Via – http://www.cultofmac.com/309512/jony-ive-called-swiss-made-watches-trouble/
“Yesterday, Biver told Bloomberg that TAG Heuer is developing its own smartwatch to counter the Apple Watch. Unnamed Silicon Valley tech companies will provide the tech while TAG Heuer will design the look.
If the name TAG Heuer sounds familiar, it’s because Apple poached one of its executives before the Apple Watch was announced.
TAG’s upcoming smartwatch will also abandon the revered “Swiss Made” label, which requires at least 50 percent of the watch’s components to be made in Switzerland. The watch will have GPS and sensors for health monitoring, although TAG hasn’t revealed any specifics yet.Biver said the Apple Watch mainly threatens watches under the $2,000 price point. Apple hasn’t revealed pricing beyond the base model’s $349, but it’s looking like Jony Ive was right when he said Swiss watchmakers are f**ked.”
It is a very bullish statement, but there is no way high end watches are dead. Maybe the £500 to £2,500 range will suffer, but there will also be room for class.
Gavin's Gadgets & Photography 
This is pure bluster by Apple. Truth is tha anything one spends above 100 quid on a watch is really just for the jewelry value. In fact a 20 quid quartz watch keeps perfect time. And Swatch does plenty of cheap automatics with fun visuals for under 100 quid.
Now the question is what does one spend on when one pays 500 or a couple thousand for a watch. It’s for nice externals, a semi-exclusive name and a plausible history of craftmanship. All of which are really not there in the Apple watch.
In truth Apple is going to get its sales not from Swiss manufacturers, but actually from rolling up the fragmented sports watch market: examples are Suunto, Timex, Seiko sports, Fitbit, Nike, Garmin, the Android gear watches and so on. And maybe some of the higher end Seiko dress watches.
But that wont be easy either, as all those watches DO last long enough to be be respectable.
But that doesn’t sound as sexy a story for the investors in the stock market, does it…
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