GUCCI i.am

Gucci Timepiece i.am+ Puls

In terms of wearable technology, in 2015 Gucci partnered with the former member of the band Black Eyed Piece ‘will.i.am’ and launched a luxury high end smartwatch Gucci Timepiece i.am+ Puls, illustrated in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Timepiece i.am+ Puls (Vogue 2015)

Moreover, the Gucci CEO at the time Marco Bizzarri stated “Wearable technology and smart devices represent a new frontier for the fashion industry. It is very appropriate that Gucci is leading the way through this collaboration with will.i.am, as innovation has always been such an important part of our DNA” (Vogue 2015).

Wearable technology items are devices that can be worn and they usually have smart sensors which allow connection to the internet. The first wearable gadget called The Pulsar Calculator Wristwatch was launched in 1975 and it successfully opened a new opportunity for technology in the market, followed by the first Bluetooth headset in 2000 and GoPro in 2004. The wearable technology market has been growing since then and its future looking promising as well, as the number of connected wearables worldwide is expected to grow over 1.1 billion in 2022.

Its usage started with businesses, military forces and medical professionals, however private consumer market expanded over the years, by featuring new items such as smart glasses, smart watches, fitness and health trackers, hearables, smart jewellery and smart clothing (Holst 2020).

Figure 7 shows the wearables market growing with its incremental growth, grow rate and other key features of the market over the years (Brown 2019).