Google teams up with Swiss watchmaker to compete with Apple Watch

The Apple Watch has captured imaginations worldwide, apparently including one of the standard bearers of Swiss watchmaking heritage, Tag Heuer.

The Swiss watch brand has announced a partnership with Intel and Google to build a smartwatch on the Android platform, which will fuse traditional watchmaking expertise with the technological prowess of two of the largest tech companies in Silicon Valley. The idea is to compete directly with the Apple Watch on both craft and technological ingenuity, with Google getting in on the game against Apple with a quality product.

Industry observers were a bit surprised at how quick the luxury watchmaker did an about face from its previous stance that a technologically advanced watch could not be considered a keepsake timepiece. As LVMH watch boss Jean-Claude Biver said as recently as last fall, the Apple Watch isn't really a watch at all:

An Apple Watch – as great it can be – will always be the result of technological and industrial production processes.  As such, in my opinion, it is CONDEMNED to become OBSOLETE. Therefore, after a few years (or less) it’s value will drop close to zero, and it will (contrary to Swiss Mechanical watches) never be repairable!

Now the watchmaker will work to create its own connected timepiece and Biver himself is not shying away from the Silicon Valley connection, saying in the announcement:

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.

So it appears that a timepiece filled with technological bits and pieces can, perhaps, remain valuable as a cherished hand-crafted object. Not to be left behind in the smartwatch wrist race, Gucci also announced a partnership with will.i.am for a watch that isn't actually tethered to a phone — and thus loses one of the key utilities for many already lining up mentally for the Apple Watch.