Luxury and Tech:  A Great Romance that will end in a lifelong Committment

“Luxury has never been a slave to functionality, so it mustn’t be led astray by wearable technology as conceived by consumer electronics companies. Luxury is in the business of joy, desire and exquisitely crafted execution and heritage brands must remain true to this as they lower their drawbridge to technology”

From the Paris Luxury Society

An exciting world of luxury goods that are truly married to tech is going to be a fun journey to take in the next ten years.  Luxury companies had in the past just been content with iPad envelopes or iPhone covers, regarding their part in this food chain as “the end user” product.  Certainly some companies may feel this way, but to truly embrace technology we have just to look at APPLE and see for example in their creation of THE WATCH and the partnership with HERMES a perfect example of what will be one version of this future.   PARTNERSHIPS will be the key to this romance and it can only follow that luxury companies can also enlist their own sub-contractors to bring together the melding of technology and luxury.  Automotive sectors have done this very well; in fact, AUDI, MERCEDES and other car brands have easily married the ease of use of a technology product within the wheel house of their own expertise.  I recently leased an AUDI and what sold me was the ease of use with my iPhone music, calls, and other aspects.  I had entered the future of communications!  The most effected industries will be for example, the SWISS WATCH INDUSTRY which may become just for the upper end luxury shopper, who enjoys the workmanship of a “good old fashioned mechanism” as opposed to digital version of keeping time.

The consumer electronic company, already has it’s followers; the luxury sector simply has to determine, in a very integrated way both from a product perspective and a marketing perspective, what works best for the story of their own brands. 

Editor’ Note:  For more information on the HERMES/APPLE watch, head over to HERMES worldwide website.  Apple.com features their entire line of watches.