The arrival of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s new smartwatch, the Apple Watch, is being hailed by some as the death of the classic mechanical watch. Understandably, fine watch makers especially in Switzerland which is known for the trade, are closely watching how well the product is doing and how it might affect their businesses. However, The Wall Street Journal Magazine contributing watch editor Michael Clerizo thinks Swiss watch makers should not worry about the new product. In fact, they should welcome its arrival.
Will the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) watch drastically change the demand for classic Swiss watches? This expert thinks it will, but not in a negative way.
“In fact, I think it is going to help them. At the start, the Apple smartwatch is a wonderful product and it is going to do a number of amazing things for people but no, it will not replace the mechanical watch. One of the reasons is it makes the mechanical watch, which is already an individualistic choice, even more individualistic, even more contrary to the crowd,” Clerizo explains.
According to him, if people are wearing “a magnificent mechanical watch,” it is a statement for those people that they are not “slaves” to their devices. He says this is also a statement from the person wearing the mechanical watch instead of the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) device that he or she does not need to be connected every minute of the day and that he or she can appreciate something “beautiful” on their wrist with “500 years” of history behind it.
“I would go even further. Many people are now saying that mechanical watches are obsolete. Marshall McLuhan said when a technology becomes obsolete, it becomes art. So you are not wearing just a piece of jewelry, you are wearing a piece of art on your wrist. And again, I think that is a very individualistic choice. It says a lot about you,” Clerizo says.
He says, however, that he thinks Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s smartwatch, and the smartwatch in general, will not be just a fad that will go away in time. It would also help accustom more people to wearing watches which will ultimately help the whole watch industry.
Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management owned about 10.76 million Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares by the end of the last quarter of 2014.
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