In early 2017, Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek announced that the company was launching its own smart watch operating system, “Swiss OS”, which would launch by the end of 2018. Well, it’s almost the end of 2018, and there hasn’t been much from the watch manufacturing conglomerate since the original announcement.
Until this week, that is. Multiple reports have surfaced that Swatch is still working to launch Swiss OS, by early 2019 “at the latest.” Swatch plans to release the OS on a Tissot-branded smart watch, but there are still scant details beyond that.
Swatch is probably smart to bide its time: the wearables market is increasingly dominated by Apple, whose latest Series 4 release had many declaring that smart watches had finally turned a corner towards mass adoption. Meanwhile, Google’s Android Wear OS system has struggled to find widespread adoption, with rumors swirling that Google may be working on its in-house smart watch product (a la the Google Pixel phone).
Swatch has also begun to pitch its forthcoming devices as more dedicated to user privacy than competitors, a tactic Apple has consistently used to its advantage. We’re excited to see how Swatch’s product and strategy evolve and hope it brings some much-needed competition to the smart watch operating system space.