Baselworld 2015 concludes tomorrow. This year the Swiss watch and jewelry show has been all about the wristwatch and its future – smart or not. The wristwatch has been around for centuries, beginning as a lady's bracelet and eventually transforming into a chronograph. For a while there was talk of how the wristwatch had fallen out of favor, with people depending on their smartphones to tell the time. Now the wristwatch has moved to its next act as smartphone companion.
One of the biggest announcements in Basel was that TAG Heuer, Google and Intel have formed a partnership to launch a Swiss smartwatch powered by Intel technology and Android Wear. The effort signifies a new era of collaboration between Swiss watchmakers and Silicon Valley, bringing together each company's respective expertise in luxury watchmaking, software and hardware. “Swiss watchmaking and Silicon Valley is a marriage of technological innovation with watchmaking credibility,” said Jean-Claude Biver, President of the Watch Division, LVMH Group and CEO of TAG Heuer. “Our collaboration provides a rich host of synergies, forming a win-win partnership, and the potential for our three companies is enormous.” According to Business Insider, it is expected that 91.6 million smartwatch units will be sold globally in 2018. With an average selling price of about $100, that translates to a $9.2 billion market by 2018. In the future about one in 20 smartphones will be paired in some way with smartwatches. While Apple made a splash with its smartwatch announcement, look for there to be many, many competitors. Most will be at the lower end in price, not quite disposable, but inexpensive enough to buy several to suit dress or mood. Consider the WIT? (WhatIsThat?) collection of Bluetooth watches revealed at Baselworld 2015. Each watch will retail for 60 euros. They come in multiple color and style combinations. With their simple interface, the WIT smartwatch shows essential notifications on the watch face. WIT watches connect with an app installed on iPhones or Android smartphones. The watches are waterproof to 50 meters so they can go anywhere. They become available at retail in the second quarter of 2015. ConnectedDevice has gone even further in the push to get a smartwatch on every wrist. While the company makes its own fashionable connected watches such as the Cogito Fit, which run on a button cell battery rather than a daily charge, the company also sells the WatChip. At just 7.8 x 5.5 x 1.3mm, the WatChip System-In-Package component combines Bluetooth, with a motion sensor for fitness tracking and a power management processor in one tiny package. This chip enables any designer to create a high tech watch.
