It seems even TAG Heuer underestimated how many people would be willing to buy a $1,500 smart watch. The company has announced that they will halt online sales of their Android Wear watch after a huge initial demand. The company is said to have received over 100,000 orders for watches from retailers and agents at physical jewelry boutiques.
As such, they are finding it hard to meet the demand at their current production pace of 1,200 units per week. They’re ramping up to 2,000 per week, which should shorten shipment for a majority of the orders by at least a month or two.
Esteemed Tag Heuer CEO and shareholder Jean-Claude Biver says they don’t expect online orders to open back up until at least May or June as they’ll opt to give priority to brick and mortar shops. This’ll make it just a tad harder to track one of these watches down if you want one, but if you’re willing to spend $1,800 on a smart watch then we’re sure you won’t mind putting up a bit more legwork to find it.
The fact that Tag Heuer wasn’t ready for such demand is a testament to the company’s confidence that there actually is a market for super premium smart watches. 100,000 units doesn’t sound like a whole lot by consumer tech standards, but it might be a ton for the premium jewelry industry and the company probably couldn’t be happier for it. Any of you well-off folks planning to grab one of these?
[via Bloomberg]