Plenty of tech companies “borrow” from Apple’s designs when it comes to new products, but it’s relatively rare for other industries to play copycat.
A Swiss watch company, however, is making an exception to the rule. The Swiss Alp Watch Concept Black from H Moser & Cie offers a hands-free Swiss watch that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Apple Watch.
The watch was on display at the SIHH watch fair in Geneva. It boasts a very familiar dark rectangular form factor, supposed to look like a certain smartwatch in standby mode.
Photo: H Moser
But don’t think that this is one of those examples of a Swiss watchmaker incorporating smartwatch tech into its classic watch lineup. This is very much a high-end traditional Swiss watch, with no screen, apps or anything else.
As Wired explains, the whole thing works based on sound:
“The Concept Black uses a one-minute flying tourbillon, designed to counteract the effects of gravity on the watch’s movement, at 6 o’clock. In order to discern the time, the wearer must listen for the piece’s minute repeater function, an old complication employed before electricity and luminescence that through a series of chimes emanating from the watch itself told the owner the exact time to the minute. In short: you have to listen, very carefully, to hear the time.”
All of this comes, unsurprisingly, at a cost. The platinum Swiss Alp Watch Concept Black will retail for more than $350,000.
While it’s not the first time that H Moser has created an Apple Watch-inspired timepiece (check out our review of a *cough* more affordable $27,000 version — with hands — here), it’s certainly the priciest we’ve seen. And, somewhat ironically, the one that looks the most like the far cheaper Apple Watch.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
