The wearables industry is growing – fast!

Last month we saw Fitbit make an incredible market debut, and learnt that the wearables market is set to grow by a huge 173.3 percent this year.

This is a fact that clearly hasn’t escaped LVMH, the French luxury goods maker, who recently announced that they will launch a product to rival the Apple Watch.

It’s an interesting development, and perhaps one of the first times a fashion company has gone toe-to-toe with a tech company.

So, what does LVMH’s watch say about the world's fashion and tech, and the crossover between the two?

Even ten years ago, fashion and technology were seen as very separate markets, with very different customers (or at least markets catering to very different customer preferences). But, largely a result of Apple’s huge successes and their making technology “cool”, tech has become very fashionable.

And now, with the advent of wearable tech, the worlds of fashion and technology have moved closer than ever.

The Apple Watch, for example, was co-designed and conceptualised with the help of former Burberry boss Angela Ahrendts and former CEO at Yves Saint Laurent Paul Deneve.

Probably a wise move, since Apple had, till then, only ever created things that people want to use (and be seen using), never something people want to wear.

It’s likely, then, that LVMH will play to their strengths and develop their Apple Watch rival from, fundamentally, a fashion perspective.

The company is already a major player in the fashion industry, so it will be very interesting to see how their offering differs from Apple’s and, ultimately, to see which product consumers will prefer – since this could be the best indication we will have as to which type of company will end up leading the market: technology firms, or fashion ones.

What do you think about LVMH’s decision to enter fashion tech? And who do you think will emerge as the wearable industry’s leaders? 

Email us your thoughts.