In early December we reported that one of the leading Swiss watch companies headed by Jean-Claude Biver lashed out at the Apple Watch for being too feminine amongst other things. Of course what he didn't reveal at that time was that his company was secretly racing to come up with a smartwatch that would eventually compete with Apple. We had reported earlier that "Jean-Claude Biver, president of LVMH's watch division stated that "Maybe in nine months, we will have a smartwatch." Biver went on to say that he wasn't sure yet which technology partner that they would dance with yet. Then the rumor surfaced pointing to Intel as the likely partner as we noted in our first link above. Today that's now official.

Reuters reported last night that Tag Heuer plans to unveil a smartwatch later today among a wave of partnerships expected at the world's biggest watch fair this week as luxury watchmakers fight back against Apple.

The Swiss watch brand, the biggest at French luxury group LVMH, will announce it is teaming up with U.S. chip maker Intel Corp to create a digital version of one of its best-selling model, industry sources have said.

Tag Heuer is planning to launch next autumn a smartwatch version of its Carrera watch that will offer many of the same functions as the Apple watch such as geolocation, distance walked and altitude.

Jean-Claude Biver, who's known for his colorful rhetoric against Apple, had another dig for them today: "Apple will get young people used to wearing a watch and later maybe they will want to buy themselves a real watch." He has a sharp sense of humor, I'll give him that.

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