“Apple’s heavily heralded iWatch, tipped to launch in the autumn this year, could dent the profits of the Swiss company behind the popular Swatch brand, according to analysts,” Jenny Cosgrave reports for CNBC.
“The Swiss watch market is dominated by two brands: Richemont — home to luxury brands such as Piaget, Alfred Dunhill, Montblanc and Jaeger-LeCoultre — and Swatch — which also makes timepieces under the Breuget, Tissott and Rado labels,” Cosgrave reports. “Managing director at consumer consulting firm Neev Capital, Rahul Sharma agreed that Swatch is the most vulnerable brand, because it uses ‘pretty much no technology… It (a regular watch) is the kind of thing that people have already started to forgo. It is now much more a fashion item and has been in decline for a while. Something like an iWatch is kind of the final blow, but also in some ways the iWatch is creating its own market,’ said Sharma.”
Cosgrave reports, “The Apple iWatch is rumoured to have a September/October release date, with analysts estimating Apple could sell 50 million or more such devices in its first year, according to Bernstein Research.”
Read more in the full article here.
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