PARIS: Apple has poached a senior executive from Swiss luxury watch brand Tag Heuer, which could be to help it with the launch of its iWatch expected this autumn.

Tag Heuer, part of luxury goods group LVMH, said on Friday its vice president for sales, Patrick Pruniaux, who had been with the brand for seven years, was leaving on Monday to join Apple. It did not say what his new job would be. Apple declined to comment.

The iWatch will be the closest the US company has come to selling a fashion accessory and marks its first foray into the personal luxury goods market.

It is in a race against Samsung Electronics and Google to turn computers into wearable fashion and must-have items as smartphones, increasingly becoming commoditized items, start losing their appeal.­

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2014