It?s hard to believe it?s been four years since Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced the world to the Apple Watch. The new-age wearable promised to revolutionize the way we communicate, provide intimate health tracking, and streamline the way we interact with technology. Its introduction was hailed in Silicon Valley as the vanguard of a new era in wearable tech; however, within the closed doors and hallowed halls of the conservative Swiss watch industry, its introduction took a decidedly different tone.
In an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt soon after the Apple Watch was announced, then-LVMH Watchmaking Head Jean-Claude Biver said the Apple Watch ?was too feminine and looks like it was designed by students.? Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek Jr. also had words for the technology company when he dismissed the Apple Watch merely as an ?interesting toy? in a 2015 interview with the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. While those industry luminaries acted with indifference during the initial rollout of the Apple Watch, Peter Stas, the Dutch CEO of Frederique Constant, the company he founded in 1988 with his wife, took a different approach.
The Frederique Constant Hybrid Manufacture
He sprang into action by quickly partnering with Philippe Kahn, founder and CEO of Silicon Valley-based Fullpower Inc., to establish MMT (Manufacture Modules Technologies), a smartwatch technology platform that was meant to act as ?the bridge between Silicon Valley and Switzerland.? The result of their c...