Barely a few months after dismissing Apple’s smartwatch, the new chief
executive of luxury Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer conceded Tuesday that such a
hi-tech gadget might after all have a place in his firm’s line-up.
“Initially, we were all a bit reticent,” Jean-Claude Biver told reporters
in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the Swiss city at the centre of the watchmaking
industry. But he insisted that any new technology would not dilute the
company’s reputation for making luxury goods that last.
“We will only make smartwatches if we are the best, different and unique,”
he said. Biver, an industry legend who leads the watch division of Tag
Heuer’s owners LVMH, was appointed to head the Swiss brand on an interim
basis last week following the departure of Stephane Linder.
He refused to divulge what Tag Heuer was planning, but said it would divide
its research and development department so that one side could focus on
technological innovation. Any smartwatch would have to be developed through
a partnership, perhaps with a university or a specialist firm.
Company vice-president Guy Semon would not be drawn on whether such a
project might include a deal with a big US technology groups such as Google
or Intel.”We’re casting a wide net and looking at very big companies,” said
Semon, who was formerly head of Tag Heuer’s research and development.
He added that he viewed smartwatches as a bigger challenge than the
introduction of quartz watches in the 1970s, a development which plunged
Swiss watchmaking into a major crisis.
Tag Heuer is already undergoing changes. In September, the company laid off
46 Swiss employees and another 49 had their contracts suspended because of
sluggish sales.
The firm said it wanted to concentrate on its core business, scrapping
products such as telephones and accessories, although maintaining its line
of sunglasses. When the Apple Watch was unveiled in September, Biver
insisted it would have no impact on the high end of the watch industry.
“Luxury is eternal, it is perennial. It is not something that becomes
worthless after five years,” he had said. (AFP)
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