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Swatch accuses Samsung of copying its watch faces
Just days after Samsung unveiled its latest Galaxy Watch, the tech titan is in hot water over its existing range of smartwatches. Swatch Group -- the watchmaker behind the Tissot, Omega, Rado and Swatch brands -- has filed a a complaint against Samsung Electronics and its American arm over trademark infringements. The Swiss company claims the downloadable watch faces for Gear Sport, Gear S3 Classic and Frontier smartwatches "bear identical or virtually identical marks" to its own trademarks.
Your gaming skills could earn you a Drone Racing League contract
So you want to be a professional drone racer? Then you should probably download Drone Racing League Simulator from Steam. To coincide with the game's official launch, watchmaker Swatch has announced it's sponsoring tryouts for the 2018 season, where top prize is a spot in the 2018 DRL Allianz World Championship Season and a $75,000 contract. We've seen this type of thing with Gran Turismo before but it'll never not feel kind of Last Starfighter-y.
Swatch's provocative 'Tick different' slogan has Apple riled
We don't know when exactly Apple and Swatch first had a falling out, but trademark disputes seem to be the stage both have chosen to publicly acknowledge their strained relationship. In the latest example of this, Apple is challenging Swatch's "Tick different" trademark, which features in marketing campaigns for its Bellamy range of simple, analog watches that include NFC for contactless payments. Apple is arguing the phrase is too similar to its now-retired "Think different" slogan, thus causing confusion among consumers.
Swatch is working on its own smartwatch operating system
WatchOS or Android Wear? Neither, says the head of Swatch, who revealed that his company is working on its own smartwatch OS. CEO Nick Hayek told Bloomberg that his business has developed a new platform for wearables in partnership with the Swiss Center for Electronics. The new software, it's claimed, will do a better job of protecting your personal data and use significantly less battery life.
Apple can never release an 'iWatch' in the UK
Long before Apple actually launched its first wearable, a trademarking spree sent the rumour mill into overdrive. Understandably so, because what else could an "iWatch" be? The Swiss clocksmiths at Swatch weren't best pleased with this application, however, challenging the filing with the UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in 2014. The IPO recently brought an end to the dispute, siding with Swatch in its opposition of the trademark. It doesn't really matter now, of course, with the Apple Watch already in its second generation. But, if the company ever wanted to launch an iWatch? Well, it can't.
Swatch's first proper smartwatch is a Tissot
Swatch technically released smartwatches last year in the form of the Bellamy and Touch Zero One, but their narrow focuses (payments and volleyball) made them niche tools that you're unlikely to buy. Flash forward to 2016, however, and it's a different story: Swatch has introduced the Tissot Smart-Touch, its first broader-purpose smartwatch. It's not a full-on computing device like TAG Heuer's offering, but it's still useful when you're out and about. You can pair it with your phone to navigate using the watch hands and screen, including devices you've tagged with a special fob. Also, there's a solar-powered weather station that delivers local conditions to the Smart-Touch's display.
Bloomberg: Swatch is hoarding smartwatch patents
We've snarked at Swatch for waiting forever to release a smartwatch, only for the finished article to be a regular watch with an NFC chip beneath the dial. Bloomberg Business believes that the Swiss firm is playing the long game by quietly hoarding a pile of (173) patents related to the technology. The news agency has dug deep into the paperwork to learn that Swatch holds rights to plenty of useful concepts including proximity sensors and data-transmitting batteries. Sources claim that the watchmaker has enough IP in its back pocket to make a device on its own, unlike TAG Heuer, which had to partner with Intel.
Swatch's payments watch is coming to the US
Swatch has announced that the mobile payments watch that it's sending to China will also make its way over here. The watchmaker has teamed up with Visa in order to offer the Swatch Bellamy in the US, Brazil and Switzerland. It's the third entry on that list that's the most eyebrow-raising, since Swatch CEO Nick Hayek very recently criticized his home nation's own banks for being slow to embrace new payments tech. It looks as if Visa has stepped in to make its relations in Switzerland look fusty and slow by comparison.
Swatch takes the wraps off its mobile payments watch
Swatch has revealed that it's working on a mobile payments watch that it'll launch in partnership with banks in China. Bloomberg reports that the timepiece will let users make purchases at point-of-sale machines in stores, thanks to an NFC chip that's embedded beneath the dial. The device, named Swatch Bellamy, will launch in January 2016 in the country, priced at 580 yuan ($91), with releases in Europe and the US coming afterward. Unfortunately, we're not sure too many people are going to be camping out days ahead of time to buy a bargain-basement fashion watch with an NFC chip inside. After all, you could buy a regular watch now and just grab an NFC sticker from any bank that offers them to its users.
Swatch plans multiple smartwatches, but they'll be simple
Swatch has only just dipped its toes into the smartwatch waters, but it already has grand ambitions in the category. CEO Nick Hayek tells Tages-Anzeiger that next year's Touch Zero Two (due around the Rio Olympics in August) is just the start. There should be multiple smartwatches, and the company is also releasing NFC-equipped, payment-capable watches later this year. In other words, Swatch isn't treating these devices as exceptions or one-off experiments, like some other Swiss watchmakers.
