Dive Brief:
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Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer is working with Google and Intel to develop a luxury connected watch to be launched by the end of this year that could take on the Apple Watch, the companies said Thursday.
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TAG Heuer’s in charge of design and manufacture of the watch, Intel is providing an SoC platform, and Google is offering its Android Wear platform and software development.
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Other Swiss watchmakers, Swatch, Breitling, Montblanc, and Frederique Constant, have stepped up their work on wearables as Apple has pushed consumers' expectations of their use beyond fitness.
Dive Insight:
Apple’s conspicuous entry into luxury watches with the announcement that it will offer a $10,000 gold Apple Watch has clearly caught the attention of upscale watchmakers. Google Android Wear development chief David Singleton noted yesterday at the Baselworld watch expo, where the companies announced their collaboration, that the watch has “always been a marriage of beauty and utility. We’re going to do that with our partnership.”
And despite the waves that Apple has been making through various announcements and an ad campaign that teases its Apple Watch and has been ramping up expectations, LVMH watches chief Jean-Claude Bive made it clear that the upscale European company isn’t ready to cede much ground to them.
"The difference between the TAG Heuer watch and the Apple Watch is very important," Biver said. "That one is called Apple and this one is called TAG Heuer."
