WATCHES-SMARTWATCH/TAG HEUER Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer teams up with big tech for smartwatch

Record ID: 130049

  • Title: WATCHES-SMARTWATCH/TAG HEUER Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer teams up with big tech for smartwatch
  • Date: 9th November 2015
  • Summary: ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** PRESENTERS ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) JEAN-CLAUDE BIVER, CEO OF TAG HEUER AND PRESIDENT OF THE LVMH GROUP'S WATCHES DIVISION, SAYING: "At Tag Heuer we say, 'no innovation, no future'. It's not enough to have tradition." PRESENTERS ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) JEAN-CLAUDE BIVER, CEO OF TAG HEUER AND PRESIDENT OF THE LVMH GROUP'
  • Embargoed: 24th November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9RYN08PTI0ZMO00MY5KEC8JQF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: LVMH's Tag Heuer became on Monday (November 9) the first Swiss watchmaker to offer a "smartwatch" to customers that combines Swiss design with U.S. technology, seeking to tap a growing market for wearable devices amid flagging sales of traditional watches.
    Co-developed with Google and Intel, the "Tag Heuer Connected" will cost $1,500 (USD). One thousand units are immediately available in 15 stores across the United States, with Britain, Germany, and Japan following in the coming days.
    With its titanium casing, black rubber strap and digital watch hands, it is designed to look like a classical watch.
    But Connected houses an Intel Atom processor beneath its touchscreen that lets wearers connect to the internet, stream music and run applications via Google's Android Wear platform, from existing favorites such as Google Fit and Google Maps to customized lifestyle and sports apps designed for the watch.
    "At Tag Heuer we say, 'no innovation, no future'. It's not enough to have tradition," said Tag Heuer Chief Executive Jean-Claude Biver during the watch's launch event in New York City.
    Biver described the difference between the Tag Heuer and the Apple smartwatches.
    "Our watch looks like a watch, and the Apple watch looks like the Apple watch. So you have to choose what you prefer. But our watch looks like a watch. Our watch is a very hard metal, titanium, grade two, super light. Our watch talks two languages. It talks to iOS and it talks to Android. I think the Apple watch only talks to Apple. So there are quite a number of advantages," he said.
    Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO of LVMH, echoed Biver, touting the classic look of the smartwatch.
    "We are going to do a watch. We are not going to do a computer. And even if we have a computer inside, it's a real watch."
    Customers can also swap their smartwatch for a mechanical watch at the end of the two-year warranty period if they pay another $1,500, encouraging what the traditional industry hopes will be a trend among young smartwatch wearers to buy "real" timepieces as they mature.
    David Singleton, the Vice President of Engineering for Android at Google detailed some of the functions of the smartwatch.
    "With Android Wear, we are using the best of Google's technologies to bring exactly this experience to the luxury watch. It's the power of Google Search - just a glance away, the ability to ask a question out loud and get an answer immediately and a global community of application developers that are working every single day to make your watch better."
    Makers of traditional Swiss watches have largely stayed on the sidelines of the emerging smartwatch market headed by the Apple Watch launched this year, with models ranging from $350 to $17,000 for an 18-karat gold model.
    But the industry needs a boost. Swiss watch exports posted the biggest drop since 2009 in the third quarter, with a 14.5 percent slip in the 200-500 franc category fueling concerns the Apple Watch might be taking market share.
    Bank Vontobel analysts in October forecast low to mid-market watches would be affected by sales of smartwatches and other wearable devices, and 30-50 percent of quartz watches would include some smartwatch features in the long term.
    Switzerland's biggest watchmaker, Swatch Group, has some connected products at its Swatch and Tissot brands, but has rejected making a "telephone" or "computer for the wrist," as Chief Executive Nick Hayek told a paper in August.
    The Tag Heuer Connected is, at least initially, being produced at Intel manufacturing sites. It comes without the coveted "Swiss Made" tag, but with the label "Intel Inside" and "Swiss Engineered" on the watch case.
    For now, the Tag Heuer smartwatch is only made for men, but Biver promised a watch for women.
    "We are still a man's watch dominantly, by 67 percent men. So we have started with our biggest community. And it was also a little bit easier to make a bigger watch, than to make a smaller watch."
    The partnership with Intel and Google was announced in March. Biver said the partners shared development costs, but gave no details.
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