One of the disadvantages of buying wearable items from online stores is the inability to try on the item before purchase to see how it looks. One Swiss watch company has turned to augmented reality (AR) to solve this problem.
Formex Swiss Watches are an independent Swiss watchmaker that produces high-quality sport watches. In 2016 the company CEO Raphael Granito decided to take the company entirely online, relying on the internet to provide custom for its line of watches. Formex managed to slash its prices in half and extend its warrenty by a year to entice customers to buy.
However, Formex was faced with a problem; Some customers were reluctant to buy an item when they couldn’t try it on and see how it looked on their wrist. Seeking an answer to this issue, the company turned to AR to develop an app that would let customers use their smartphones to view what a watch would look like when strapped to their wrist.
As Granito noted: “Despite the many advantages of buying a watch online, the biggest drawback so far was that customers were not able to try them on. Even though every Formex comes with a 30-day free return policy, we found that people are still hesitant to buy watches without having had them on their wrist. That’s why we came up with the idea for this App.”
The current version of the app features three model lines and lets customers customise straps and take pictures of the watches as they appear on their wrist. The app is available for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
VRFocus will bring you further news on new applications for AR technology as it becomes available.