Ever since other companies started to develop smart watches, Swatch Group has filed 173 patents, especially after rise in smart watch trend from 2012. However this patent building spree is completely going over the head of competitors like Apple.
Even though Apple watches are also famous, they do not reach the level of Swatch, especially after the latter started acquiring patent after patent. Through this patent buying, it can be seen that swatch CEO Nick Hayek is not willing to take any chance of losing ground to competition. According to Envision IP’s managing attorney Maulin Shah, “The Swiss company has developed and patented watch circuitry and hardware that will allow them to introduce their own branded smart watch without having to partner with telecoms and handset makers.”
On other hand analysts are critical of Swatch’s patents buying spree. “The quartz crisis is in the background of everything they do,” says Jon Cox, an analyst at brokerage Kepler Cheuvreux in Zurich. “It probably leaves a bit of a scar on them, and that’s something in the back of their minds when they have technology: Patent first, ask questions later.”
However, the company and its officials have refused to comment on the patent acquisition, or the designs and ideas for which these patents have been acquired. It is as if even Swatch does not know what it will be making in future.
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