The Apple Watch has been officially launched on March 9 by the American tech giant but the smartwach has yet to make it to the retail markets as of this time. It is likely that it would start going on sale towards the end of this month or early in April.
The lull between the Apple Watch launching and its official roll out to the retail markets is all that Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer needs to give the highly-touted Apple smartwatch a serious run for the consumers money.
Some 10 days after the launching of the Apple Watch, Tag Heuer will also be launching the digital version of its iconic original black Carrera watch that now contains features found in most smartwatches available in the market today.
Banking on the partnership
What makes Tag Heuer confident of competing head-on with the Apple Watch is the fact that in coming out with its own smartwatch, the Swiss watchmaker has gotten a major boost from the partnership with Intel to develop the processor needed to produce its own version of an intelligent wearable.
It’s not actually Tag Heuer which forged the tie-up with Intel but its parent company LVMH. As a result, a digitally-enhanced version of the original black Carrera was developed which still resembles the non-digital edition of the watch, only this time, it is already capable of tracking geolocation, the distance walked by its wearer from a certain point to another point, and also the current altitude of the wearer’s current location.
Reports have it that Google also had something to do with the development of the watch but Google has yet to make an announcement to confirm or deny those information going around.
Made in Switzerland and the US
Jean-Claude Biver, CEO of Tag Heuer, disclosed that the overall watch device is being manufactured in Switzerland but the chips, apps, and other components to make it a digital smartwatch are all being done in Silicon Valley.
The Tag Heuer CEO says that Apple will be able to convince young people to wearing a watch but later on, these same young people will eventually realize that they really need to buy a real watch.
Analysts have been projecting massive sales for the Apple Watch, particularly those in the luxury market, but Biver is confident that Tag Heuer can pretty much hold its own against the Cupertino-based tech company.
In an earlier interview, Biver was also quoted as saying that the Apple Watch appears like it was designed by a student in his first trimester in college, which shows how he looks down on Apple and its products.
Tag Heuer has yet to officially announce the price and release date of its smartwatch but one thing is already sure, it is bent on giving the Apple Watch a run for the money.