Swarovski is one of the companies who has been dipping their toes in the ‘smart’ world. Although, they do not hit the tech headlines on too much of a regular basis, they are a company who looks to be carefully planning their approach and in no particular rush to head to market, too quickly. In fact, the latest news on Swarovski came only a couple of weeks ago during CES when Huawei announced that they had partnered up with the company to produce the newest designs of their highly popular Huawei Watch.
Well, long before the Huawei Watch, Swarovski did team up with Misfit and did enter the wearables market with the Misfit Swarovski Shine. This was a fitness tracker disguised very neatly within a more jewelry based design. Since then, there have been odd rumblings around Swarovski and Misfit and the launch of a new updated Swarovski Shine. In fact, one which will be solar powered. Although, more recently Misfit noted that there was no clear time-frame as to when the solar powered Swarovski Shine would land on the market.
In an interview given to Wareable recently, Swarovski CEO, Robert Buchbauer, has been talking about their approach and when the market can expect their next offerings. During the chat, Buchbauer does note that Swarovski will look to release two wearables during this year. When it comes to the normal Swarovski Shine, Buchbauer notes two new colors will be available during the Autumn of 2016. In contrast, the new solar powered option was noted as expecting a slightly later 2016 launch, but one which will be in time for Christmas. Bachbauer goes on to note that they are still going through the testing phase with the solar powered Shine, but do expect all the testing to be completed by the end of February. At which point, they will be in a much better position to decide on a firm release date.
In spite of what does seem to be a more laid back approach to releases, it does seem that Swarovski are confident in their planned approach to market. On discussing the original Swarovski Shine, SVP of Product Marketing, Joan Ng, explains that the levels of sales experienced for the connected device was significantly good, compared to their more traditional lines and especially as the launch was a ‘soft launch’ with little notable advertising or awareness “we just put it in the store. It was a natural performer”.