News sources have revealed that the traditional luxury Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer would be the pioneer in the traditional luxury wearable market challenging the Apple (AAPL, Financial) Watch which is scheduled to hit the retail shelves next month. Questions are in the air as to what extent the new smartwatch would be able to dethrone Apple which happens to be the most dominant player in the technology market. This Tag Heuer announcement came almost 10 days after Apple announced the release date for its much-awaited smartwatch. So let’s check out what details were shared by the Swiss luxury watch maker regarding the association with the Silicon Valley experts for developing the first wearable device that could possibly challenge the market leader.
The announcement in hand
Tag Heuer, part of French conglomerate LVMH, declared last Thursday at the Baselworld watch conference in Switzerland that it was entering a partnership with Google (GOOG, Financial) and Intel (INTC, Financial) for development of its flagship smartwatch which it intends to bring to the market by end of the year.
Going by the research done by Strategy Analytics, it is expected that Apple would sell around 15 million smartwatches by the end of the year and would become the top smartwatch vendor with a 55% global market share in 2015. And now, the Swiss watch maker intends to challenge these numbers after making this announcement that has obviously raised several eyebrows.
Though the companies in partnership have not mentioned any further details upon the agreed deal, it has been confirmed that while Tag Heuer would handle the design and manufacturing of the watch, Intel would provide the SoC platform and Google would lend its Android Wear technology and aid in development of the software to run the watch smartly for making it highly appealing to the masses. However, the price tag details have not yet been shared by Tag Heuer’s management, though surely it would be a pricey affair as usually has been the case even with Tag Heuer traditional watches.
Meanwhile, Apple has shared the pricing details in the Apple event during the beginning of the month and it remains to be seen whether consumers would actually show interest in buying its gold smartwatch which has been priced at $10,000 apiece. Hence, it’s still to be judged whether wearable device users would buy the Apple Watch as a luxury item or wear it for convenience.
Tag Heuer’s CEO Jean Claude Biver stated at the watch expo that this was the “biggest announcement” being made in his 40 years of working in the industry. He went ahead to comment that the smartwatch from Tag Heuer would be the “greatest connected watch” for the consumer. While emphasizing on his statement, David Singleton, head of Android Wear development for Google mentioned – “When I think about the watch, it's always been a marriage of beauty and utility. We're going to do that with our partnership.”
Parting thoughts
It would be interesting to watch whether the traditional Swiss watchmaker shifts its focus towards making smartwatches both fashionable as well as esthetically promising to wear on the wrist. With the sales of smartwatches expected to touch 28.1 million units this year from 4.6 million units shipped in the previous year, Tag Heuer might have decided upon bringing in its first smartwatch to the market at the right point in time. But time will only determine whether this smartwatch is able to ignite a battle with the tech giant, Apple in the smartwatch domain. As on date, the words of CEO Mr. Biver seem to be testimony to the upcoming battle when he says –“The difference between the TAG Heuer watch and the Apple watch is very important… That one is called Apple and this one is called TAG Heuer.”
