TWIN pique: Montblanc solves the smartwatch vs. traditional debate

In January 2015, Montblanc came up with what some might call “The Peacemaker”: a harmonious hybrid of smart technology and the mechanical wristwatch. At that stage in smartwatch history, the threat to traditional timepieces loomed large, with manufacturers of “normal” wristwatches imagining a catastrophic replay of the arrival of quartz in the 1970s That event decimated the industry, which took a couple of decades to recover And it didn't turn out badly: wristwatches are back, big time.

But would Apple and its fellow travellers rob the watch industry of its future? As it turns out, smartwatches made little or no difference to the real state of the watch business after the dust settled TAG Heuer, Montblanc, Breitling, Frederique Constant and others chose to offer both, with TAG Heuer hedging the customers’ bets: if one grew tired of the battery-powered smart watch, you could send it back and have its innards replaced with . Source