Withings is said to use a movement manufactured by Soprod at their site in Sion (Valais, Switzerland); the site is specialised in quartz­ movements and sub­contracting. Soprod belongs to the spanish­swiss Festina­Group. No indication yet, where final assembly takes place.

1. 11/14/2014 ‘Withing Activité’: Latest swiss-made smartwatch is … French. | Transformation Hydraulics
Transformation Hydraulics
THOUGHTS ON BUSINESS STRATEGY, AND HOW TO MAKE IT
WORK. BY NICOLAS SCHOBINGER.
‘Withing Activité’: Latest swiss-made
smartwatch is … French.
French company Withings is launching an interesting concept of a
smartwatch called Activité. It’s bound to ship before christmas for
€390. And it will be swiss­made!
Withing’s Activité is more an activity tracker in form of a watch. It
needs an app on your smartphone for full functionality and
visualisation; it communicates via low­energy
bluetooth. Battery is said
to last month, not days.
So it is substituting other classic fitness trackers from jawbone or
others, rather than e.g. an AppleWatch.
Nov
14
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2. 11/14/2014 ‘Withing Activité’: Latest swiss-made smartwatch is … French. | Transformation Hydraulics
Withings Activité – white model. © Withings
Withings is said to use a movement manufactured by Soprod at their
site in Sion (Valais, Switzerland); the site is specialised in quartz­movements
and sub­contracting.
Soprod belongs to the spanish­swiss
Festina­Group.
No indication yet, where final assembly takes place.
Why swiss made? We tried to reach out to Withings, without
succeeding so far. Analysts agree, and I wrote about it, that the label
swiss­made
gives instant watchmaking credibility. It’s a great
differentiator. But its niche.
Taking the top smartwatch companies as ranked by the Smartwatch
Group, it is clearly not dominated by Swiss companies – as is the case
for mechanical watches for instance.
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3. 11/14/2014 ‘Withing Activité’: Latest swiss-made smartwatch is … French. | Transformation Hydraulics
Top Smartwatch companies as ranked by the Smartwatch Group
It seems questionable to me, whether the swiss watchmaking industry
is ready to take on the “smart” challenge. Today – at best –
Switzerland plays in a (volume­)
niche. The lack of readiness might
even be a source of the delay Withings experienced in launching
Activité.
To really succeed, Switzerland needs to scale manufacturing and
assembly capabilities to tenth of millions of units. Switzerland would
then also rule smartwatches, as they do with mechanical ones. The
benefits would be absolutely stunning for the whole country.
Feature Image: Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Ultra Plate Calibre
1731 © Vacheron Constatin (left), and Withings Activité watch and
activity tracker © Withings (right)
Follow me: Twitter | LinkedIn | Xing |
Copyright 2014 Nicolas Schobinger. All Rights Reserved.
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4. 11/14/2014 ‘Withing Activité’: Latest swiss-made smartwatch is … French. | Transformation Hydraulics
BBlancherie Street 63, 1950 Sion, Switzerland
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