Posh watch gets a smart strap

The wrist race is getting very competitive. It's like the arms race, but with important differences of being located a few inches further along your appendages and being much better for your health.

In an effort to add some smart credentials to its watch lineup, Swiss luxury brand IWC Schaffhausen has gone the way of Montblanc by leaving their traditional cogs-and-springs watch alone and adding a clever activity tracking strap. 

This small circular device is called the IWC Connect, an "aesthetically complementary solution" to IWC owner's health tracking needs that doesn't make their expensive watch look like a dirty great Apple pretender. By slipping on onto the strap of your expensive timepiece, users will be able to connect with their smartphone and track their movement, as well as linking in with that oddly obscure "internet of things". 

Details on the IWC Connect are currently scant, with more information coming in the following weeks. What's interesting to note is that another luxury watch maker appears to believe that its customers have enough interest in activity tracking to bother making one. Are they scared of Apple? Are they just covering their backs (or rather, the backs of their wrists) and hoping it'll all go away? Probably both.