Let me start with that I am a true admirer of Apple products, the Apple Company, as well as Steve Jobs. With great interest, I studied each page, each sentence, each word, of Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. It is an inspiration for CEOs, innovations teams, creatives, and marketiers. Many times, I have watched YouTube movies of Steve Job’s presentations, a great learning for any presenter. So, nothing but respect for all that is Apple.

Apple has a history of conquering whole industries with new innovative products and services. Any watch industry CEO would be a fool if he or she does not take recent developments seriously. Even if we do not agree with John Ive’s statement that the Swiss Watch Industry is ‘in trouble’, we should all see that the Swiss Watch Industry is under attack and potentially faces major upheaval. A very powerful new competitor is now entering the watch industry. A competitor that plays with entirely different business methods, finances, culture and ambition.

Apple has been hiring watch and fashion industry specialists. To name a few: Patrick Pruniaux, former vice president for sales at luxury Swiss watch maker TAG Heuer, Marc Newson, the renowned and influential designer of the Ikepod watchbrand, and Angela Ahrendts, the former chief executive of British luxury retailer Burberry Group. It is clear that Apple takes the watch segment seriously and they are not shy to bring-in outside specialist knowledge. The question is what the Swiss Watch Industry is doing to learn?

Many of my colleague CEOs have responded in the press that the Apple Watch will be no threat to their business. The Apple watch has been down talked on many occasions and I agree with most of the comments that have been made. Square watches don’t sell, it is still a gadget, there is no longevity, the product is not sexy, and more… Let’s turn this around: What can we learn from this first generation Apple Watch? In my opinion, this will give us an immediate clue and what we can expect in the coming years.

Form Factor
Square watches indeed are not liked by men. However, the Moto 360 shows already that a round smart watch is possible. Definitely needs adjustment on the ‘dead’ display section at the bottom of the screen and the thickness, but we can see it coming already.

Charging
There are many stories that expectation is that the Apple Watch may need to be even charged during the day. We are already not happy that we need to charge our mobile phone every evening, do we want to have to do same every night with our watch? No, so time between necessary charges should be maximized as much as possible. I am sure that engineers are working deeply on this.

Longevity
A watch is for many many years, some brands advertise it is for future generations. This is the opposite with what Apple products are today. Our daughters two year old iPhone 5 is discharging in 3-4 hours, she has been told to buy a new one. We need to remember however that first quartz watches 30 years ago needed to be charged every day also. Today, we need to change the battery every 3-4 years.

The Screen Is Off
Apple Watch’s screen is off most of the time, it will only switch-on by moving the arm. Let’s see how this works in real life alter when first watches are shipped. We should remember however another parallel here. First quartz watches 30 years ago had red LED screens that were off until a pusher was pressed.

See also this on an innovative method to turn-on the screen

Summary

In my opinion, it will be a matter of time until above issues will be improved and finally be solved. This will remove the ‘negative factors’.

In a next blog article, I will describe what we see a watch actually is today and how this ties-in with the upcoming smart watches.

Finally, another article will touch upon the upcoming ‘positive factors’ of smartwatches. This is where I see the biggest threat of the ‘attack’.