Swatch is working on a smartwatch battery that lasts six months
Smartwatches have yet to solve the riddle of battery life, but Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek says his company is hard at work on a solution. Speaking with the Swiss newspaper Handelszeitung, the chief executive revealed that not only with the watchmaker put out a smartwatch next year, but that it will feature "a revolutionary battery." Belenos, Swatch's research arm, and battery maker Renata are hard at work on the tech. The company announced last year that it would begin packing fitness-tracking tools inside its Touch line of watches, beginning with the Touch Zero for volleyball players earlier this year. What's more, the fruits of the long-lasting battery project will also be used in cars. "Whoever brings a battery for a smartwatch to the market that you don't need to charge for six months has a competitive advantage," Hayek said during the interview. For reference, battery life for both the Apple Watch and Moto 360 hovers around a day. [Image credit: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images]
Swatch Touch Zero One tracks your beach volleyball skills
Swatch's first foray into the fitness-tracking business is the Touch Zero One, a touchscreen watch built with beach volleyball in mind. This is an upgrade to the barely readable Swatch Touch, introducing features that track the ferocity of your spikes and bumps, how many steps you take and the number of calories burned during those all-day volleyball matches. It even counts the number of times you clap, finally settling the debate about who is the best sport on your team. The Touch Zero One then sends all of this information to a smartphone app, which ranks your volleyball performance from 0 to 100, beginner to professional. There's no need to charge the Touch Zero One each night -- the standard Swatch battery lasts for "months and months," the company promises. This baby should cost around $160, according to A Blog to Watch. Swatch hasn't set a release date, but it would make sense for its spike-tracker to show up on beaches by summer.
Watchmakers are cracking down on bootleg smartwatch faces
Did you get a G Watch R or Moto 360 and promptly give it a watch face that simulates a mechanical timepiece? Don't count on doing that again. TorrentFreak understands that watchmakers like Omega, Panerai, Swatch and Tissot are sending takedown requests to sites hosting smartwatch faces that allegedly violate "trademark, copyright and design rights." The companies aren't speaking on the record, but this is more about legal obligation than attempting to protect sales -- if they don't crack down on bootleg digital faces, they'll have a harder time taking action against real-world counterfeits.
Swatch co-inventor Elmar Mock is a fan of the Apple Watch
As one might have anticipated, the Apple Watch elicited its fair share of groans and critiques from traditional watchmakers who were quick to question the device's utility and design aesthetic. LVMH executive Jean-Claude Biver, for example, said that the watch has no sex appeal, is too feminine, and "looks like it was designed by a student in their first trimester." In a subsequent interview with Forbes, Biver said that the Apple Watch, at present, "cannot compete at all with European watches." Singing a different tune, though, is Swatch co-inventor Elmar Mock who recently told the website Swissinfo.ch that traditional watch companies would be well advised not to so readily dismiss Apple's foray into the watch market. The Apple Watch is by far the most attractive of the smartwatches. I would definitely wear it. Don't forget that the early smartphones did not immediately replace conventional mobile phones. ... It's understandable why [luxury brands] Breguet, Rolex, Cartier or Patek Philippe are disinterested. Swatch, on the other hand, should be taking a leading a role. Swiss watchmakers seem to have forgotten how they underestimated Japanese quartz watches in the 1970s as mere gadgets and not real watches. That mistake led to the near collapse of the watch industry. Once the Apple Watch goes on sale, we'll soon know whether or not Biver is spot-on or if his pessimism will become yet another example of Apple proving naysayers and skeptics embarrassingly wrong. Recall former Palm CEO Ed Holligan's statements made in the wake of the iPhone unveiling: We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in. And yet, that's exactly what they did.
Swatch is finally coming around to this 'smartwatch' business
Spare a thought for the watchmakers of this world, who might start to feel the pinch as more people buy a smartwatch. According to the Wall Street Journal, Swatch is the latest old-school outfit to realize that it needs more than a janky, barely-readable touchscreen to appeal to its customers. The company has let it be known that it'll add fitness functions to its Touch line of watches, although it wouldn't reveal specific features that we'd expect to see. The new units won't arrive until 2015, which still leaves plenty of time for companies like Samsung, LG and Motorola to steal a march on mainstream wearables. Still, Swatch's parent company also owns Omega, and we'd gladly trade in a Galaxy Gear for a Seamaster Professional with James Bond's cutting laser in the bezel.
Swatch's robot-made wristwear offers classic Swiss time at a tiny price
For many watch lovers, Swiss mechanical movement is the gold standard. However, it's also staggeringly expensive -- it's all too common to spend several hundred (if not several thousand) dollars just to see "Genève" on your wrist. That's what makes the US launch of Swatch's Sistem51 so special. While the watch still behaves like a conventional Swiss automatic with visible mechanisms, it's built using a fully robotic process that gets rid of the elaborate hand-crafting that drives up the price. As a result, you'll only pay $150 for the privilege, or about as much as an ordinary quartz timekeeper.
Swatch Touch watch reacts to your, well, you know
Admit it, you've either owned or lusted after some sort of quirky Swatch in your lifetime. If not, its new Touch watch may be the one to finally give you a case of GAS. According to T3, the timepiece sports a convex LCD touchscreen, used for swiping or tapping through settings. Aside from displaying the time and date in an eye-caching (nearly unreadable) manner, it features an alarm, a timer, chronograph functionality and keeps track of two timezones. The Swatch Touch is said to hit the UK scene on October 1st, in a choice of six colors for £100 (roughly $157). Looks like Tokyoflash just got itself a worthy foe.
Widget Watch: Art Director's Toolkit
Code Line Communicators, developers of Art Director's Toolkit, has developed a handy widget for easy-access to some of the tools and features of their app right within your Dashboard. However, the widget only comes with a copy of Art Director's Toolkit 5; the latest version which I don't believe is bundled with Macs just yet.Either way, this widget definitely pulls its weight, as it can "Search through thousands of color swatches in industry-standard libraries, view characters and keyboard equivalents of fonts, sample colors on-screen, convert fractions/decimals/units of measure, calculate file sizes, and much more."While the widget is listed at Apple's Dashboard download site, the link simply points to the latest version of Art Director's Toolkit.
