“Apple’s long-awaited smartwatch looks “too feminine” and its design will not stand the test of time, luxury giant LVMH’s watch guru has said,” Agence French Presse reports.
“Jean-Claude Biver, who heads the French group’s luxury watch division, said the US tech giant had made ‘some fundamental mistakes’ designing the Apple Watch,” AFP reports. “‘This watch has no sex appeal. It’s too feminine and looks too much like the smartwatches already on the market,’ Mr Biver said in an interview with daily Die Welt.”
AFP reports, “‘To be totally honest, it looks like it was designed by a student in their first trimester,’ added Mr Biver, who heads up the brands Tag Heuer, Zenith and Hublot.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What’s not to love about this guy and his headlong quest to join the ranks of business titans and illustrious tech pundits cited below — most of whom are currently “spending more time with their families” or asking, “Would you like fries with that?”
• “[iPhone] just doesn’t matter anymore. There are now alternatives to the iPhone, which has been introduced everywhere else in the world. It’s no longer a novelty.” – Eamon Hoey, Hoey and Associates, April 30, 2008
• “We are not at all worried. We think we’ve got the one mobile platform you’ll use for the rest of your life. [Apple] are not going to catch up.” – Scott Rockfeld, Microsoft Mobile Communications Group Product Manager, April 01, 2008
• “Microsoft, with Windows Mobile/ActiveSync, Nokia with Intellisync, and Motorola with Good Technology have all fared poorly in the enterprise. We have no reason to expect otherwise from Apple.” – Peter Misek, Canaccord Adams analyst, March 07, 2008
• “[Apple should sell 7.9 million iPhones in 2008]… Apple’s goal of selling 10 million iPhones this year is optimistic.” – Toni Sacconaghi, Bernstein Research analyst, February 22, 2008
• “What does the iPhone offer that other cell phones do not already offer, or will offer soon? The answer is not very much… Apple’s stated goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008 seems ambitious.” – Laura Goldman, LSG Capital, May 21, 2007
• Motorola’s then-Chairman and then-CEO Ed Zander said his company was ready for competition from Apple’s iPhone, due out the following month. “How do you deal with that?” Zander was asked at the Software 2007 conference. Zander quickly retorted, “How do they deal with us?” – Ed Zander, May 10, 2007
• “The iPhone is going to be nothing more than a temporary novelty that will eventually wear off.” – Gundeep Hora, CoolTechZone Editor-in-Chief, April 02, 2007
• “Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone… What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong. If it’s smart it will call the iPhone a ‘reference design’ and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else’s marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures… Otherwise I’d advise people to cover their eyes. You are not going to like what you’ll see.” – John C. Dvorak, Bloated Gas Bag, March 28, 2007
• “Even if [the iPhone] is opened up to third parties, it is difficult to see how the installed base of iPhones can reach the level where it becomes a truly attractive service platform for operator and developer investment.” – Tony Cripps, Ovum Service Manager for Mobile User Experience, March 14, 2007
• “I’m more convinced than ever that, after an initial frenzy of publicity and sales to early adopters, iPhone sales will be unspectacular… iPhone may well become Apple’s next Newton.” – David Haskin, Computerworld, February 26, 2007
• “There’s an old saying — stick to your knitting — and Apple is not a mobile phone manufacturer, that’s not their knitting… I think people overreacted to it — there was not a lot of tremendously new stuff if you think about it.” – Greg Winn, Telstra’s operations chief, February 15, 2007
• “Consumers are not used to paying another couple hundred bucks more just because Apple makes a cool product. Some fans will buy [iPhone], but for the rest of us it’s a hard pill to swallow just to have the coolest thing.” – Neil Strother, NPD Group analyst, January 22, 2007
• “I can’t believe the hype being given to iPhone… I just have to wonder who will want one of these things (other than the religious faithful)… So please mark this post and come back in two years to see the results of my prediction: I predict they will not sell anywhere near the 10M Jobs predicts for 2008.” – Richard Sprague, Microsoft Senior Marketing Director, January 18, 2007
