Following last week’s Apple event (on September 9th) where various exciting things were announced to come our way over the next year, the world went into a mini-rave over all the goodies to look forward to. These include the upcoming new iPhone 6, the iOS 8, as well as the much-wanted future launch of the Apple TV and so on, but by far the announcement that takes the cake is the one regarding the soon to be released Apple smart watch. This new gadget managed to not only cast a shadow on the other Apple goodies and news that were competing for the tech enthusiast’s limited attention and desire, but it apparently managed to cast a menacing shadow over virtually every other brand in the business, including the very top watch brands. That includes any luxury watch brand you are thinking of right this moment, including the most prestigious and expensive Swiss companies etc.
According to wristwatch experts such as Benjamin Clymer, editor of the Hodinkee magazine, the launch of the upcoming Apple smart watch will completely shake up the watch-making industry, if the product will be more or less similar to what it was announced to be. According to him, after the world will get accustomed to the ground-breaking novelty and performance of the Apple watch, any watch belonging to the top watch brands will tend to look like a piece of junk in comparison. This will not only be caused by Apple’s increased wow factor, it seems, but by objective fact comparisons as well: it seems that the top watch brands can’t compete with the level of design and build quality which the new smart watch will bring.
The market shares of luxury brands like Fossil and Movaldo have already taken a dive after last Tuesday’s Apple announcement regarding its upcoming smart watch. Perhaps some of the fashion allure of a designer created luxury watch will still be able to keep these brands competitive, at least for the women consumers, but it’s pretty clear that Apple’s revealing of the future watch created some pretty powerful waves. Now, the ten or so top watch brands are under a lot of pressure to find ways of coping with Apple’s threat without losing too much in the process, but their chances aren’t exactly pink, market experts say.
When the new Apple smart watch will hit the shelves, and at an affordable price as well, the currently top watch brands will have to resign with not being as top selling as they used to in the pre-Apple era. The new star product of Apple will most likely become the best rated watch on the list, especially to the men’s sector of consumers, though the ladies will probably be pretty swayed by it and its fitness-monitoring features too. All in all, it seems that we are witnessing a moment of a complete turn-around in the watch industry: the top watch brands of 2012 and 2013 already took a dive after a mere announcement, and the year 2015 will probably not be as friendly to their sales as their executives were used to.
Moments such as these are pretty rare, for all of us who are too young to have witnessed the rise of personal computers or the revolution created by the Windows operating system. If these watch experts are to be believed, we may just be experiencing such a turn-around history of technology moment right now in the wrist watch market. How about you? Were you as impressed by the upcoming Apple smart watch as we were? Do you think that the top watch brands which held the top selling positions so far are headed for a dive because of the new Apple product? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.