Swatch has filed a complaint against Samsung for allegedly infringing upon trademarks on watch face designs.
The Swiss watchmaker claims Samsung’s downloadable smartwatch faces “bear identical or virtually identical marks” to those Swatch uses for brands like Longines, Omega, and Tissot.
Apple fans may have been pleased with yesterday’s media event, but one group that wasn’t is Switzerland’s largest watchmaker. Shortly after Apple announced its new Series 3 Apple Watch, shares in Swatch Group AG tumbled 3.2 percent due to concerns about added competition.
The Apple Watch Series 3 saw Apple add cellular capabilities to its wearable device — meaning that you no longer need to carry around your iPhone to receive texts, calls, emails, or Apple Map directions.
Apple is suing Swatch over the Swiss watchmaker’s “Tick different” trademark.
Apple claims the trademark is a play on the “Think different” slogan it used for an iconic ad campaign in the late 1990s. To win the legal battle, Cupertino must prove that at least 50 percent of consumers associate the phrase with Apple branding.
In addition to rounding up the best stories of the year, we’re also showcasing the weirdest of 2015, and we can’t do that without including the sickest burns people laid down over the past 12 months.
It’s always strange when companies and CEOs snip and snap at each other like annoyed children. We should expect them to be above that sort of behavior, but guess what? They totally aren’t.
Here are some of the most blistering insults of the year.
Like the Borg, Star Trek‘s race of cybernetically enhanced humanoids, Swiss watch maker Swatch is attempting to have the best of both worlds as it rolls out a partnership with Visa to bring Apply Watch-style contactless payment to its new line of analog timepieces.
Swatch announced the deal today, and the program will roll out early next year.
Swatch has denied that its trademarking of Steve Jobs’ famous “One more thing” phrase was a blatant attempt to troll Apple — arguing instead that it’s part of a new film noir-inspired watch line, referencing Peter Falk’s Columbo character.
Yes, that’ll do. And Android’s blatant borrowing of the iOS interface was just a funny coincidence too, right?
Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek isn’t backing down from his anti-Apple stance. In a new interview, he dismisses the Apple Watch as nothing more than an “interesting toy, but not a revolution,” and says that Swatch won’t be jumping on the “computers for the wrist” bandwagon any time soon.
We wonder if Tim Cook and Jony Ive would like some ice for that sick burn?
Sometimes trademarks are about defending brand names you’ve spent years and millions of dollars building up. Other times they’re meant as jealous, petty ways of striking back at people who are doing better than you.
Guess which category Swatch’s decision to trademark Steve Jobs’ iconic “One more thing” signature phrase falls under.
Apple might have just leaked some packaging for the upcoming Apple Watch.
The Apple Jobs website received a nice update today — including a new image of what appears to be some of the Apple Watch packaging that will hit Apple Store shelves April 24. The boxes look too thin to hold the Apple Watch and its inductive charger, so they’re more likely just for bands, but we couldn’t help but notice they look just like Swatch’s iconic boxes.
Here’s a comparison shot:
Swatch may be just a couple of months from launching its own Apple Watch rival, but the 61-year old co-creator of the low cost Swatch wristwatch, Elmar Mock, isn’t being shy about describing the havoc he thinks Apple’s debut wearable device is going to wreak on the watch industry.
“Apple will succeed quickly,” Mock told Bloomberg. “It will put a lot of pressure on the traditional watch industry and jobs in Switzerland.”
Although other brands are now starting to investigate the possibilities of smartwatches, Mock thinks people are still selling the Apple Watch short, saying that the Apple Watch is going to bring about an “Ice Age” for makers of mid-priced Swiss watches when it ships in April.
Swatch Group AG isn’t planning to just roll over dead now that Apple is entering the timepiece market. Swatch announced today that it’s preparing its own smartwatch to take on Apple Watch, and it’ll be ready to launch in just three months.
Swatch CEO Nick Hayek was originally skeptical of the smartwatch revolution two years ago, but in an interview with Bloomberg, Hayek said his company is ready to throw its numerous patents into a smartwatch that won’t need daily recharging.
Last week there were rumors that Swatch might be partnering with Apple to work on its iWatch project. Swatch quickly denied the report, saying that the only business relationship Swatch has ever had with a mobile phone maker is to supply integrated circuits and other electronic components.
Now a new piece of the puzzle has emerged, with Swatch CEO Nick Hayek providing Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag with another reason why his company isn’t going to be helping Apple: because it’s making a smartwatch of its own.
Rumors that Apple might bring fun faces to the iWatch thanks to a partnership with Swatch have already been shot down, after the Swiss watchmaker denied a report claiming it and other watchmakers were helping Apple create a diverse lineup of smartwatches.
A report from Venture beat on Wednesday claimed Swatch, Timex and possibly others, were secretly helping Apple make a whole set of iWatches for all tastes geek to chic, but it appears that Apple is definitely making the iWatch all on its own.
We’ve been waiting all year for Apple to finally reveal its long-rumored wearable creation, but if the big iWatch event ever does happen this year, we might be getting a lot more smartwatches than expected.
Swatch and other watch makers will supposedly team up with Apple to bring a variety of stylish iWatches to consumers, according to a rumor from VentureBeat, that claims Cupertino wants to partner with companies in the watch business to expand the smart watches’ appeal.
Apple is becoming a victim of its own success. It’s been several years since the company launched the iPad and revolutionized yet another product category, but we haven’t seen anything truly groundbreaking since then. Sure, we’ve had the iPad mini, the Retina MacBook Pro, and the awesome new iMac, but they’re all variations or improvements on existing products.
Now the world is clamoring for something completely new — something that’ll take off just like the iPod, iPhone and iPad.
Some reports suggest it will be the Apple “iTV,” the company first television set, which is said to be in development inside the company’s Cupertino headquarters. But it’s more likely that Apple’s immediate concern is with the “iWatch,” a smartwatch powered by iOS that will bring all kinds of crazy-cool technology to your wrist.
I had suspicions Apple might be working on its own watch when it redesigned the iPod nano last year. A lot of fans used the tiny nano as a watch thanks to third-party strap accessories, and it seemed like its form factor and design were changed for a reason — to make way for something new.
We’ve been reading iWatch rumors for the past few months, so it’s time to put them all together and establish what we think we know about the iWatch so far.
Not everyone is convinced that Apple’s iWatch would be a success, and you can add Swatch’s CEO, Nick Hayek, to the pile of detractors.
Hayek says that he doesn’t think the iWatch will be a revolutionary device, because your wrist can’t handle a display big enough to interact with. But despite Hayek’s aversion to the iWatch, Apple’s reached out to him over the years for help on materials and watch batteries.
