TAG Heuer, the watch brand of the French luxury group LVMH, is planning to release its own smartwatch.
The company's plans were revealed by Jean-Claude Biver, the head of TAG Heuer, in an interview with a Swiss newspaper.
"We want to launch a smartwatch at TAG Heuer, but it must not copy the Apple Watch," said Biver to NZZ am Sonntag.
Biver's revelation comes just a week after Apple unveiled the Apple Watch, the company's first entry into the wearable technology market, in a media event that also introduced the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus.
The Apple Watch, along with the other smartwatches from technology companies that are currently in the market or about to be released, pose as competition to the world-renowned traditional watch industry of Switzerland due to their added functionality. Smartwatches, when connected to the user's smartphone, allows the wearer to send and receive communications, check messages and monitor their personal fitness, among other things.
TAG Heuer is looking to enter the competition with their own brand with Biver saying that the Swiss watch industry will be presenting smartwatches no later than next spring at the Basel watch fair.
"We cannot afford to just follow in somebody else's footsteps," added Biver, but he did not reveal any other details about the smartwatch that TAG Heuer is planning.
Biver is a well-recorded critic of the Apple Watch, especially after Apple had said that the smartwatch will make consumers forget all about the traditional luxury watches.
"It looks a little cold, and lacks, for my taste, a bit of personality," Biver said after the Apple Watch was introduced. "It looks perfect, but perfection sometimes has a lack of sexiness. This won't create another crisis for the Swiss watch industry."
Biver also thinks that the design of the Apple Watch will become quickly outdated, as the device will not be released until next year, when Apple's smartwatch competitors will be releasing the latest models of their devices. One of these competitors is Motorola, which is expected to launch the next version of the Moto 360 smartwatch.
Earlier in July, Apple lured the sales director of TAG Heuer away from the luxury watch company to work with Apple in the launch of the Apple Watch. Apple was looking for experts on Swiss watches to work for the company to be able to place the "Swiss made" label on the Apple Watch, but Apple did not find much success in attracting Swiss watch company employees.
