If Apple CEO Tim Cook and the founder of London's Hoptroff watch company, Richard Hoptroff, haven't crossed paths, then it might be a good idea for one to reach out to the other as they've got a few things in common.
One similarity is an obvious love for technology. Another is a belief that people are willing to pay big, big bucks (in the $10,000 to $54,000 range) for a watch. Still, another is how the two geeks are each a mastermind behind their own brand of fashionable devices for the wrist in which time isn't the prime focus.
A fourth similarity? Well, the fourth may be succinctly explained in this comment from Hoptroff, creator of the No. 8 Diary Watch that may just be Apple Watch's biggest competitor come April:
"People don't wear watches to tell the time. They wear them because they say something about themselves."
Hoptroff founded his London-based watch company after he started designing watches for fun. His initial watches, he readily admits, would be impossible to produce, but he obviously cleared those challenges and made more than a few amazing ones. The Apple Watch killer is the No. 8 and one that Cook and company might just want to check out.
The No. 8 Hoptroff is a "diary watch" in that it provides a literal diary of a wearer's daily appointments and events. It boasts dual time zones and runs on Bluetooth. The luxurious wristband diary doesn't come cheap, though. The gold No. 8 smartwatch starts at about $21,700 and the platinum option hits about $54,000.
Here you thought Apple's $10,000 price tag for its impending Watch Edition was a bit of a stretch, but hey, both watches sync with the iPhone for accessing data. For the No. 8, that data is calendar information. For the Apple Watch, it'll likely be calendar data, heart rate and even the Apple Pay capability.
No one's really sure, just yet, what complete set of features the Apple Watch will have. That's because Apple has been awfully quiet about its impending first-ever wearable, athough it's obvious that design has been a critical core focus. We'll all learn more on Monday, March 9, at Apple's Spring Forward event where the Watch is rumored to be a prime topic.
It will be interesting to see how the Watch will compare with the No. 8 Hoptroff, which has been noted for having limited functionality but a genius design.
So, now, there's the fifth similarity between Cook and Hoptroff.
