The chief executive of watchmaking corporation Swatch has dismissed the Apple Watch as an “interesting toy”, as he set out the company’s smartwatch plans.
Nick Hayek Jr said that later this year Swatch will sell smartwatches that last nine months per battery. The company launched its first smartwatch in 2003 in partnership with Microsoft, and have sold connected watches since 1996.
In an interview with Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, Hayek Jr said: “The Apple watch is an interesting toy, but not a revolution.”
“These devices, which all eat so much power that they last no longer than 24 hours without needing to be plugged in. In addition, the user immediately loses control of their data. I personally don’t want my blood pressure and blood sugar values stored in the cloud, or on servers in Silicon Valley.”
Having moved away from smartwatches in the 00s, Swatch is approaching the category with a watch-first strategy, according to Hayek Jr, who said the company’s watches would start at 150 Swiss francs (£101) and would be water resistant, similar to its current Swatches.
Hayek Jr said: “We will bring a watch to market this year that acts as an alternative to the credit card, using near field communication. The technology works, we’re just finalising details with our partners from the credit card industry. The watch can be used for access control.”
Swatch will not produce health-tracking watches, however, as Hayek Jr is adamant that as a “watch producer, I cannot accept the responsibility of whether my device warns a customer in time before a heart attack”.
Hayek Jr said that TAG Heuer’s partnership with Google and Intel for a smartwatch was a “a mystery to me” and that he regrets “that for a company with a long Swiss tradition, TAG-Heuer owner LVMH is apparently not willing to invest in Switzerland in the work place.”
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