Tag Heuer's chief does a 180 degree flip; he now plans on wearing the Apple Watch

No sooner had Apple taken the wraps off of the Apple Watch last September, than Jean-Claude Biver, head of the timepiece division of luxury goods maker LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA,called it feminine and said that the device had no sex appeal. But Biver, whose division is responsible for the TAG Heuer line of watches among others, has made a huge U-turn and now plans on wearing Apple's timepiece.

TAG Heuer is also developing its own smartwatch. Biver realizes that the technology will have to be imported from Silicon Valley considering that these are parts that no one can make in Switzerland. But for its smartwatch, can the company keep the "Swiss Made" label that Biver says "is more than a label at TAG Heuer, it’s a state of mind." To earn that title, 50% of the parts of a watch must be Swiss made. That is going to be a challenge. The watch will end up being developed outside Switzerland


The executive no longer has negative comments to say about the Apple Watch, which is now expected to launch in March. "It’s a fantastic product, an incredible achievement," he says. His original comments called the Apple Watch something that looked like it was designed by a first-year student. He also said back in September that with the timepiece, Apple had made "some fundamental mistakes."

source: Bloomberg