With the Swiss watch conference, Baselworld, underway this morning, we’re expecting to find out how traditional watchmakers are going to respond to the Apple Watch. Tag Heuer is first in line, announcing a smartwatch version of one of its best-selling models, the Carrera, in partnership with Google and Intel.

TAG Heuer, Google and Intel have announced a partnership to launch a Swiss smartwatch powered by Intel technology and Android Wear. The effort signifies a new era of collaboration between Swiss watchmakers and Silicon Valley, bringing together each company’s respective expertise in luxury watchmaking, software and hardware.

While the company did not go into details, Reuters reports that the watch “will be a digital replica of the original Tag Heuer black Carrera, known for its bulky, sporty allure, and will look like the original.”

Sincere or not, Tag Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver says that he welcomes the launch of the Apple Watch …

Biver repeated his view that smartwatches will increase the size of the market for watches of all kinds, traditional and hi-tech. In a somewhat snide dig at the Apple Watch, he said:

Apple will get young people used to wearing a watch and later maybe they will want to buy themselves a real watch.

The “real thing” argument is also the line being taken by Hermes and Patek Philippe, both companies saying they have no plans to launch smartwatches.

“When you are buy a Patek Philippe, you buy a timeless piece of art,” said Patek Philippe Chairman Thierry Stern. “It would be as if you told people to no longer buy paintings but TV screens projecting the image of a painting.”

Tissot yesterday revealed a solar-powered touchscreen watch, the T-Touch.

Tim Cook said in an interview yesterday that he was relaxed if people didn’t immediately see what they would want to buy the Apple Watch, using the same iPad analogy I did in my earlier opinion piece.

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