The year 2015 might probably be a year of smartwatches. The smartphone and tablet era seems to be slowing down as tech companies have run out of designs and are churning out the same old form factor designs. TAG Heuer CEO (and LVMH Watch Division President) Jean-Claude Biver had made an announcement on Thursday about its partnership with Intel and Google to produce a new swiss smartwatch. This announcement was made at the Baselworld, the planet’s biggest watch fair, currently underway in Basel, Switzerland.
The smartwatch segment is dominated with products that largely serve as a notification delivery and health monitoring system for the wearer, where the focus is more on functionality than form.
This new smartwatch is rumored to take the design of the Tag Heuer Carrera watch above.
Jean-Claude Biver, President of the Watch Division LVMH Group and CEO of TAG Heuer when commenting on the partnership stated, “Swiss watchmaking and Silicon Valley is a marriage of technological innovation with watchmaking credibility. Our collaboration provides a rich host of synergies, forming a win-win partnership, and the potential for our three companies is enormous.”
The smartwatch market already has a number of players, from South Korean giants Samsung (IW 1000/12) and LG (IW 1000/101), to Japan’s Sony (IW 1000/48) and startups such as Pebble.
The global market for smartwatches may rise to 28.1 million units this year, from 4.6 million in 2014, with Apple capturing more than half of it, reported Bloomberg citing researcher Strategy Analytics.