• “The iPhone’s willful disregard of the global handset market will come back to haunt Apple.” – Tero Kuittinen, RealMoney.com, January 18, 2007
• “[Apple’s iPhone] is the most expensive phone in the world and it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard which makes it not a very good email machine… So, I, I kinda look at that and I say, well, I like our strategy. I like it a lot.” – Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, January 17, 2007
• “The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks. In terms of its impact on the industry, the iPhone is less relevant… Apple is unlikely to make much of an impact on this market… Apple will sell a few to its fans, but the iPhone won’t make a long-term mark on the industry.” – Matthew Lynn, Bloomberg, January 15, 2007
• “iPhone which doesn’t look, I mean to me, I’m looking at this thing and I think it’s kind of trending against, you know, what’s really going, what people are really liking on, in these phones nowadays, which are those little keypads. I mean, the Blackjack from Samsung, the Blackberry, obviously, you know kind of pushes this thing, the Palm, all these… And I guess some of these stocks went down on the Apple announcement, thinking that Apple could do no wrong, but I think Apple can do wrong and I think this is it.” – John C. Dvorak, Bloated Gas Bag, January 13, 2007
• “I am pretty skeptical. I don’t think [iPhone] will meet the fantastic predictions I have been reading. For starters, while Apple basically established the market for portable music players, the phone market is already established, with a number of major brands. Can Apple remake the phone market in its image? Success is far from guaranteed.” – Jack Gold, founder and principal analyst at J. Gold Associates, January 11, 2007
• “Apple will launch a mobile phone in January, and it will become available during 2007. It will be a lovely bit of kit, a pleasure to behold, and its limited functionality will be easy to access and use. The Apple phone will be exclusive to one of the major networks in each territory and some customers will switch networks just to get it, but not as many as had been hoped. As customers start to realise that the competition offers better functionality at a lower price, by negotiating a better subsidy, sales will stagnate. After a year a new version will be launched, but it will lack the innovation of the first and quickly vanish. The only question remaining is if, when the iPod phone fails, it will take the iPod with it.” – Bill Ray, The Register, December 26, 2006
• “The economics of something like [an Apple iPhone] aren’t that compelling.” – Rod Bare, Morningstar analyst, December 08, 2006
• “Apple is slated to come out with a new phone… And it will largely fail…. Sales for the phone will skyrocket initially. However, things will calm down, and the Apple phone will take its place on the shelves with the random video cameras, cell phones, wireless routers and other would-be hits… When the iPod emerged in late 2001, it solved some major problems with MP3 players. Unfortunately for Apple, problems like that don’t exist in the handset business. Cell phones aren’t clunky, inadequate devices. Instead, they are pretty good. Really good.” – Michael Kanellos, CNET, December 07, 2006
• “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.” – Ed Colligan, Palm CEO, November 16, 2006
Related articles:
Barclays: Apple Watch could crush companies like Fossil – September 16, 2014
Jean-Claude Biver: ‘The Apple Watch cannot compete at all with European watches’ – September 15, 2014
What the Apple Watch says about Apple – September 15, 2014
Tim Cook of Apple Watch battery life: ‘You’ll want to charge them every night’ – September 12, 2014
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
Apple iWatch designer Jony Ive: Switzerland is in deep shit – September 4, 2014
Right… the all black aluminum Sport version looks too feminine…
Or the stainless steel watch with stainless steel band. Not enough testosterone I guess. Needs more Brawndo.
“Jean-Claude Biver, who heads the French group’s luxury watch division” notes his attitude based on a life inside of ‘luxury watches.’
Let’s get something straight: Apple is not making a “Luxury Watch.”
I rather think the solid gold offerings count as a luxury watch. I can’t see they will be less than a $1000 or more.
