold Apple Watch somewhere north of $2500.00.
I have retired Tag. The rotating bezel broke off. Had to send it to the Tag repair center for replacement at $400 25% of what I paid for the watch. Had battery replaced at same time $100) When new battery died, local authorized dealer nor an independent service ship couldn’t get the battery screw cover to open. After going through a Seiko, I now wear an ugly Casio titanium, until I can get an Apple watch. Suck it Tag.
Yeah, don’t copy best of class apps, UI, physical controls and massive ecosystem. That’s the ticket.
If the CEOs of these ultra expensive watch companies had half a brain they would be begging Apple to team up with them to make upscale hi-tech smartwatches.
But no, these conceited assholes will make the same mistakes the cellphone makers did when Apple entered their market. Not that they can’t continue to exist well, off of the egocentric rich and famous who need these bling things to show their superiority when they are out of their overpriced cars and decadent homes.
One man’s “decadent” is another man’s piece of shit.
I’d LOVE to see, Realist, what you’d do if the Lottery dropped $50 million in your bank account. My guess is there would be some purchasing of bling, nice cars and a beautiful house.
Not really. I have a modest home that is paid for and I drive Hondas. If I had $50 million I’d by land and put it into some type of conservancy so that in future years it couldn’t be destroyed by “developers”.
It makes me sick to repeatedly see natural areas and prime farm land ruined so another housing plat or mall can go up. We are a selfish and wasteful nation.
As for bling? Well, I am very intrigued by the Apple Watch, if that would fit the description. 🙂
I could see a variant of the Apple Watch making a very capable diving watch.
They have chances to succeed I guess
It is not a phone itself, it is just a device to display info from smartphones.
If their smart watches do not choose OS, if they work with any smartphones, Android or iPhones, they have more chances.
They can buy the chips. They only need to do overall design carefully and compose the parts smartly.
TAG building a smart watch is a bit like Apple building an analog watch. Just a dumb idea.
Plus, TAG buyers aren’t interested in a smart watch. I have a TAG for the very reason I don’t have a Casio or Timex.
The irony is that their best chance of success would be to copy Apple as closely as possible.
Just look at what phones looked like prior to the iPhone and see how well phones that don’t look like an iPhone are doing these days. The most successful current phones ( after iPhones ) are the ones that have most closely copied Apple.
Apple could sell their watch System on chip to high end watch makers so they coul do the body and straps of the watch.
Apple could make this so the maket doesn’t get floaded with android garbage and the customers would have good alternatives
Interesting idea. Head off competition by being the competition
At least give them credit for not pulling a Samdung copying move. I say, stick to what you do best Tag. Just keep making great watches and stay out of the smart watch business.