Luxury Insider: Why Apple Watch Can't Compete
All versions of the Apple Watch, even the most expensive, are made in China, with very little hand-assembly. For $350, you will get the mechanical equivalent — Chinese-made, machine-assembled, high tolerance. In spite of little to zero human value, a watch in this price range from the likes of a Seiko or Swiss Army could indeed last a literal lifetime. Any digital watch, from Apple or others, simply wouldn’t stand a chance.
This piece strikes me as very defensive and short-sighted. Clymer’s entire argument is essentially based on the idea that because Apple Watch is machine-made in China and likely won’t “last a lifetime,” it can’t compete with the Swiss luxury watch industry.
The problem with this assessment, however, is that “compete” remains somewhat undefined. Personally, I don’t think competition is Apple’s goal. I think Apple Watch is meant to coexist with and significantly overlap the luxury watch market, but I don’t feel like it’s meant to displace it. The other problem with Clymer’s take is simply that it’s coming from a guy whose speciality is editorializing the hyper-refinement of an artistic industry that has had little technical innovation in decades. He’s used to watches that are masterpieces of analog design regardless of era. Their designs are timeless. On the other hand, he’s looking at Apple Watch as it is today, not as it will be in five to ten years. And that doesn’t work. This is comparing apples to Apple.
Platforms based on technological tradition are very different from platforms based on technological advancement. Look at smartphones today and how much they’ve progressed in the last eight years or so. Surely, they’ve become so powerful that most folks won’t consider buying feature phones despite the fact that these can probably last longer, going days without needing to be recharged. But that comes at a significant cost to platform and productivity. For some people, their modern smartphone is their only computer. Think about how bizarre that sounds. But it’s true.
Another thing Clymer’s not realizing is how much the miniaturization of sensors and processors will play in the success of Apple Watch going forward. Who knows what Apple Watch will be able to do in five years that it can’t do today. Luxury watches are not platforms or even extensions of platforms. And that’s why I truly believe that Apple Watch is not really “for” techies or watch aficionados. Both will buy them, but both make up only a tiny percentage of Apple’s customer base. Apple Watch is for everyone else.
And that’s what’s driving both of these camps nuts.
[Image via ABlogToWatch]