Swatch says it has a smartwatch that will demolish the Apple Watch

It seems like everyone and their mother wants to release a smartwatch nowadays, even traditional watch makers, but Swatch released its first smartwatch over a decade ago, well before the rise of Android Wear. Swatch hasn’t focused too much attention on these smartwatches in recent years, but that doesn’t mean the company is done with smartwatches in general, far from it. Now that companies like Apple and Samsung have popularized the idea of smartwatches, Swatch sees this as the perfect time to release a bold new smartwatch of its own.

The chief executive of watchmaking corporation Swatch has dismissed the Apple Watch as an “interesting toy”, as he set out the company’s smartwatch plans. Nick Hayek Jr said that later this year Swatch will sell smartwatches that last nine months per battery. The company launched its first smartwatch in 2003 in partnership with Microsoft, and have sold connected watches since 1996. In an interview with Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, Hayek Jr said: “The Apple watch is an interesting toy, but not a revolution.” “These devices, which all eat so much power that they last no longer than 24 hours without needing to be plugged in. In addition, the user immediately loses control of their data. I personally don’t want my blood pressure and blood sugar values stored in the cloud, or on servers in Silicon Valley.” Having moved away from smartwatches in the 00s, Swatch is approaching the category with a watch-first strategy, according to Hayek Jr, who said the company’s watches would start at 150 Swiss francs (£101) and would be water resistant, similar to its current Swatches.