IWC Schaffhausen today unveiled a teaser for a new accessory that will bring some smartwatch functions to its traditional watches. The upcoming IWC Connect will be incorporated into the straps of its watches to provide functions such as activity tracking.
“Seeing that many of our customers and brand ambassadors are wearing connected devices alongside their IWC watches, we chose to work with a like-minded digital technology company to develop an elegant, aesthetically complementary solution that eliminates the need to have additional devices on the opposing wrist to your IWC,” explains Georges Kern,CEO of IWC Schaffhausen. “But, and this is essential, we do not touch our beautiful watches – an ‘IWC’ stays a mechanical handcrafted timepiece. We’ve engineered an intelligent design solution which perfectly integrates and underlines our product worlds.”
Details about how the IWC Connect will work are slim at this point. The IWC Connect will presumably connect to other devices via Bluetooth and NFC. it promises “fully fledged activity tracking” but no additional details are available. It’s also not clear from IWC’s teaser whether the IWC Connect will sport a display. If it does, it will be quite small and likely only useful for notifications.
The first IWC watches to support the IWC Connect will be the company’s Big Pilot watches.
Pricing and availability were not announced. IWC has promised to reveal more “in the coming months.”
Montblanc, part of the same Richemont Group, recently unveiled its Montblanc Timewalker Urban Speed e-Strap line, a smart watch strap for its traditional watches.
We’ll bring you additional details as soon as IWC reveals them.
Source : IWC