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Japanese and Swiss Watchmakers Scoff At Smartwatches
jfruh (300774) writes "With rumors swirling about Apple entering the wearable space with an iWatch, you'd think that the Japanese and Swiss companies that have dominated high-end watchmaking for more than a century would be scrambling to catch up. But there were virtually no smartwatches on display at the Baselworld trade fair, and the watchmaking giants had no plans to produce any. Company representatives seemed sure that people in practice would be uninterested in constantly recharging their watches and downloading software updates just to tell time."
...how that attitude worked out for them.
10 years from now there won't be watches without some sort of connectivity except for specialty pieces designed from the outset to satisfy luddites.
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Company representatives seemed sure that people in practice would be uninterested in constantly recharging their watches and downloading software updates just to tell time.
I think that for most users they are right for now. But when a smart-watch can be charged weekly or have battery changes annually it will be a different story,
There are two markets:
One -- served by commodity electronics -- watches that do something useful.
The other -- served by high-end, hand-made jewellery that don't actually function all that well as watches. For richarses with more dollars than sense, who want to show off.
This is like comparing apples and oranges.
Im waiting for the 1k year battery that will power my smart watch long past my death. Is probably in the glove-box of my flying car.
K
--- I was far from home, and the spell of the Eastern sea was upon me. -Lovecraft-
The problem with that assumption is that a watch isn't a timepiece. At least upscale watches aren't timepieces, exactly. They're principally jewelry. And much like Rolex never made a calculator watch, don't expect them to make a smart watch either. In any event, I don't see much advantage to being an early adopter in this space. Their customers aren't banging down the door asking for a smart watch. The people I know who have smart watches so far are not your typical watch customer.
I wear a watch 1) to tell time and 2) as a piece of jewelry. Besides a wedding ring it's about the only piece of jewelry a guy can wear, and if you buy something nice (I have an Ebel Brasilia) it'll last forever, retain its value, and you can pass it on to your kids as a family heirloom.
That's the target market for luxury watchmakers. A smart watch is never going to compete with watches worn as jewelry.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
did a little googling - turns out that people actually used to pay money for a single-purpose device that was advertised as keeping time but had no ntp support & left a tan line! they were apparently popular when it was fashionable to navigate with floating magnets, capture images with chemically coated strips of plastic and listen to music stored on removable media.
But there were virtually no smartwatches on display at the Baselworld trade fair, and the watchmaking giants had no plans to produce any.
That's because they understand that good taste never goes out of style.
You mean like an iPhone? I agee. That'll never work.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Just as there are certain types of "Audiophiles" (for better or worse and they do not all exhibit the same amount of ...), there are also Watchphiles too. They hang out at sites like http://www.watchismo.com/ . Watches are highly individualistic time peices. I see lots of people foregoing the watch because their smartphone has the time. There will be some culling of the lower tier watches that don't adapt but their will always be room for the "classic time piece" e.g. there's still a market for pocket watches.
Beware of those who profit off the docile and persecute the unbelievers.
While I agree that watches have their own niche, I don't think any of them believe that their timepieces are more accurate than other devices, so audiophiles are probably not the best point of comparison.
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How much smart device redundancy do you need on your person at any given time? I think my phone is enough, especially given Its huge screen and larger battery. No reason to compromise my watch with a battery life hundreds of times shorter just to have it do crap my phone already does.
It's far easier for a computer company to create computers that strap to your wrist than it is for a watch company to create watches with computer functionality. Besides there's no real risk of being "locked out" of the market. Plenty of cross-licensing/design/development opportunities will be available if smartwatches ever become a thing.
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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Bullshit. Not everybody wants a smart watch. That doesn't make you a luddite ... you may in fact be a fan of time pieces.
I have a couple of skeleton watches, meaning you can see through the watch face to the actual gears and mechanical bits of the watch.
The aesthetics of the watch itself is the point. Just because someone doesn't feel the need to use every shiny bauble and gew gaw the tech industry comes up with doesn't make them a luddite.
I'm completely surrounded by electronics and technology already, and I don't see a smart watch as being something I'm particularly interested in. In fact, it's something I can't see the point of for me ... I don't text enough to need to have it constantly attached to me, any more than I can't be away from my phone (which I refuse to buy a data plan for, because wifi covers my needs). I also don't need Apple (or whoever) to be able to track every little I thing I do throughout my day.
If you think the big name watch makers all need to get on board with this or die, you're overly fetishizing technology. There will always be a market for mechanical watches. You really think suddenly nobody is going to want to own a Rolex because there exist smartwatches? If you do, you don't know anything about people who buy watches.
Some people still have plain old-fashioned analog sex too, and haven't embraced teledildonics. And, thankfully, most of us never will.
For many of us, technology is a tool, but not the be all and end all of our existence. Knowing when to draw the line and walk away from it doesn't make you a luddite, it means you have a better perspective on shit that really matters.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Same with fountain pens. People by fountain pens because it is a sign of class and status, same is with watches.
I really think 'it depends.' I'm Gen-X and have an Omega Seamaster on my wrist. I've worn it nearly every day for nearly a decade (don't wear it when I'm travelling to some destinations - Then it's my Timex.) I like wearing a nice analog watch, but then I iron my shirts and don't wear runners outside of the gym either. I think there will always be a market for people like me, the question is whether that market will die off as my generation dies off...
For my 40th birthday, my wife gave me a Tag Heuer chronograph (day, date, with stopwatch indicators for seconds, minutes and hours). I had been a long-time wearer of a digital watch, in fact I still wore the same Timex digital watch I bought at at Target in 1986 when I got this watch.
