Market
25 November 2014 The BBC reported that " Luxury-watchmakers are cracking down on the growing trend of copying traditional watch-faces on to smart devices." Brands including Omega, Fossil and Cartier are sending cease-and-desist notices to websites offering their watch-face designs for download. Many
Brands including Omega, Fossil and Cartier are sending cease-and-desist notices to websites offering their watch-face designs for download. Many smart-watches offer users the chance to customise the design.
Smart-watches are available from a range of firms including Samsung, Sony and LG. Next year Apple will launch a version.
Richemont - the company behind brands such as Cartier IWC and Panerai - has lodged notices against watch-face sites citing breaches of its trademark rights.
"We prefer to never comment on trademark protection issues," Richemont told the BBC.
SWATCH-owned Omega did not respond to requests for comment either.
Discuss.....
MTF
This message has been edited by MTF on 2014-11-26 07:45:12
..Then they should have software installed so you can design your own watchface or dial layout without infringing on anyone's existing design! I might use Omega's dial layouts as inspiration, for example, but then I would want to tweak it so it becomes more personal. I hate it when someone looks at a watch and says "That looks just like a Rolex" or something like that. Uniqueness! Give me the unique, voila! : )
jedimaster99 I'm not into 'smart' watches so I'm no expert. From what I've gleaned, all such watches allow downloads of dial customised "faces" and there were websites offering such copies of famous watch models. I believe this was a "unique selling point" for such electronic watches. Apart from having to rely on Bluetooth link to the real timing module on the associated "smart phone", the wrist-worn device encouraged you to change your watch face whenever desired. You could "wear" a Rolex one d
I would see this as a golden opportunity to license any and every dial design I could dream of to the various smart watch manufacturers. And I would replace the usual "Automatic" on the dial with "Smartwatch". Cheers, -- RWK
To mimic something is some sort oh homage. "Imitation is the sincerest [form] of flattery". Charles Caleb Colton (1780–1832) English cleric, writer and collector. It's a lost battle because any young geek can create those "faces". By and large, a person that carries a copycat wants to have the real deal. Cheers, Nilo
...join 'em. In other words: the major companies may have a fighting chance of preventing major known sites from distributing knock-off images/files of their brands/designs. But to think that they can really control this new market would seem to me foolhardy; the proscribed files will just turn up on torrent or other more shadowy parts of the internet and continue to spread like wildfire. And the independents would have to spent inordinate amounts of time and money trying to deal with the issue.
Esharp Thanks for your comments. The brands legal action was not against the Internet but specifically aimed at protecting design property. If the electronic watches are going to be successful, it should be because of their own beautiful faces rather than copies of Rolex or Cartier. If real watch faces are desirable, then they must have Value. Taking that Value is theft. Why else would they be popular 'smart' watches? If the reason is because of the ability to use real watch faces, then the 'sma
This thread is active on the Horological Meandering forum with 8 replies. Share your knowledge with fellow collectors.
Join the Discussion →
