Movado Still ‘Big Believers’ in Conventional-Watch ‘Opportunities,’ Says CEO
Though Movado is playing increasingly in the smartwatch space, “we’re still big believers that there are many opportunities with conventional watches that are differentiated by great brands and innovative design,” said CEO Efraim Grinberg Monday on an earnings call. “There…
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has already been a saturation, slowdown and commoditization of the fitness band category, and some of the major players are downtrending,” said Grinberg, in an obvious reference to Fitbit, which recently blamed early adopter saturation for its significant sales shortfall in 2016's holiday quarter (see 1702230039). In the smartwatch space, “there is a continued opportunity as technology improves and consumers are able to get the creative designs they desire to deliver the functionality that they are looking for,” he said. Movado is “confident with our strategic approach” to the “emerging” smartwatch business, said President Ricardo Quintero. “Early results confirm that this category is relevant, but technology has not caught pace with what consumers are looking for,” said Quintero. “Apple has played a disruptive role in the fashion watch category.” With Movado's recent introduction of Movado Connect, among the first smartwatch lines to support Google’s newly redesigned Android Wear 2.0 platform (see 1703080045), “we will begin to enter the fully connected smartwatch space,” Quintero said.