Smart watches with full-featured features overtake mechanical watches?
From the press conference in mid-September, before the iPhone 12 came out, Apple had to rely on the new Apple Watch to hold on to the "front".
However, the good news is that, according to foreign data analysis agency Strategy Analytics based on industry reports and Apple’s financial reports, Apple "beats" the entire Swiss watch industry on its own: Apple Watch shipped 30.7 million pieces last year, and the entire Swiss Shipments of the watch industry during the same period were 21.1 million.
Although analog traditional watches are still popular among older consumers, younger consumers are increasingly inclined to smart watches that suit their lifestyles.
The report points out that traditional mechanical watches are currently more popular among older consumers, while younger consumers tend to favor smart watches like Apple Watch.
Good design and stylish appearance coupled with easy-to-use applications make it popular in North America, Western Europe and Asia.
In addition to Apple, not only traditional watchmaking companies are unwilling to lag behind, but trendy and apparel brands have also appeared on the scene to seize a place in the fiercely competitive market.
Various watches are aimed at different groups of people, some highlight the sense of technology to attract electronic product enthusiasts, some are luxurious and atmospheric, and make a fuss about appearance to attract "color control", and some cheap models have become the first choice of pragmatism relying on high cost performance.
Swiss luxury watch brand TAG Heuer is one of the first big brands in the luxury watch industry to embrace smart watches. It launched its first smart watch in 2015.
Adhering to the tradition of pure watchmaking, TAG Heuer's Connected smartwatch combines the exquisite elegance of a chronograph in a unique way with a personalized digital experience oriented to adapt to sports and daily scenes.
Since then, various fashion brands have joined the trend of smart device wear.
Luxury brand Louis Vuitton (Louis Vuitton) launched its first smart watch Tambour Horizon in 2017, and it has been upgraded to the second generation.
According to foreign media reports, when the first smartwatch was launched, LV CEO Michael Burke said: “For us, beauty is uncompromising. There are too many'ugly-looking' products in the field of wearable devices.”
Therefore, the Tambour Horizon smart watch regards its beauty as a major "selling point."
Its appearance continues the classic design of the LV Tambour series of watches, equipped with more than 60 straps, and more than 10 dials (themes) with classic LV prints and recognizability for matching options.
At the same time, LV will launch the same series of surfaces according to the fashion series, so that the watch can be "transformed" by downloading and replacing the new surface at any time, and it will never be "left behind" at the forefront of fashion.
In July of this year, the "LV Made" duckling logo face plate was launched in collaboration with Nigo, the icon of the Japanese trend industry, to attract the hearts of "sportsmen".
Of course, its price is also very "luxury", the official price starts at 20,300 yuan.
Hermes, also a luxury brand, chose to cooperate with Apple.
The two parties first cooperated in 2015 to launch the first-generation Apple Watch Hermes and it was very popular.
This autumn the watch has entered the sixth generation: Hermès’ classic single-lap strap has launched a total of 6 colorful and lively new colors, including pepper red, orange, amber, etc., with a 44 mm size watch , Priced at around 10,000 yuan.
The brand-new Hermes Attelage series strap, named after the saddle bridle of the harness, is on the market at the same time. A brand new strap extends above the case and is sewn in light yellow-brown Barenia calfskin with double loops or single loop.
Hermès' pursuit of leather is also evident from this small strap.
Domestic smart watches have occupied the mass market by virtue of their high cost performance.
At the end of September this year, after Huawei, Xiaomi and OPPO, vivo also released its first smart watch.
This also marks that the current top six mobile phone manufacturers in the world have all completed the layout of smart watch product lines.
From a functional point of view, smart watches can basically be divided into two categories.
The first category takes the route of sports and health, with products focusing on sports and human health.
Compared with Apple Watch’s “poor” 18-hour battery life, a major advantage of domestic smart watches is battery life, which can be used continuously for two weeks or even one month.
Therefore, in addition to recording exercise data, these products focus on the presentation and analysis of human health data.
For example, Huami's newly released Amazfit GTR 2/Amazfit GTS 2 not only has features such as 24-hour heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen saturation detection, sleep and breathing quality monitoring, etc., but also introduces the PAI health assessment system, which allows users to more In order to intuitively grasp the daily health status, this is not available in other smart watches.
The second category is more like a "minified version" of a smartphone, which can install application software and listen to music.
For example, the Xiaomi Mi Watch released in 2019 is pre-installed with MIUI For Watch and has a built-in application market. You can download commonly used apps such as QQ and Alipay, which are sought after by many consumers.
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily learned that there are still many non-famous brand watches made in Guangzhou and Shenzhen on the market, and they can even watch videos and play games.
However, from buyer feedback, hot watches and card changes seem to be "normal", and stability needs to be improved.
Moreover, there are more consumers who are fresh at the moment, because with smart phones, few people will watch videos and play games with their watches for a long time.
Text/Reporter Chen Si