According to this [0] Apple made 93 b over the past four quarters. The Apple watch is bigger than the entire Swiss watch industry [1] but still a minor part of Apple.
My point being that they’d have to sell a hell of a lot of services to outpace the iPhone, and those services are mostly popular because they integrate into the iPhone. And people want the new shiny ones.
The Apple Watch now generates more revenue than the entire Swiss watch industry combined. Apple is the largest watchmaker in the world both by revenue and by units sold.
Yeah, that's true, but the swiss watch industry still sold 20 million + watches last year. So I still can't see how this applies.
It would also probably be fair to say that the swiss watch industry was decimated as carrying a phone became ubiquitous.
I think the comparison is relatively apt though. People have one left wrist, and even though the apple watch and a classic watch are different categories. You don't often see people wearing both. So there is competition there for a limited number of wrist slots.
And apple is selling more units than team swiss watch.
Now, if you wanted to have a conversation about total wrist market share, I'd still guess the swiss watch industry is winning. You don't have to buy a new mechanical watch every other year so units moved isn't as apt a comparison.
As a Swiss it makes me wonder even more. It looks like the Swiss watchmakers are superb when it comes to mechanical engineering, but they're not much into material engineering and electronics. Japanese watchmakers are good with the electronics and materials, not so much with design and marketing. Apple is really in prime position to release a smart watch that people actually want.
I am not sure I agree with the statement that Apple Watch is ruining sales of Swiss luxury watches. It has more to do with the slump in oil money and China (economic slowdown and new push against showing-off luxury items and against corruption that have dented the habit of giving expensive presents. Who buys a 10k mech watch will probably also fork out 500usd for an apple watch if he/she cares about it.
Casio sells more F-91W digital watches per year than the entire Swiss watch industry, too...
Apple's watch was their usual polished refinement of existing, mainly Chinese, SIM-equipped smartwatch designs. They didn't invent a market segment out of a vacuum.
I suspect they're more at risk from the Android Wear watches, to be honest. Apple gets all the attention but the Apple watch is just ugly, and watches are half about functionality and half (maybe more than half) jewellery that's acceptable to men. The Swiss know this why is why their advertising is all ego-based: they show pictures of dashing men engaging in wild adventures whilst wearing their trusty IWC, or the mature 60-something man wearing a suit and a flashy watch surrounded by his successful family in the countryside. It's all about trying to associate a lifestyle with their product.
In comparison an Apple Watch is a square thing that looks like an iPhone shrunk to the size of a big Casio. And the adverts look like this:
It literally doesn't even have people in it! The advert shows an entirely ordinary looking watch casing and strap and tries to make it look sexy. It spends more time focusing on the specs than on who wears it.
I got a smart watch for Christmas. It's a Huawei. It has a round face, a chain link strap and, to my eyes at least, actually looks like a watch. Usefully, the screen stays on all the time, so it suffers much less from the problem of the face randomly lighting up as you wave your arms around. It isn't going to win any beauty contests by itself, and it isn't one of those "hand it down across the generations" type watches the Swiss love to promote, but it can at least enter the visuals competition.
Not only has Apple Watch been hugely successful by any reasonable standard, it has wildly exceeded any standards of success that were even considered possible at the time of its introduction. And this is obvious. It has basically obsoleted the entire Swiss watch industry and has replaced it as a status symbol except for itinerant rich watch nerds who can afford Patek Philippe and Rolex collections. It has also created an entire new category of watches as a fitness and lifestyle device with capabilities that simply did not exist before.
And of course in the smartwatch market, Apple Watch created that market as it exists today and dominates said market. (Yes, I am aware that a tiny, nascent version of this market existed before. That's now irrelevant.)
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