From the legendary movie ‘Grand Prix’ in 1966 to controversial Breaking Bad TV series, TAG Heuer watches are presented as objects of desire. Today’s ad campaigns feature select number of actors, race drivers, F1 teams, pilots and the like, all touting the precision brought by TAG Heuer. Yet, the most precise watch you can buy is one of digital, not the analogue kind. Secondly, there is not one, but two generations of people that are growing up using a mobile phone to check for time, reducing the need for watches in its entirety.

Not even a week after Apple’s event, Reuters passed the comments made by Jean-Claude Biver, founder of Hublot and current head of watchmaking for LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) . His statement “We want to launch a smartwatch at TAG Heuer, but it must not copy the Apple Watch.” confirmed that the LVMH concern will make a smartwatch using the TAG Heuer brand. We believe this will not be just one product but a ‘platform’ which guarantees its reappearance in multiple watches not just in TAG Heuer, but across LVMH brands. Furthermore, the company is also pushing its electronics team to create another six-figure smartphone to rival Vertu.

Today, most avid watch buyers are ones that grew up in 1980s, with Casio G-Shock and Swatch creating a generation of buyers that are in their 30s and 40s – going for the collectable editions with prices measured from thousands even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Generation growing up today would probably skip on watches entirely, until we start seeing wearable devices such as FitBit followed by Pebble, LG and Samsung smartwatches, and now Apple entered the frame with its Watch (does the lack of ‘I’ means Apple’s 2015 phone will simply be called – Apple Phone? Apple Pad?). All of the smartwatch/wearable device push from the manufacturers is bringing horologie back into fashion, and if you are a smart manufacturer (pun intended) – you will have to react.

We don’t expect the smartwatch to make appearance before annual watch gathering in Baselworld (March 19-26, 2015) while the new smartphone is planned to make an appearance at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (March 2-5, 2015).

All in all, luxury giant LVMH is reacting. The question is, how long until every other watch vendor starts following? We can only hope they won’t engage into a race to the bottom, like the standard consumer electronic companies.

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently posted a ‘warning’ to foreign airports that have direct flights into the US, with an apparent focus on UK airports, namely Manchester and London’s Heathrow. In this posting, Secretary Johnson, the head of the DHS stated that elevated security measures were being implemented based on the ever changing security climate.

So, what exactly are these elevated security measures? According to the BBC, these new security measure being implemented in airports like Manchester and London are requiring users to have their electronic devices charged and to be able to power the device on when prompted to. Furthermore, if a device does not have charge or is ‘dead’ a passenger may actually be prevented from boarding their flight without proof of an operational laptop or tablet.

British Airways released a statement in regards to the issue at hand that advises that you not bring on any devices that are inoperable or depleted from charge. This includes people transferring from flights through the UK that may have had long flights. So, if you’re flying in economy and don’t have a charging plug, you no longer have the right to use your devices until they die because you might not get let onto your connecting flight.

The UK government also has a travel advisory that states,

Flying to the US

Make sure your electronic devices are charged before you travel. If your device doesn’t switch on, you won’t be allowed to bring it onto the aircraft.

These new rules implemented by the DHS are absolutely ridiculous and put an undo burden on consumers. I have flown through Heathrow countless times and have had a few instances where I had a dead phone, dead tablet or a dead laptop. And when you look at the utter lack of charging stations in Heathrow and in planes, it seems absolutely insane for them to be pushing these requirements on consumers without trying to alleviate them. The DHS and the UK have once again made flying miserable again and they’re taking more of our rights away without any justifications.

There are going to be easy ways to get around this ‘power-on’ requirement set by the DHS if you’re really trying to build a device that will cause harm. This is yet another pointless security measure being presented in airports to make traveling even more ridiculous and difficult than it already is.

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