Swatch Jumping Into Smart Watches. Is There Any Room Left?
Famed Swiss matchmaker Swatch, long known for its hip and trendy plastic designs aimed at a younger, more fashion conscious demographic, has entered the Smart Watch channel.
But in stead of building hardware that runs on one of the three main operating systems (watchOS, Android or Tizen) Swatch is going it alone and building their own OS from the ground up.
Business Insider reports that “Swatch is entering an increasingly crowded and rapidly decelerating smartwatch market.”
Many of us can speak to this first hand; we’ve not replaced devices that have worn out or we enjoyed the novelty but the features just aren’t what we were really looking for when we considered wearable technology.
This writer likes to wear a traditional, designer (and analog) watch as part of his working wardrobe. I tried to add a fitness tracker to my daily routine, but with no room left on the traditional left wrist, it felt out of place, and looked a bit odd on my right. Add in the fact that suddenly trying to operate it with my left hand was rather amusing for others to watch for sure.
Enter what is currently labeled ‘Smart Jewelry’, however we don’t think that moniker will last. Fitbits were cool and trendy only because they were cool and trendy. Today people are looking for better opportunities to connect with their tech in more subtle and less obvious ways. They would rather wear something that’s hidden in plain sight, or invisible altogether, than ‘lug’ around what some are calling ‘wrist irons’.
Time will tell.
Currently the Smart Jewelry segment is targeting fashion and wellness conscious female consumers who are rapidly
embracing the products and who are quick to purchase. Finding examples of smart jewelry or smart accessories for men pretty much domes up dry. Michael Kors makes a dressy Android smart watch, but it becomes all about the watch where maybe the user is settling for what they can get rather than what they want.
The first decade of fitness trackers was marked by a rush of me-too look-alikes, none of whom ventured to push the envelope on satisfying any opportunities that the consumer didn’t even know could be satisfied. It’s looking like this decade will be marked by a thinning of the herd; watch for the headlines about so-and-so company that has discontinued insert-product-here.
And that has us concerned for late entrants like Swatch, who seem to be choosing the hard road right from the start.
