Tag Heuer Connected Modular 45
anandtech.com
anandtech.com
EDIT: So the people voting this down think a majority of Google employees (e.g. >50%) or large minority (20-49%) would wear this thing if they received for free? I'm genuinely curious. But I'd be willing to bet not even a large minority of Google employees wear any smart device.
However this was during a "crisis" in the watch industry, after which it reinvented itself as all-mechanical (in the luxury market.) You can read a story here (I didn't have time to read this one, looks fine): http://www.watchtime.com/featured/when-rolex-went-quartz/
But smart watches aren't a difference in degree rather than kind. They are fundamentally different in a lot of ways that bring benefit to some users.
If Apple started doing a good job with their watch product, the watch industry could not long resist. It is already on the wrists of many celebrities all the time.
The only saving grace for the luxury watch industry is that apple haven't quite gotten it right yet. if people started wearing their apple watch every day, there would be no room on their wrist for a traditional luxury watch as well.
Furthermore, I'm still amazed that none of these devices have changed mobile phone user experiences at all. When that happens we'll be talking about wearables 2.0, there's a lot of fodder there for deep integrations.
Frankly smartwatches are stuck in the same stats game as phones have been since Apple kept hammering built in storage.
We need more like the CAT S60, and less "higher numbers on stat X, Y and Z".
It is the only recent phone that could even get close to the often touted comparison between smartphones and tricorders. Because tricorders were first and foremost a sensors package, telling the away team things about their surroundings that their senses could not.
But that doesn't mean the game wouldn't change if they did. They are moving a lot of units on what is not a great and must-have product yet - imagine if the product were a must-have one that got the things you've mentioned right instead of wrong. That would change the game. It's not beyond them that they might do so in the future, and, again, they are moving a lot of units as it is. Celebrities are wearing them.
There's also that the watch (traditional or smart) is not so traditional to wear anymore anyway. Most people just don't bother owing one.
On the other hand, sports watches that track GPS and heart rate etc, do something that you don't want to use your phone for. (I have a Garmin that is fantastic.)
Smart watches will take off when people nail the use case, and don't forget that we already have phones, so the watch doesn't need to do everything.
When I lived in NYC (or traveled back to Silicon Valley), I kinda expected to see them everywhere (and did). But unintuitively, I also see them all the time in places I'd never expect (like say seeing a half dozen people wearing them in a Wal-mart in rural Arkansas). Yes, I'm looking for people wearing them so obviously I'll see them more, but that doesn't negate my point that I see more Apple Watches than any other brand of watch (smart or otherwise).
Because I just don't need it. I get only a dozen emails and whatsapp messages a day, I might spent at max an hour per week talking on the phone and my current schedule is very simple (e.g. wake up in the morning and drive to work).
There is just no way how a smart watch could improve my day.
I can see some usecases if you are a very busy person with a crammed schedule but for normal person there is just no need to have one.
Smartwatch does not compete in the same space, so it's not a threat.
You may be speaking for yourself, but people wear mechanical watches for different reasons, and I've just listed a few of them.
For me? It's about appreciation of the movement, and also how it makes me feel wearing it
Nobody has ever commented on my mechanical watch, yet I continue to wear it.
I do agree that Apple has sort of become a fashion brand. They have embraced that, and I don't really see it as a bad thing. But as I said, it's not a fashion brand that is in direct competition with luxury mechanical watch makers.