“Apple has hired the sales director of the TAG Heuer luxury watch company to assist with the company’s upcoming launch of the iWatch,” Aaron Mamiit reports for Tech Times. “Apple employed an executive from the LVMH brand of watches, which includes TAG Heuer, Zenith and Hublot, as the company will be looking to label the iWatch as ‘Swiss made,’ LVMH head Jean-Claude Biver told CNBC. Biver added that he was happy for the former sales director, believing that his new role in Apple will be a great opportunity for him.”
Mamiit reports, “Bernstein senior luxury items analyst Mario Ortelli also said that while Apple’s iWatch, and other upcoming smartwatches, will be a threat to the low-end models of Swiss watches, the release of these devices into the market will actually be an advantage for high-end watch makers as young watch consumers are created who would eventually look for other watch brands after Apple.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, just like iPhone users looked to other cellphone brands after acquiring iPhone… oh, wait.
“iWatch” won’t be just a watch, dummy. If you have a paradigm-shifiting device on your wrist, you not going to give it up for just a timepiece or strap on an additional Rolex in order to superfluously display the time.
“The dominant belief among watch makers is that smartwatches have little potential, which is why most are skeptical on forging partnerships with Apple. Nick Hayek, chief executive of Swatch, pointed to technical constraints as one of the factors that could spell failure for the upcoming devices,” Mamiit reports. “‘To make a smartwatch work you need two hands or voice recognition, which again needs a lot of power, which is difficult in a very limited space,’ said Hayek.”
Read more in the full article here.
