TAG Heuer, Intel, Google tie up over smartwatch

By Yoon Sung-won

Luxury watchmaker TAG Heuer said Friday it will jointly launch a smartwatch with Intel and Google this year.

The move came amid a rising sense of crisis among Swiss watchmakers after Apple announced the Apple Watch Edition, which was priced up to $17,000, targeting the luxury watch market.

“The cooperation between the Swiss watchmaker and Silicon Valley will connect technological innovations and long-cumulated reliability of Swiss-made watches,” TAG Heuer CEO and LVMH Group’s watch division head Jean-Claude Biver said during the Baselworld watch and jewelry fair in Switzerland, Thursday.

The new device will be the first Swiss-made luxury smartwatch equipped with Google’s wearable device operating system “Android Wear.”

It will also be the first smartwatch that runs by an automatic and mechanical watch movement structure.

In the unprecedented cooperation of the three companies, Intel will provide mobile processors while Google and TAG Heuer will supply the Android Wear and mechanical watch movements, respectively.

“Using Google’s Android Wear and Intel’s technology, watchmakers will experience a technological revolution and TAG Heuer will proudly lead this,” TAG Heuer vice president Guy Semon said.

“Our goal is to develop technologies with greater usefulness and new values. We are confident in bringing advancement in wearable device technologies through the cooperation with TAG Heuer and Google,” Intel’s new device group vice president Michael Bell said.

Google’s Android Wear engineering director David Singleton said, “Now we can provide more improved and beautiful smartwatches with both emotional and innovative values for the luxury watch market based on the Android Wear platform.”

According to data by global market research agency Strategy Analytics, about 4.6 million smartwatches were shipped last year in the market led by Samsung Electronics, Sony and Pebble.

But the number is expected to reach 28.1 million after the launch of Apple Watch, with the Apple smartwatches hold a 55 percent market share this year, the agency estimated.

The companies said more details of the new smartwatch, including specifications and price, will be released in the fourth quarter.

Its launch is expected to be around the end of the year.

Apple Watch is scheduled to be rolled out on April 24 in nine countries ― the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Korea was excluded from the first target markets.