- How Apple Beat Swiss Watchmakers at their own game
- Written by Adrian Zumbrunnen
- The Nuggets translation Project
- Permanent link to this article: github.com/xitu/gold-m…
- Translator: noturnot
- Proofreader: Wangalan30, Marszht
From a wind-up watch to a computer on your wrist
How Does Apple overtake and disrupt traditional Swiss watchmaking
It’s no secret that many of the world’s best-known watch brands hail from Switzerland. Although the concept of a “Made in Switzerland” product seems to have been around for a long time, it is a relatively recent phenomenon.
In the 16th century, Peter Henlein, a German locksmith living in Nuremberg, conceived of the first watch that most closely resembles today’s. The “Taschenuhren” was an early accessory and a status symbol at the time, affordable only to the upper class and social elite. The design of the pocket watch remained unchanged for more than a century. Then, as we know, a series of innovations in Britain changed the watchmaking industry.
Gossamer for different types of watches and precision timers. Image: Frederick J. Britten and Harry L. Nelthropp via Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
At the end of the 18th century, the invention of gossamer, i-wheel escapement and precision timepiece made Britain one of the most respected watchmaking countries in the world. They are the most accurate and highly skilled watches money can buy. However, they had one important drawback: these early watches were too heavy to be comfortable to wear.
The problems of the early days of watchmaking mirror the challenges facing smartwatch makers today.
As sleeker and more comfortable watches demanded, watchmakers across Europe began working on ways to build lighter mechanisms. The industry’s early problems mirror the challenge smartwatch makers face today: how to make watches thinner and more powerful.
It was the skill and vision of Swiss master watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet that inspired the modern watch we know today — big, flat, sleek and stylish. If the British are betting on precision, the Swiss are betting on style. It wasn’t long before Switzerland established itself as a place to produce a range of high-quality watches, especially longines, IWC And Rolex, with the first timepiece certification.
From the early 20th century until 1960, the Swiss were Paramount as the world’s top watchmakers. They began to carve a logo on their watches. The different versions of the logo remained the same, but this began to fail because the dial was too small, so the watch industry condensed the logo into two simple words: “Made in Switzerland”.
Soon, “Made in Switzerland” became one of the most popular symbols in the history of consumer goods.
A 2016 survey conducted by the University of St Gallen showed that respondents were willing to pay twice as much for a luxury Swiss watch as for an unknown original. The Swiss government’s website even boasts of the logo: “‘ Made in Switzerland ‘is not simply an original trademark. It is a signal to customers that they are buying a product of exceptional quality and reliability.”
Quartz crisis
While the Swiss were still sticking to traditional watchmaking methods, In 1969 Seiko introduced the world’s first battery-powered wristwatch. This led to another revolution in watchmaking.
The low cost of making new battery-powered watches drove down global prices and cost the Swiss watchmaking industry more than 60,000 jobs. By the end of 1982, more than 1,000 watchmakers had disappeared from the world. This moment — after The Japanese company Seiko released the Quartz Astron 35SQ watch in 1969 — became known as the “Quartz crisis”.
To survive the upheaval in the watch industry, the Swiss need to innovate.
With radical ideas and startling designs, Nicolas Hayek has reinvented the Swiss watch with his newly formed Swatch Group. His mantra for this new watch line is “innovative, passionate, fun, timeless.” This principle is not only reflected in the product itself, but also in the advertising campaign.
Vintage ’80s Swatches. Photo: Jon Rawlinson via Flickr /CC BY 2.0
The Swatch Group has made plastic watches cool. This leads to a completely different product positioning. Swatch took apart the watch’s core timekeeping function and turned it into a fashion statement.
The watch is no longer just about complex clockwork — it is now a channel for self-expression. In the age of smartphones and smartwatches, this transition from technology to fashion will become even more important. But that shift is still decades away from anyone knowing what the “Home” button is.
For more than three decades after the creation of Swatch, it was clear that Switzerland was reasserting itself as a global leader in watchmaking.
It will take the imagination and market power of another giant to hit the watch industry again.
Smartwatch fatigue
Smartwatches are not a new concept. Ever since Japanese company Seiko noticed what James Bond wore in Octopussy, we’ve been dreaming of putting screens on our wrists. Unfortunately, all of the early attempts had clunky designs and short battery life. As a result, none of them have been commercially successful.
That changed in 2012, when Eric Migicovsky started a Kickstarter campaign for his Pebble smartwatch (paired with a phone). Although the campaign’s goal was to raise $100, 000 for production, they ended up raising a staggering $10 million. Thanks to its unique user experience, long-lasting battery life, and seamless connectivity between iOS and Android, the Pebble watch became the first commercially successful smartwatch of the 2000s.
The Pebble smartwatch. Photo: Orde Saunders via Flickr /CC BY 2.0
Unfortunately, Pebble will soon lose ground to an incoming smartwatch newcomer.
