I suspect they're more at risk from the Android Wear watches, to be honest. Apple gets all the attention but the Apple watch is just ugly, and watches are half about functionality and half (maybe more than half) jewellery that's acceptable to men. The Swiss know this why is why their advertising is all ego-based: they show pictures of dashing men engaging in wild adventures whilst wearing their trusty IWC, or the mature 60-something man wearing a suit and a flashy watch surrounded by his successful family in the countryside. It's all about trying to associate a lifestyle with their product.

In comparison an Apple Watch is a square thing that looks like an iPhone shrunk to the size of a big Casio. And the adverts look like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmkBAAwkkbI

It literally doesn't even have people in it! The advert shows an entirely ordinary looking watch casing and strap and tries to make it look sexy. It spends more time focusing on the specs than on who wears it.

I got a smart watch for Christmas. It's a Huawei. It has a round face, a chain link strap and, to my eyes at least, actually looks like a watch. Usefully, the screen stays on all the time, so it suffers much less from the problem of the face randomly lighting up as you wave your arms around. It isn't going to win any beauty contests by itself, and it isn't one of those "hand it down across the generations" type watches the Swiss love to promote, but it can at least enter the visuals competition.

I am amused how the article states that the iPhone was an "instant hit". It was successful-ish for the time - it sold around 6million in 5 quarters - but was also being scoffed at by every other dumb- or smartphone maker. Same with the iPod I guess... and iPad... and everything that has evolved and changed their respective markets in their iterations.

I remember the iPod was dismissed as well and it took off like wildfire!

http://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ip...