Fossil CEO: Wearables Smothering Swiss Watch Business

itwbennett writes: I think technology and the whole idea of wearables ... has taken some of the oxygen out of the Swiss business,' Fossil CEO Kosta Kartsotis told analysts on a call to discuss the watch maker's second quarter results. These new competitors, along with other factors like a strong U.S. dollar, contributed to Fossil's quarterly revenue decline, Kartsotis said. Last week, a report from market research firm NPD Group claimed the Apple Watch was partially behind the largest slump in U.S. watch sales since 2008.

Comments

Slump?

[plover]

"Last week, a report from market research firm NPD Group claimed the Apple Watch was partially behind the largest slump in U.S. watch sales since 2008." And according to the article, "Retailers sold $375 million of watches during the month, 11 percent less than in June 2014 ... a 14% decline in unit sales."

Put another way, the Apple Watch led the US in the largest sales boost in watch history, with an estimated $4 billion in sales so far.

It's almost impossible to feel bad for someone who produces such a clearly inferior product get handed their asses when the competition arrives. If Fossil had been producing watches people really wanted, part of that $4 billion would have been theirs.

Way to sensationalize!

[perryizgr8]

So now "taken some oxygen out" is the same as "smothering"? LOL! Smart watches are a fad, like tablets. People with money to burn want authentic watches, not expensive toys that need to be charged every other day and get fucked by software updates.

Re: Way to sensationalize!

[gstoddart]

Tablets are so much a fad that they're killing your beloved computers left and right. While you're rocking back and forth in a corner murmuring to yourself that all will be well, the world is being changed around you. The choice is yours: ride the change or be pushed away.

Rubbish. Complete fucking rubbish.

Despite the breathless anticipation of marketing wankers, futurists, and prognosticators ... remarkably little will change in the long run, in the short run there will be change.

There will continue to be desktops. Tablets are here to stay. The Apple watch isn't competing with the traditional watch, no matter what anybody tells you, it's a short term blip as a certain kind of consumer buys different things. Not everybody wants a smart watch, and buying a tablet doesn't mean you don't need a PC.

And then things will settle out, people will still buy traditional watches, the niche market for smart watches will continue to be a niche, and the world will have ultimately changed not as much as you think, nobody will have been pushed away, and you'll still be an idiot who thinks the world actually changes with every new piece of technology.

Trends and fads are, in the end, are just that. In the long run, actual watches will still exist ... and the clueless idiots who either haven't been around long enough, or are paid to tell us what they think the future will be, will discover that just because some fool says we'll all be doing something in a few years doesn't bloody well make it true. Because it never has.

So you'll excuse me if I think your breathless belief that the world has fundamentally changed due to the existence of an Apple watch is the breathless gibberish of someone who hasn't been around technology long enough to know the difference between long term and shot term trends.

Talk to us in 2, 5, 10, or 25 years, and we might take any of this seriously. Until then, this is pink sweat-pants which say "Baby Phat" on the ass -- a mere fucking blip. A trend in style, not a fundamental shift in society.

The Apple watch, or any smart watch, has yet to prove anything other than, for the time being, hipsters are interested in it. Thankfully, long term trends are seldom defined by hipsters, as much as they like to think otherwise.

And then the rest of the world will carry on with normal life.