Swatch is looking to rival popular smartwatch OS by developing their own Swiss-made operating system, noting to deliver a “more flexible alternative to the dominant systems which connect items such as smartwatches to the internet”.
According to a Reuters report, Swatch has been holding back from jumping on to the smartwatch bandwagon, opting to launched watches with limited connected features under its Tissot and Swatch brands. In the market, many other brands have been pushing out smartwatches using systems like Google’s Android Wear, Samsung’s Tizen OS and Apple’s WatchOS. This includes luxury brands including TAG Heuer and Mont Blanc, which has started offering Android Wear watches while keeping to its Swiss roots through design and modularity.
Nick Hayek CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Swatch Group talked to the press stating that biggest problems of smartwatches is due to energy consumption and privacy.
Swatch Group announced last month that they were working with Swiss research institute CSEM to launch an “ecosystem” for connected objects by the end of 2018. They claim this would ensure absolute data protection and ultra-low energy consumption, without the need for regular updates.
However, Hayek dismissed notions of being the dominant player in smart wearables. “I don’t want to become the industry standard for smartwatches,” adding it would be dangerous if everybody relied on just a couple dominant operating systems.
“But in Switzerland we have a lot of expertise when it comes to creating something that is smaller, consumes much less energy, is independent and more cost-efficient and can go into little objects,” he said.
He noted that Swatch had many requests from small U.S. startups looking for flexible open-source systems. Swatch is aiming to serve these customers, using the system in its own watches.
It remains to be seen if Swatch will be able to compete in the market where Google, Samsung and Apple has a upperhand in tech and developer ecosystems. Attracting developers to build on their platform could be tricky, just as Blackberry has failed to keep the momentum of their own software.
According to market reports, smart wearables is set to almost double to 185 million units worth $16.9 billion by 2021. As far as reports go, it seems people aren’t set to an OS for watches yet – so Swatch just might get a nice gap to fill.
