Nintendo, which is often associated with being a toymaker, will be teaming up with the Swiss luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer.
According to The Verge, the two companies announced their collaboration on an upcoming Super Mario-themed watch in a psychedelic teaser posted on Twitter, reports ANI.
People can sign up now on Tag Heuer's website to get early access to the "exclusive limited edition" watch which is coming "super soon."
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Confusingly, Tag Heuer's tweet said that you can "power-up on July 13th," but the website has a clock that's currently counting down to 15 July at 10am ET. If a person is interested in snagging one of these watches for themselves, they might want to register on the site to stay up to date on when they might actually be able to order one.
The site doesn't list any details on pricing, but from what can be told is that most Tag Heuer watches cost at least a grand, so it seems likely that this Super Mario watch won't be cheap either.
Frederic Arnault, the CEO of Tag Heuer, in a recent interview said that he expects sales to recover to 2019 levels this year after last year’s pandemic shock, reports Bloomberg.
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The forecast of the brand owned by luxury group LVMH comes as the industry became more polarized amid lockdowns last year. The largest privately-owned timepiece brands such as Rolex outperformed, whereas lower-priced brands such as Swatch suffered more, according to a March report by Vontobel. Tag Heuer ranked at ninth in terms of sales in this same report.
“There was a demand shock with all the lockdowns throughout the world, there was a supply shock,” which weighed more on sales because of “long-lead times” in the supply chain, Arnault said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. When lockdowns were lifted last summer, demand recovered to “high levels.”
The 26 year-old executive, the fourth child of billionaire Bernard Arnault, became CEO of Tag Heuer a year ago. Four of the five Arnault siblings currently work at LVMH.
Arnault said sales of luxury watches have increasingly moved online, whereas demand has become more local amid a lack of international visitors in tourism hotspots such as Europe.
Demand in China has been “very strong” for the past year, but the trend in Korea and Japan is currently “a bit more difficult,” he said. The US is “doing very well, the demand is extremely strong.” Tag Heuer is performing “very strongly” with local clients in Europe, notably with British, French and German customers.
The watch industry has also been disrupted by the arrival of the Apple Watch in 2015. Tag Heuer retaliated with its own smartwatch the same year. Models for its connected watches start from $1,800, compared with $1,249 for Apple’s series 6 model with the premium Hermes leather strap.
The decision to launch a smartwatch was initially a “defensive move,” Arnault said. Tag Heuer is “convinced that traditional watches will keep strong desirability and have a bright future ahead, and we see smartwatches as a new business opportunity and it’s bringing new customers to the brand.”
