Apple has reportedly snapped up the sales director from notorious Swiss watch manufacturer Tag Heuer to work on the Apple Watch.
Luxury conglomerate LVMH, which own brands like Hennessey, Louis Vuitton and Tag Heuer, has admitted that the latter’s sales director has made the move to Apple.
Speaking on CNBC, LVMH’s Head of Watch Brands, Jean-Claude Biver, stated that the sales director had left the company earlier this week.
Apparently this isn’t the first time Apple has been trying to steal some Tag Heuer employees either.
According to earlier rumours, the Cupertino company tried to poach various specialists, including executives and craftsmen from the Swiss company.
Biver confirmed that Apple had been reaching out to Swiss watch makers for partnerships, hoping to be able to market the iWatch as “Swiss made” to add credibility to its first iWatch.
However, rumour has it that Swiss experts were reluctant to partner with Apple because of their scepticism of the smartwatch trend.
“To make a smartwatch work you need two hands or voice recognition, which again needs a lot of power, which is difficult in a very limited space,” said Swatch Chief Executive Nick Hayek.
No doubt, Apple is trying to build a device that is aesthetically pleasing, well-built and still functional to compete with that already offered by Google and co.
The news of the potential iWatch team acquisition comes on the day the first Android Wear smartwatch is released, the LG G Watch.
The Samsung Gear Live arrives on Monday, and then the round-faced Motorola Moto 360 will launch later in the summer.
Similar to Android Wear devices, the iWatch is tipped to have a strong fitness focus thanks to the freshly announced Apple HealthKit.
Read more: Best fitness tracker 2014
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
