TAG Heuer ‘to launch a smartwatch’

A swiss newspaper has reported that TAG Heuer is planning a smartwatch product, according to Reuters.

The comments, purportedly made by Jean-Claude Biver, head of LVMH’s watch business, were published in NZZ am Sonntag, a major Sunday newspaper. Biver is alleged to have said: “We want to launch a smartwatch at TAG Heuer, but it must not copy the Apple Watch”.

Concerns about the effect of the smartwatch market on sales of traditional timepieces have been growing throughout the industry since Samsung announced the release of its Galaxy Gear product late last year.

Biver added: “We cannot afford to just follow in someone else’s footsteps”, and indicated that the swiss watch industry would be unveiling a range of smartwatch devices at the Basel watch fair in 2015.

TAG Heuer has already indicated its interest in the smartwatch market after announcing it had made a one-off product to be worn by Oracle sailing team in the tournament in 2013. It also already makes a high-end smartphone, called the ‘Meridiist’.

Apple revealed its fabled smartwatch offering at an event in California, last week.