Horological Meandering

www.engadget.com
Any comments?



Source : Engadget

This is really a tumultuous time.  But I really think the Swiss Watch industry will find this to be even more difficult to survive than the Quartz crisis.  

NT

The Swiss watch industry will be in for a big awakening in my opinion.  

As George Santayana once stated: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".

I hope that the Swiss industry don't try to repeat the same mistake that they made during the quartz watch times, trying to compete with Japan.

Smart watches will have a large public, just like the quartz has, but the mechanical ones will survive because they are on a complete distinct market.

It will impact only the cheap (quartz and Swatches) pieces but I don't see any change (besides a much needed stop on the price increases) on the mechanical arena.

As any forecast, I'm bound to eat my words but that's what I believe at this moment.

HAGWE,

Nilo

Just saw your reply after posting mine but I think the same

Cheers, Mark

In my line of business, not watch related, I'm always amazed by the number of times that a mistake is made, just by ignoring the past.

Another example that I always use is related to smartphones:

Blackberry started this business and ignored the facilities of the touch devices.

All others (Apple / Google) made their email software ignoring the fact, that Blackberry was very aware, that they are not the primary email.

Life is interesting.

Cheers,

Nilo

I was very closely looking at the Apple watch this week as I like their design, the fact it is new, maybe useful and the fact I like Apple

But they'll never compete with a mechanical watch as long as the owner is interested by their history or engineering.

The competition may though be tougher in the <1000$ watch market (and evenmore so in the quartz market).

Frederic Constant is showing we can start to mix classic gold watches with smartwatches but a mechanical movement (functioning and finishing) are not competing in the same field.

I think I'll buy an Apple watch (or maybe 2nd generation because of autonomy issues with the 1st gen.), but they'll never replace my mech. watches as they don't provide the same things.

We'll see many new competitors to the link you shared (Withings etc...). Exciting period

Cheers, Mark

I agree smartwatches will never be the same as mechanical wonder but it is very likely the smartwatches will one day evolve into something you can't live without. There are just so many possibilities of what it can do.

I agree with you Tom.

The more I think about them and the more I'm convinced it will take an important place in our lives: gps, sms, payment etc...

and so much to come we don't think of today.

I'll definitely have a smartwatch one day.

Cheers, Mark

I have said for some time that it will be a matter of "real estate"; once it becomes ubiquitous, most might not have a choice.
Perhaps "double wristed" will be a trend? Pocket watches? Maybe we will see wrist to pocket watch conversions! (",)
In any case, it bears repeating that the watch itself jumped out of the pocket onto the wrist and has stubbornly refused to budge; there's no reason to think that phones will not do the same...

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Take a look here:

What must be considered when evaluating the push by Apple, Google, etc into the watch arena and the ensuing threat to all incumbent manufacturers, is whether the smart device in wrist watch form is just the next phase in the evolution of smart devices.