PARIS: Apple has poached a senior executive from Swiss luxury watch brand Tag Heuer, which could be to help it with the launch of its iWatch expected this year.
Tag Heuer, part of luxury goods group LVMH, said on Friday its vice president for sales, Patrick Pruniaux, who had been with the brand for seven years, was leaving tomorrow to join Apple. It did not say what his new job would be.
Apple declined to comment.
The iWatch will be the closest the US company has come to selling a fashion accessory and marks its first foray into the personal luxury goods market.
It is in a race against Samsung Electronics and Google to turn computers into wearable fashion and must-have items as smartphones, increasingly becoming commoditised items, start loosing their appeal.
Apple has plucked several executives from the luxury sector in recent months. Burberry ex-Chief Executive Angela Ahrendts started as its new head of retail and online sales in May, and former head of French fashion brand Yves Saint Laurent Paul Deneve was hired last year to work on special projects. “I think he was probably head-hunted,” a Tag Heuer spokeswoman said of Pruniaux, adding a replacement had already been found.
Analysts and industry executives say the jury is still out on whether smart watches will disrupt the luxury Swiss watch industry. “I don’t believe that an iWatch will be a threat to luxury Swiss watches,” said Jon Cox, analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux in Zurich. “But where I do see some potential impact is at lower, for example below $1,000, price points where there could be a temporary dislocation if there is super high demand for iWatches.” Reuters
