Prior to the release of the Apple Watch this year, people were predicting a crash in Swiss watch sales. Baselworld was positioned as the Swiss response to the Apple watch as people feared the consequences of the “Apple Factor” enticing customers away from traditional Swiss watch brands. Parallels were drawn with the “Quartz Crisis” of the 1970’s which forced numerous Swiss manufacturers out of business thanks to new, cheaper, more accurate quartz-powered timepieces from Asia.
The reason this was feared was because Swiss uptake of the idea of smartwatches was incredibly slow. They were beaten to the punch by Samsung, Sony, Motorola, LG and a whole host of small Chinese companies. Of course, none of these companies were likely to entice buyers away from the luxury Swiss brands in the way that Apple theoretically could, thanks to their image as a manufacturer of high-quality luxurious goods. But the delay left a gap in the market which Apple had ample time to take advantage of.
Baselworld did nothing to shake the impression that Apple were going to decimate the Swiss watch market. Announcements of the Swiss Horological Smartwatches from Mondaine, Frederique Constant and Alpina were made in the weeks prior to the event. TAG Hauer also announced a deal with Android Wear to bring a competing device to market at Baselworld. Unfortunately none of these devices were going to hit shelves prior to the Apple Watch – giving Apple a free shot at watch enthusiasts looking for something a little more smart.
Unfortunately for Apple, the expected impact on the Swiss watch market doesn’t appear to have happened and, according to a report Business Insider – it isn’t expected to happen any time soon. This left the prediction of Jonathan Ive, Apple’s design chief, that Swiss watch manufacturers were going to be in “trouble” (according to the New York Times, he chose a “much bolder term than trouble to describe the predicament that Swiss watchmakers would find themselves in”) after the release of the Apple Watch, looking very hollow indeed.
The predicted drop off in sales from Apple 2014 to 2015 never materialised and sales of Swiss watches have actually increased in the United States and in China, places you would expect to be first to adopt the new Apple technology. While there’s still a possibility that sales could start to drop off, most manufacturers are confident that it won’t happen, especially now that the initial “buzz” around the Apple Watch has begun to die off.
As reported in our round up of early Apple Watch reviews, the steep learning curve around the new features on the Apple Watch seem to have scared off the kind of customers who want to be able to do a little more, but don’t really fancy carrying a computer around on their wrist. Fears of poor battery life don’t seem to have helped the Apple Watch cause, either, with customers who primarily use a watch to, you know, tell the time! Never mind the embarrassing day one faults which caused people with tattoos on their wrist to wonder whether there really was an “Apple Watch for everybody” or if “everybody” just didn’t include them.
This doesn’t mean that the Apple Watch hasn’t been a huge success, or that their isn’t a market for the Apple Watch. They sold a third more Apple Watches on launch day than their direct competitor in the smartwatch market, Android Wear, did in the whole of 2014. But it appears that the smartwatch market and the luxury watch market don’t overlap in the way that was being predicted prior to the big release.
In fact, Apple’s decision to step into the smartwatch market and open it up to people who want something a little more luxurious, rather than just cool new technology, could be a blessing in disguise for brands like Mondaine, Alpine and Tag Hauer prior to their big releases later in the year. Apple have shed a spotlight on what a smartwatch can do and have made it desirable to the general public in the same way that they made MP3 players desirable with the iPod and smartwatches desirable with the iPhone.
Whether other manufacturers can take advantage of Apple’s work in the way that Android took advantage of Apple’s entrance into smartphones in order to take the lions share of the smartphone market remains to be seen. What is looking likely, howeever, is that the war of the smartwatches will be completely separate to the war of the luxury watch brands which will be very good news indeed over in Switzerland!
Images: Shinya Suzuki
