The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
ZURICH, Switzerland — Swatch Group has signed a contract with Chinese car maker Geely, allowing it to use an innovative battery developed by the watchmaker's research firm Belenos, its chief executive said in an interview on Sunday.
"We're giving Geely the possibly to use our revolutionary battery system," Nick Hayek told NZZ am Sonntag. "This is a first breakthrough for our invention and shows the huge interest industrial firms take in it."
Hayek has said that the performance of the new battery, co-developed with ETH Zurich, is at least 30 percent superior to ordinary batteries.
A memorandum of understanding with Geely was signed mid-May, Hayek said in the interview without giving financial details.
By Silke Koltrowitz; editor: Alison Williams.
Four years ago, when the Trump administration threatened to ban TikTok in the US, its Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd. worked out a preliminary deal to sell the short video app’s business. Not this time.
Brands are using them for design tasks, in their marketing, on their e-commerce sites and in augmented-reality experiences such as virtual try-on, with more applications still emerging.
Brands including LVMH’s Fred, TAG Heuer and Prada, whose lab-grown diamond supplier Snow speaks for the first time, have all unveiled products with man-made stones as they look to technology for new creative possibilities.
Social networks are being blamed for the worrying decline in young people’s mental health. Brands may not think about the matter much, but they’re part of the content stream that keeps them hooked.