Montblanc to Apple: Our Swiss Smartwatch Will Outlast Yours

By the end of the decade, smartwatches from Apple Inc. and others might elicit guffaws rather than envy. At least that’s the view of Montblanc’s Alexander Schmiedt, who’s developed an electronic watchband for Swiss luxury timepieces that tracks steps, reads emails and even helps take selfies.

The speed at which gadgets evolve poses a design challenge to the four-century-old Swiss watchmaking industry, Schmiedt, Montblanc’s managing director for watches, said in an interview. High-end wristwatches are made to last, while electronic devices become disposable within years, as seen in the demise of the 1980s calculator watch.