Smart watches may be huge now, but they can’t do everything, says Su Jia Xian, who suggests a double solution.
Smart watches may be huge now, but they can’t do everything, says Su Jia Xian, who suggests a double solution.
SU JIA XIAN
Independent watch journalist, industry observer and collector www.watchesbysjx.com.
Smartwatches are all the rage, conceived to allow us to do more – think reading e-mail, being on the treadmill, and monitoring one’s heart rate, all at the same time. While Apple owns most of the smartwatch market, plenty of others are trying to get in on the game, even Swiss watchmakers.
Most of those that have unveiled such watches are, in keeping with their traditional watch business, positioning themselves as makers of premium or even luxe smartwatches. Most recently, in November last year, it was Tag Heuer’s turn. Running on Google’s Android platform, the Tag Heuer smartwatch does most of the things the Apple Watch does, even a little bit more.
It also costs more, priced at three times the price of the basic Apple Watch. Yet, it has sold surprisingly well, becoming 2015’s best-selling model for the brand, after just two months of being on sale. The drawback with feature-filled smartwatches is that they can be intrusive, and even annoying, if alerts aren’t customised to filter out the inessential.
For many casual smartwatch users, it can also take longer to dictate a text message reply to a watch, than it does to type it out on a smartphone. Interestingly, to hedge its bets or to nudge tech geeks into converting to its mechanical watches, Tag Heuer also offers a tradein – or perhaps, more accurately, “tradeup” – programme for its smartwatch.
At the end of the two-year warranty, the watch can be swopped for an automatic Tag Heuer wristwatch, with an additional payment of the retail price of the smartwatch. In essence, the buyer gets a mechanical Tag Heuer for double the price of the smartwatch. In another vote of confidence for more traditional watches, a handful of Swiss watchmakers have unveiled smartwatches that look exactly like traditional watches.
The best example is Frederique Constant’s Horological Smartwatch, which has the very same dial and hands found on a conventional timepiece. It relies on those hands to indicate the smartwatch features like the activity monitor. Naturally, it does less than a digital smartwatch, but getting more out of less might be the smarter – and saner – route to go.
A simpler smartwatch might be smarter, not just for the wearer, but also for the manufacturer. Because, as the boss at a Swiss watchmaker working on its own smartwatch put it, competing with Apple on its own turf is a no-win proposition. On the other hand, creating a traditionally styled smartwatch will satisfy the consumer who wants a proper, oldfashioned- looking watch.
There might not be many of them, but a Swiss-made watch will always be a niche product, relative to Apple. Despite its outstanding build quality, the Apple Watch lacks the charm of a mechanical watch. And, while it is exceptionally useful in certain situations – when exercising, for example – it is less helpful in most others. In my experience, the smartest solution is to have an old-school watch plus a smartphone, and let each do its job.
“DESPITE ITS OUTSTANDING BUILD QUALITY, THE APPLE WATCH LACKS THE CHARM OF A MECHANICAL WATCH.”
