TAG Heuer and Intel Partner to Bring a Luxury Android Smartwatch to Rival Apple Watch
Swiss luxury watchmaker TAG Heuer has partnered with Intel Corporation and Google, Inc. to bring a luxury smartwatch that is said to rival the Apple Watch. The announcement was big news during the 2015 Baselworld Watch Fair.
TAG Heuer will create a smartwatch version of its Carrera watch powered by Intel wearable technology and operating on Google's Android mobile operating system, which it plans to launch in the fourth quarter of 2015. According to a report in Forbes, Tag Heuer's move to jump in the smartwatch race is primarily because of the expected impact of the release of the Apple Watch on the luxury watch market.
Luxury brands like TAG Heuer, Tissot and Omega may find themselves some competition especially with the Apple Watch's 18-karat gold model. The report also cites a JP Morgan estimate that "33 percent of the Swatch Group's profit is exposed to Apple's smartwatch threat."
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Not much is known about what the smartwatch will look like or how much it will cost, but the Forbes report says that it will carry most of the functions that an Apple watch offers such as geolocation, distance walked and altitude.
TAG Heuer's Chief Executive Jean-Claude Biver told The New York Times that "the smartwatch is in keeping with an industry built on intricate mechanical timepieces." He also declared that instead of the new smartwatch competing with other traditional timepieces such as chronographs, it should be marketed in a way that it attracts a younger set of consumers who are "excited to dress up their wrists."
Intel Corporation on the other hand believes that wearable technology "will take off." The company has partnered with other consumer brands to create different types of wearable technologies from sunglasses to watches.
Other luxury brands seem to be following suit. Breitling already has a prototype called B55 Connected that can connect to an iPhone and has smartwatch functions. Gucci announced that it will develop a smartband with i.am with smartwatch functions as well.