I think its more a luxury non watch actually though it will tell the time. Watch is a term used for its familiarity, as is the physical design, more than its real purpose.
You’re right. The make Luxury Computers! 🙂
I can’t say I’m crazy about the way it looks either, that much I agree with him. It’s bland and looks too much like a Samsung Smartwatch. But obviously this guy will eat his words as it’s a computer on the wrist like only Apple can do. But I am disappointed in the design. It’s thick and blocky. The Moto smartwatch is very cool. But Android blows, so that’s dead…
Actually side on the moto watch is blocky too it’s inevitable at this stage of technology. In fact the Apple watch is amazingly small considering its abilities and rather a lot smaller than those awful Fad fashion watches that seem to be all the rage at the moment yet do Italy nothing well. The Apple watch was certainly more conservative than I expected but almost instantly I understood why and how beautifully smooth and classy it looks function and form work perfectly together and enable the largest internal space in the smallest size possible, yes it makes perfect sense especially when you realise they want also to make it adaptable and flexible to a number of styles to suit different people. Th moto watch is simply style over vey limited function just as it was with their round cell phone years back. The only way Apple could have kept all the functionality with the required size and go for greater physical original style would have been to incorporate the band in some way but then such style over function leads to a more dramatic look but then be ones common and inflexible and has to be omelet rely redesigned a year or two later. That’s a bad design choice so they went for simple elegance Instead that reflects its iPhone design.
I prefer that to most vulgar mechanical watches to be honest which are more a pure expression of your earning power than serious and pure deign style.
Have you looked at the top selling Invicta watches? They are huge. 54 mm x 17 mm before you add the crown and buttons.
Hey just wanted to see how many fanboys he could get all worked up. Works every time.
Um, OK…thanks for stopping by.
Based on several recent comments by persons who were named Jean-Claude by their parents, a common pattern is emerging.
Inability to understand the Apple ecosystem in which the Watch will fit, resulting in misguided statements about the new product.
That’s just a working hypothesis, of course. 🙂
This guy sure talks a lot. As for the “designed by a student” bullshit, I don’t see a “Sir” in front of his name.
They don’t give Sir titles to Frogs.
Sir is for Brits. As an American, I could care less about the English
‘S RIOGHAL MO DHREAM
The watch by designed by TWO of the best designers in the world with prestigious design awards who are hardly “students.” What this guy neglects to consider is that the design has to some degree reflect the fact it’s a technological device with a screen.
What a snob.
I don’t like the way it looks but admit it’s a great wrist computer. There is nothing wrong in criticizing its looks
What a sexist comment.
Too feminine ? poor comments is simple to guy is karma bad karma I feel sorry for this idiot ..
Good. Women buy more watches than men.
“Feminine”? Coming from a guy named Jean??
A rectangular watch, big enough to hide a ninja star, is feminine?
Gay, yes, feminine no.
The last thing this thing is, despite the name, is a watch. It’s a wearable, mobile communicator and computer. The last thing I want this to look like is a fkng Rolex. Standard watches suck. The keep time and do alarms. Can u imagine the list of things an Apple Watch (AW) can do? I thing they are elegant and stylish. Minimalist perfection—unlike complicated, outdated, clunky watches that do nothing important. Hell, most of use our phones to get the time, and with AW, it gets that much easier.
“and its design will not stand the test of time”
It’s a computer. How much time does it have to stand the test of?
The 1997 iMac, 2001 iPod and 2007 iPhone look ridiculous compared to today’s models. Nobody’s going to wear the same Apple Watch for even 5 years.
The desperate haters are going all out. lol
lol “too feminine” coming from a Fwenchman? hahaha that’s rich
I love that collection of industry wisdom regarding the iPhone from 2007-08. Thanks for putting it all together MDN.
In 2015 Apple will take 20% of the revenue and 50% of the profits in the $100 to $1000 watch market.
