Swiss luxury watchmaker TAG Heuer said it will definitely develop its own smartwatch to challenge Apple Watch and to provide an ingredient the Apple device doesn't have: class.
TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver made the announcement at the ongoing Baselworld Watch and Jewellery Show, the most important trade show of the international watch and jewellery industry.
Biver hinted the TAG Heuer smartwatch will evoke luxury and won't appear like a brick strapped to one's wrist, which is the common complaint leveled against the current generation of smartwatches. The TAG smartwatch will also be made with the youth market in mind.
It's seen as a way to get young consumers to want to own luxury watches of their own such as those made by TAG Heuer, believes Biver.
"If young people get used to wearing a watch, it's very easy to sell them," Biver said. "It's a gateway."
That the TAG Heuer smartwatch is directed against Apple can be gleaned from the companies the Swiss watchmaker is partnering with to make its device.
TAG Heuer has tapped Google and Intel to develop the insides of the smartwatch that will run on Google's Android Wear operating system and will be powered by an Intel chip.
The outside such as the design, casing and crown will be made by TAG Heuer.
Together, these companies will create a product that is luxurious and seamlessly connected to its wearer's daily life.
"Swiss watchmaking and Silicon Valley is a marriage of technological innovation with watchmaking credibility. Our collaboration provides a rich host of synergies, forming a win-win partnership, and the potential for our three companies is enormous," said Biver.
"We can't produce the engine, the chips, the applications, the hardware -- nobody can produce it in Switzerland".
"The hardware and the software will come from Silicon Valley. But the watch case, the dial, the design, the idea, the crown, that part of the watch will, of course, be Swiss".
The TAG smartwatch will come with fitness tracking features like GPS and heart rate monitoring. No price yet but the TAG Heuer smartwatch is expected to hit stores in time for the Christmas holiday.
The TAG smartwatch will also be marketed as a modern device that complements the high quality and intricate mechanical timepieces TAG Heuer is famous for such as the $5,000 TAG Heuer Carrera chronograph.
"It's like haute couture and prêt-à-porter, or it is like buying a Smart car from Mercedes, or a 600S," Biver told The New York Times.
"The smart car is certainly not any competition to the Mercedes 600S limousine. It's complementary. The two can work together. You can own both."