The idea that smartwatches are just overgrown calculator watches for early-adopting geeks, rather than true timepieces ready to rival elegant luxury wristwatches, shattered into 10,000 pieces the moment a gilded Apple Watch became a reality. Now the rest of the industry is following suit.
This morning, famed watchmaker Tag Heuer said it would partner with Intel to create the first luxury smartwatch powered by Android Wear. Google's operating system for wearables has gone into early smartwatches such as the Moto 360 and the LG G Watch R, but this is something different in fashion and presumably in price.
Tag Heuer won't reveal any details about the watch yet, saying only that it wants to debut the device later this year in time for Christmas and in time to be the first Android Wear luxury watch on the market. Officials said this move wasn't made in response to the official debut of the Apple Watch earlier this month (it actually goes on sale in April). But Swiss watchmakers and Apple's Silicon Valley competitors knew they needed to make a move into this market, and that became a necessity once Cupertino's five-figure timepiece was confirmed.
Tag Heuer's partnership wasn't the only such announcement today. Musician/man-about-town will.i.am, no stranger to ambitious tech launches, says he is working with Gucci on a phone-less 3G smartwatch (seen above). Few specifics are available about the device, which was announced today at BaselWorld 2015
Source: The Verge, Digital Spy