I'm not sure what "don't function all that well" means. About the only timekeeping weaknesses this watch has is that it is prone to run a little slow, needing to be moved ahead a minute or so every month, the date needs to be set when leaving a month with less than 31 days and of course DST adjustments.
Beyond that, it's a great timepiece. It's self-winding, so it never needs batteries. Waterproof to 300 meters. The sapphire crystal is totally clear and free of scratches. The stopwatch is handy for cooking or whatever simple timing needs I have.
Now, serious watch people tell me this really isn't a "serious" watch from a jewelry perspective, but it was $2300 when I got it and I don't think I'd want a more "serious" watch than this for the kind of money those sorts of watches go for.
Corded phones didn't cost $350 - $500 either.
$350-$500 puts you into the range of cheap trash and knock-off timepieces. Try adding a zero. Or two.
I'm a geek, and I've got a Pebble that I wear fairly regularly. But the watch I wear when I want to dress up a bit (or when I get tired of the cheesy plastic smart watch) is a Tag Heurer with an automatic movement. The Pebble is neat, and has IMHO the right balance of features and price. But it has no soul.
Same with fountain pens. People by fountain pens because it is a sign of class and status, same is with watches.
I don't care about class or status, I wear a wristwatch for 2 reasons:
1) I've always worn one, and I feel kind of naked without it
2) "remove phone from pocket/turn on screen/twist body to shield screen from sun/read time" seems like a huge waste of time and effort, compared to "twist wrist/read time"
OK, 3 reasons:
3) my kinetic (ie self-winding) windup watch will always be able to tell the time, so long as I keep it wound and don't break it.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
While I agree that watches have their own niche, I don't think any of them believe that their timepieces are more accurate than other devices, so audiophiles are probably not the best point of comparison.
At least, not until Monster starts making oxygen-free watch bodies with 24k gold connectors.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
... and because they are very nice tools when writing. Mine has a plastic handle, cost somewhere between 10 and 20 € and does not look like much, but it does help making my handwriting somewhat legible, and enables me to keep writing for a while without fatigue.
Sure you can get super-expensive fancy fontain pens which are 90% status symbols - as you can with phones, cars, clothes, and practically everything else - but that doesn't mean that all fountain pens are just status symbols.
I agree. When I write anything of significant length which, I'll have to admit, doesn't happen as much as it used to, I prefer one of my fountain pens. They're attractive and different, but mostly I just like the way they write. Neither one of them was very expensive.
Then I assume you live in a cave.
I have about 50+ watches, and, oddly enough, their function is to tell time. Yes, they're obviously also jewelry/fashion, but they are used to tell time. All of my watches can also go swimming with me, and most of my watches are up for some pretty rough service. Show me a smart watch rated for 200m of water depth, or one which is as rugged as my G-Shock watches, and I might consider it. For now, they're expensive, gimmicky, fragile, and of limited use. I can hear my cell phone if I get a text, I don't need to see it on my watch.
I wear my watches far more often than I carry my cell phone.
Then you have a very small sample size. I own a smart phone, but I don't have a data plan for it. I don't keep it attached to me 24/7, nor do I want to.
I view the smart watch as the updated version of the calculator watch ... a very nerdy accessory, but not something most people have any interest in.
Again, what?
My tablet is far less hassle than my laptop, and when I travel I no longer bring my laptop most of the time. I can get into my company VPN with my tablet, I can pull out my tablet in a lot of places that a laptop would be a bloody nuisance, and I can go through airport security with my tablet without taking it out of the bag. I wouldn't want to do all of my work on my tablet, but for checking on my email when I'm travelling, it's far far more convenient.
I view a laptop as a necessary evil, but a tablet as a far more convenient thing most of the time.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Wow, classic.
Excuse making to avoid the real issue. You are vain and strive to so things you think other will think you are special and different.
How often are you at 200 meter below the surface of the ocean? and wearing anon specialty diving watch? I would bet...never.
They are simply a jewelry piece, no different then a large pinky ring.
If time was the only concern, you wouldn't own 50 of them.
That said, fine you like to collect watches. I don't have an issue with that, but stop making excuses in order to make yourself feel like you are better then everyone else.
Smart watches are coming, in some variety. In the end, they will be far superior then a standard watch.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Digital synths are cool but analog synths overheat, hence the "warm" sound?
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anything intelligent to add, I might listen.
This from the man (I presume) who just mentioned 200m water resistance.
If you are a scuba diver
50 watches ? You have money to burn. If you are a good example of a wristwatch owner, then you are cast iron evidence of what a non-digital watch is - jewellery.
There is a warmth to the time on an analog time piece.
Hello fellow fountain pen heads! I don't like to write with a ball point - too much resistance on the page.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/21/palms-ed-colligan-laughs-off-iphone/
"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone, PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."
How did that work out?
Cool. My mechanical watch gains about 5 minutes per day, so it must be the real deal then. BTW, I always know exactly what time it is. It is my subordinates that are always late for my meetings. The bloody slackers...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Oh how I wish it were that simple. Seriously, I do. Unfortunately direct testing has shown that to not be the case, particularly with people in a hurry, and people in a hospital, well they're always in a hurry.
Just another ignorant American.
You might just be joking around but the day I attribute a level of soul to an inanimate object is the day I start looking for mine.
The price of vanity has never been cheap.
Yup. And the cheap ballpoints have a habbit of making it hard to change the direction of the stroke, making my handwriting look like runes (mostly straight angles).