In early 2014, news reports revealed that Apple was trying to partner with a Swiss watchmaker. Nicolas Hayek, CEO of Swatch Group, told the press: “We don’t see any reason to enter into discussions about a partnership agreement.”
Hayek, who was blamed for an earlier failed smartwatch collaboration with Microsoft, is adamant that technological constraints will ultimately destroy the device.
In 2014, a week before Apple’s product launch, Jonathan Ive told the New York Times that the Swiss were going to be in trouble. In a few days, people will get a chance to see it for themselves.
In September 2014, just after showing off the iPhone 6, Tim Cook took to the stage and told a packed audience that Apple had one more product to show. He unveiled it as the Apple Watch, not the iWatch as expected. Cook calls it “… Apple’s next chapter.”
We believe this new product will redefine expectations.
Many experts have questioned the industrial design of the Apple Watch. “To be honest, it looks like it was designed by a student in their first semester,” Tag Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver told the outlet. It didn’t take long for Biver to change his tune.
The criticism and feedback didn’t stop Apple from pushing the industry forward. Shortly after its launch, the original Apple Watch became the best-selling smartwatch of all time. With the launch of Series 3, Tim Cook went one step further, stating that the Apple Watch will be completely within the mobile Watch industry.
Tim Cook — From Apple’s Special Event 2017
For the sake of those Swiss friends who still don’t want to accept reality, it wasn’t until September 2017 that Cook reminded the public that their smartwatches were the best sellers, HMM.
But there was something fundamentally different about that year’s event: the Apple Watch was shown off before the new iPhone.
Apple’s homage to traditional watchmaking
What sets the original Apple Watch apart from earlier devices is not just the seamless interaction between software and hardware, but Apple’s unique ability to make new technologies familiar. Unlike their early competitors, Apple has another key trump card: They combine their traditional watch familiarity with Apple’s design language, which they’ve already built successfully with the iPod and iPhone.
The Apple Watch Sport. Photo: Yasunobu Ikeda via flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0
Perhaps more strikingly, Apple has made few changes to the watch’s industrial design over the past three years. This rather slow update cycle may be part of what makes the watch design so iconic. You either have an Apple Watch or you don’t. It doesn’t matter if it’s series one, two or three. By sticking to the original design, Apple is betting that consumer culture will not embrace the new, reverently replacing tech gadgets every year.
Apple went a step further and used traditional clockwork terms to describe the user interface.
The Apple Watch is almost a homage to traditional watchmaking. By designing the Apple Watch for durability, Apple may be saying that smartwatches should be more permanent than smartphones.
Apple went one step further, even using traditional clock terms to describe the user interface. Many computer designers find the term “complications” inappropriate, but watchmakers used to call it that. Essentially, complications in watchmaking terms means what the word implies: they make watches more complex by adding dates, stopwatches, springs and so on. However, ‘Complications’ design in mechanical watches is primarily about showing off skills, while’ complications’ in smartwatches is about communicating information at the right time. Apple uses the term “complications” to describe application data on the dial. They also adopted another traditional watchmaking term, “crown,” which they called a “digital crown,” and placed it on one side of the device.
By using the same language and basic watchmaking principles, Apple has ensured that their products are unique enough to feel new, yet similar enough to be found on our wrists.
Changes in perception
New products do not replace each other, just as they do not change what other products stand for. People who buy automatic watches are not buying an accessory, they are buying history and craftsmanship. People who buy smartwatches aren’t buying a better way to check the time, they’re buying healthier and more connected ideas.
Steve Jobs believes the Phone app is the “killer app” for the iPhone. Indeed, the first version of the Phone App was a brilliantly designed software component that helped establish the iPhone as a Phone. But since then, expectations for the iPhone have evolved. Now, the Phone app is a representative spin-off of the iPhone.
The watch has evolved from being a geek, a tech accessory to be a lifesaver for us and those we love.
Smartwatches are redefining their own category, just as Swatch did in the late 1980s. Smartwatches used to be about keeping in touch, but now they come equipped with addictive technology designed to help you become a healthier you. They have evolved from geeks’, disposable tech gadgets to life-saving tools for us and our loved ones.
The Apple Watch has evolved so smoothly that most of us don’t even realize it’s happening. Beating the Swiss in watchmaking is no small feat. But Apple did.
They have made the watch the first commercially available, mass-produced electrocardiogram for the end consumer, and we can look forward to more exciting new developments in this area.
Looking to the future
Watches have always been an extension of our bodies. As smartwatches become more powerful and technology integrates more effectively with our bodies, we are on the cusp of a new era of computing.
Today, technology is not just used, it is abused. The augmentation of our senses is preparing us for new types of experiences that were completely impossible in the past. Given that the Apple Watch could be the biggest disruption to the Watch industry since the Quartz Revolution, the history of the Watch industry teaches us that past success hardly predicts future development.
My grandfather Peter Werner Jenny, who invented the first Swiss diving watch that was waterproof to a depth of 1, 000 meters, has followed the industry’s recent upheaval with great interest. I can’t wait to see where it takes us next.
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