Ondrej Holzman In a few weeks, the Apple Watch will appear on the market, and everyone is impatiently waiting to see how successful their launch will be. They are also watching everything closely in Switzerland, the watchmaking powerhouse, for which it will not be easy to react to smart watches. At least TAG Heuer will try. His boss likes the Apple Watch and doesn't want to be left behind.
It's not that the Swiss don't want to create smart watches, although they certainly don't have to worry that sales of chronometers and other classics will decline because of them. But the problem is primarily that Swiss companies will have to outsource their production in the case of smart watches.
[su_pullquote align=”right”]Apple Watch connects me to the future.[/su_pullquote]
"Switzerland does not operate in the communications industry, we do not have the necessary technology. And if you don't have it, you can't innovate," he said in an interview for Bloomberg Jean-Claude Biver, head of TAG Heuer watches under the LVMH concern.
Swiss companies, which have always relied on the "Swiss Made" brand and domestic production, will therefore have to turn to experts from Silicon Valley for the technological side. "We can't make chips, applications, hardware, nobody in Switzerland. But the watch case, the dial, the design, the idea, the crown, these parts will of course be Swiss," plans 65-year-old Biver, who has already started working on TAG Heuer smart watches.
At the same time, Biver had a very negative attitude towards smart watches, specifically the Apple Watch, just a few months ago. "This watch has no sex appeal. They are too feminine and too similar to existing watches. To be completely honest, they look like they were designed by a first semester student.” he said Biver shortly after the introduction of the Apple Watch.
But as the arrival of the Apple Watch approaches, the head of TAG Heuer has completely changed his rhetoric. "It's a fantastic product, an incredible success. I don't just live by the tradition and culture of the past, but I also want to be connected to the future. And Apple Watch connects me to the future. My watch connects me with history, with eternity," said Biver now.
The question is whether he's just changed his mind about Apple watches, or he's starting to worry about the impact the Apple Watch could have on his industry. According to Biver, the Watch will primarily threaten watches costing under two thousand dollars (48 thousand crowns), which is definitely a huge range in which TAG Heuer also operates with some of its products.
...They promise everything carefully in Switzerland too..., maybe a mistake?
Swiss companies that have always been based on the brand... ugh, that's a nasty piece of shit!
TAG Heuer still doesn't have many products under 2000 dollars. Some quartz models from the range of formulas. Interesting pieces start from 2000.
TH has already killed itself with braillem, phones, so why not continue with a smartwatch. Old Heuer must be turning in his grave.
But that's bullshit. I mean Biver.
Its just…great! Its that simple…easy easy easily…beautiful design, wonderful…We look forward to the keynote
Hey, I'm metal lightning :)