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If a tech company can launch a watch, why can't a watch brand launch a gadget? THE TAG Heuer entered into a partnership with Intel and Google to enter the luxury smartwatch market, directly competing with the newly launched Apple Watch.
The gadget will combine the quality of the Swiss watch brand with the hardware technology of Intel and A do Google, in what could be the first luxury smartwatch for the operating system. No technical specifications or other details have been revealed, but a release date has been given for the last quarter of 2015.
The partnership was announced during the Basel World, an international watch and jewelry fair and is the first of its kind for the TAG Heuer. During the event, the brand's CEO, Jean-Claude Biver, Guy Sémon, from the same company, David Singleton, from Google, and Michael Bell, from Intel, ed on stage to cut a cheese, Swiss of course, marking the partnership.
“Our collaboration provides a rich synergy, forming a win-win partnership, and the potential for all three companies is enormous,” said Biver.
For the chip company, however, it is another step in a series of such actions. THE Intel already works with other brands to create smartwearables, including Oakley, to develop a pair of smart sports eyewear, and with the Fossil, to develop technology for the fashion industry.
“We believe wearable technology is going to take off,” Bell said. “Collaboration with TAG Heuer e Google brings us closer to realizing the vision of wearable technology with a distinctive smartwatch that elevates the category.”
Other brands may follow the idea – which would be very interesting for the sector – but not everyone sees the market in the same way. Marc Hayek, from Swatch Group, is one of the skeptics. In an interview with Reuters, Hayek said that “the Apple Watch it's not a real watch, but an electronic one”, and an expensive one in the deluxe version. Will a luxury watch company do better?
