Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer is creating a smartwatch in partnership with American technology firm Google. The watch is an attempt to compete with devices by consumer-electronics makers, particularly the much-hyped watch by Apple. While TAG is the first traditional watchmaker to pair with Google, the partnership could open the door to other collaborations with high-end brands owned by LVMH, including Hublot and Zenith. One of the questions raised by Apple’s $10,000 gold smartwatch is whether users will consider it a luxury item, and wear it for status as well as convenience.
TAG Heuer is a pretty big player in the classic, mechanical watch market, so this could be pretty big for both Google and classic watchmaking. Imagine a watch with a traditional, mechanical movement and a modern chip and display – stamped with that ever-important Swiss Made. A step closer to my ideal.
Unless it’s square, of course, because that would be tasteless.
Now, I hate watches. I do. But It might be an answer to the conundrum of a smart watch dying, if it just became a dumb watch after the battery was dead.
You just need a display that’s completely transparent when off. Maybe you could achieve that with mirrors and led projectors or something. So the traditional watch is always there, but only when a notification is received, or a button/gesture activated does the screen become present.
That would be cool. I wouldn’t buy it as watches are tools of the devil, but it would be cool.
That’s a great idea! Having a classic looking watch which can subtly project ‘smart’ functionality onto the glass as required would be sweet. I don’t wear a watch (because clocks are everywhere!) but I have inherited a classic Rolex which is nice to wear on special occasions. On these occasions, I would not want to wear something on my wrist that looks like a Star Trek toy.
That’s exactly what I say in the link
. That would be perfect.
Sorry about that. I read that article when it was first on the site. It must have seeped into my self conscious, lurking, waiting for me to forget where it came from, before emerging, brimming with self bravado and straight up moxie.
Hey dude/dudette, great minds think alike
.
Thom Holwerda, arbiter of good taste.
Well, I at least have more taste than Apple when it comes to watches.
Surprising, I know right.
On one hand, there’s no accounting for taste. On the other, it’s pretty well known outside of nerd circles that nerds generally have little taste, since taste is not a technical spec.
So it doesn’t bother me in the least when those who have taste (even understand what it is) discuss it and make judgments.
I was going to say something similar:
On the one hand, issues of taste are very subjective. On the other hand, nerds aren’t exactly known for having a good sense of taste. On the last hand, however, nerds are known to be quite different from the average person!
The iWatch was much cooler when it was just an iPod Nano on a strap.
The three versions is tasteless. Just do one version with three straps and all the bells and whistles, especially since it’s a 1st gen device.
Aside from those complaints, it is a good evolution of the design, and it nicely echos the designs of the iPhone and iPod touch.
Would I buy one? Probably not. It’s not utilitarian enough (Unix-like CLI fan here
), and I wear a watch to keep from looking at my phone all the time, even if it is a finicky vintage automatic.
I want a watch with a small physical QWERTY keypad (like the Nokia-E61/71/72/5/6 or BlackBerries) running Bash-shell with all the associated utilities. With Unix’s propensity for commands with only a few-letters it would work great with such a limited text-entry system.
(only half-joking!)
I tried out a Moto 360 over the xmas period. I came to the realisation that there’s so much of the screen that is cut off with a circular watch, when doing anything else than looking at the watch face to determine the time. I think I’d actually prefer a square screen on a smart watch.
It would be very interesting to see a G-Shock style smart watch, you could easily have a G-Shock style shell, with a mostly square screen.
That is the rub with smart watches that are attempting to mimic an analog watch dial, simply because people like Thom think that there is some immutable law of the cosmos that all watches must round because in the past, mechanical watches have been round. Having a round smart watch reduces the potential utility of the device for no reason other than to fit the form of something it isn’t: – a mechanical device with a fixed circular watch dial.
That’s the rub. You apparently want yet another beeping, buzzing, battery-sucking mini-PC strapped to your wrist. That’s great – be my guest! The square, geeky, and computery Apple Watch is perfect for you. If you love that sort of thing, that’s great!
I, however, do not want a tiny computer on my wrist. I want a watch thatalsohappenstosometimesshownotifications. I don’t want applications that are horrible to use because of the tiny screen with finnicky controls and clunky UIs. I want watch first, computer fourth or fifth. Current Android smartwatches and the Apple Watch are computer first, and watch fourth or fifth.
To me, if you see a scrollable list on a smartwatch, they blew it. I don’t want my watch to replace my phone – I want it to subtly augment it.
Edited 2015-03-19 16:00 UTC
“Imagine a watch with a traditional, mechanical movement and a modern chip and display – stamped with that ever-important Swiss Made”
You do realize Thom that Tag also make Quartz movement watches
Here’s a nice one for your girlfriend.
https://shop-us.tagheuer.com/en/diamond-dial-roman-numeral-bezel-29-…..
$22,500.00
A tad gaudy for my taste but at least it’s “Swiss made”.
Now, let’s see how mechanical watch lovers react to the concept of a mechanical watch with a chip and an electronic display.
Best of both world? Or bad compromise?
I’m predicting they won’t care, and will continue to by mechanical/automatic watches because that is what they want.
Mechanical watches are little more than jewellery for conservative men. The time telling function is essentially irrelevant.
Exactly.
Smart watches offer them nothing.