Apple may, however, INCREASE the size of the market significantly enough for other watchmakers in this space to not immediately realize how much trouble they are in.
its the smell of fear in the air- lol
Why am I picturing Zoolander’s Mugatu with his name?
I guess some men don’t have to compensate for their shortcomings by strapping something big and flashy on their wrist.
his comments are equivalent to the Maybach CEO dissing Tesla but forgetting that Tesla has never been about competing in the $300K space
all the mid-tier watch companies are scared to death. the low end $49 plastic ones are safe, as are the $20K hublot’s. Movado, on the other hand, is dead center of where Apple is currently aiming at (and this only 1st generation)
‘To be totally honest, it looks like it was designed by a student in their first trimester,’
That would be an adult who goes by the nickname Jony- no shit.
His 15 minutes should have been up. Without Steve Jobs to restrain him form has overtaken function.
Agreed! Sir Ive’s designs have now strayed to the point where function, capability, and user value are compromised. As for the iWatch — well, the critics have a point. It doesn’t look like a slam dunk winner, and the functionality that Apple revealed DOES NOT push it significantly past the competition.
I, for one, will not wear any watch that requires charging nightly. It’s bad enough that i have to do carry a charger everywhere for the iPhone, which already provides all the functions that any watch ever will. Carrying around backup batteries and chargers because Jony is too stupid to allow enough thickness for a real battery has already gone on too long.
In a strange twist, the Apple Watch is way too thick, but instead of battery, Ive installs sensors to tell me that my heart is beating. Yippee. Heartbeat monitors in this day & age are stick-on pads the size of nicorette patches and they certainly don’t need to be standard equipment on a smartwatch nor built into the watch itself. Biver is absolutely spot on.
All good points.
I’m still ticked off I have to charge my iPhone twice a day due to heavy usage. Now daily with an iWatch?
There goes my electric bill where my provider has been raising rates every year in this great economic recovery.
I’ll keep an eye on future upgrades, but have to pass for now until they design a stellar real men’s watch …
Yes, excellent point form HAS overtaken function.
The greatest graphic designers in the world practice form FOLLOWS function.
Add to that sissy flat icons in crayon colors. Painfully obvious Jony had his shot in an expanded role and failed miserably.
Agree with the author. We need brawny burly alternatives for macho men. The girls, gays and metrosexuals are well represented in the current state of Apple design.
The fly-over people and conservative consumers are once again left out in the cold of ABSTRACT APPLE.
Think different, puhleeze! 🙂
What a joyful trip down memory lane with those “informed” people who “knew” the iPhone would fail. Love it! It is, of course, the “iPhone” all over again with the Apple Watch (as it was with the iPad- I remember the incredibly low annual estimated sales of the iPad which Apple wound up selling in about 2 months!).
Obviously, they are VERY scared (as well they should be :-).
You know what they say of French engineering: “World’s best second-raters.”
French guy named “Biver” says Apple Watch too feminine. SMH.
MDN, I love the way your twisted mind works.
AFP reports, “‘To be totally honest, it looks like it was designed by a student in their first trimester,’ added Mr Biver, who heads up the brands Tag Heuer, Zenith and Hublot.”
And yet no one has seen this design before – even from there vaulted stores and from there students. Then again, maybe Biver should step down and let the students have a go at it.
This guy is as scared as Samsung.
biver also said “ Watch can’t compete with European Watches” …
Well saying that Apple Watch is competing with them is like saying a modern luxury Hybrid Car (Apple) is competing with an antique decorative chariot used in parades (EU lux watches) .
also:
As for design a SMART watches function is to feature the APPS. It has to be relatively simple so that it doesn’t overwhelm the apps or the DIFFERENT watch faces. Have a ‘he man’ TAG Heuer design with screws etc and if a person chooses the Mickey Mouse face (or perhaps a future developer face full of flowers) does that fit …. ?
for a supposed design ‘guru’ Mr. Biver seems clueless.
This dude is from Luxembourg