With that being said. Mechanical/automatic watches are much cooler, and they don’t need batteries.
I think it’s a good idea, IF they can do one thing, use the mechanical part charge the battery, that would alleviate one of the major bug bears of owning a smart-watch.
I’m imagining a world were you get up in the morning and a nice robot tells me “hello sir, our records show you did not sleep well last night and your alcohol level is way up. A medic is already on the way”
Now looking at how things evolve, I do think that they are really into making this reality which is kind of scary.
I don’t have anything against technology if it’s used for common sense (happy owner of fitbit bracelet here), but putting technology in a place where people usually go with fashion items and generally disregard IT as being too much geeky is not a good idea.
I don’t get why companies don’t invest more in this type of products (smart devices that can alert you if you may have a health problem or a car system that alerts you if a crash is imminent, etc).
The only thing they care now, as far as I can see if bind people with money to their platform so that they can earn more profit.
Bottom line is that if the price is correct and the device really helps you then it’s a step forward in the right direction.
Intel is the more interesting player in this, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were the ones who originated this idea.
Tag Huer is a well known luxury brand, and if Intel can link luxury and their IoT/wearable platform together, that would be a marketing coup for them. ARM would be the more plebeian option of the two platforms, and Intel would be upper-class.
I’m predicting more of the same, except with Intel Edison guts instead of ARM.
You say that square smartwatches are tasteless and that you can better have them round so that analog time is better displayed. I prefer *digital* time instead, and so many others do. Look at the U Watch U8. A nicely sized, stylish, digital watch
I find it kind of ironic that the watch killer is now turning into a watch itself. Being 30 years old I sort of missed the watch era and never liked watches on my hand. It always felt odd when I was a kid and then the phones came and I was free. I still don’t get why people buy watches in this age and I’m even more confused on why we’d want this thing to display too much data on too small displays.
Edited 2015-03-19 20:20 UTC
I grew up without watches, but have recently taken to wearing one. A few reasons…
I’ve taken to liking them, in the same way I like classic cameras or pens.
I was sick of delving into my pocket every time I wanted to know the time.
I wanted to know the time when I didn’t have my phone, like when I’m swimming.
For the first few days it felt odd having something attached to my wrist, but now it feels odd without it, it becomes normal very quickly.
TAG Heuer and Google and Intel, and Will.i.am and Gucci announce tired and irrelevant me too watch projects with zero detail on same day?The panic is profound I think. I wonder if the smart watch market after Apple Watch might look like the music player market after iPod?
Android Wear has been on the market for a long time now. Your comment makes zero sense.
Android wear has been a failure. All Android wear devices will be outsold by the Apple Watch within two to three weeks of it going on sale. The traditional watch industry is in a panic. All watches under a $1000 will be forced to go smart. Hence the panic. Look for more promises, with no details, as scrambled together partnerships try, and almost certainly fail, to come up in a hurry with a viable and fully featured alternative wearable platform.
The “phone” is an app on the iPhone.
The “watch” is an app on the Apple Watch.
This is about new platforms.
TAG Heuer has zero credibility amongst watch afficionados. It is considered a tacky overpriced brand for wannabes.
Yep.
Middle management is filled with wannabes who will latch on to the Intel == luxury narrative, since they don’t know any better.
I only have 4 now, another one is just what I need.
Can’t wait for implants, I’m going to replace my brain, it has been only getting in the way lately.
“Imagine a watch with a traditional, mechanical movement and a modern chip and display – stamped with that ever-important Swiss Made”
You do realize Thom that Tag also make Quartz movement watches
Here’s a nice one for your girlfriend.
https://shop-us.tagheuer.com/en/diamond-dial-roman-numeral-bezel-29-…
$22,500.00
A tad gaudy for my taste but at least it’s “Swiss made”.
I fully expect that, looking back in 10-20 years, the iWatch will stand out as the moment when Apple officially jumped the shark – the “Pippin” of the 2010s, if you will. Whatever other (numerous, varied) criticisms can made of Apple, they have at least been able to foster the perception of novelty with their new products. But the iWatch has even less to differentiate it from pre-existing competitors than the first iPhone did – it doesn’t look all that nice either, even by the form-over-function aesthetics of Apple products. Right off the bat, those are two major nails in the iWatch’s coffin.
The whole promotion efforts behind the iWatch have an air desperation to them as well. The iWatch is little more than a glorified iPhone accessory – compared to Apple’s previous “Next Big Thing” products, this gives the impression that Apple is now content to just sit on their hands and sell ever-thinner slices of the same old pie. In other words: the only way the iWatch is a keynote-worthy product is if you have nothing else of note in the pipeline; hyping it as heavily as Apple has is the marketing equivalent of damning yourself with faint praise.
None of which is terribly surprising, given that Apple has essentially become the Tom Jones of the technology world: serial one-hit-wonders that resurface every decade or so, then spend the intervening years coasting off their past successes.
Edited 2015-03-20 19:12 UTC
Imagine a watch with a traditional, mechanical movement and a modern chip and display
Imagine a car that can carry a couple horses on the back. When it runs out of gas you just strap the horses to the front and it’s a carriage! Best of both worlds I think plus you can continue to show that you are wealthy enough to own horses while motoring around like the common businessman.
Edited 2015-03-23 04:27 UTC