Apple disrupted watches, now targeting the $200B eyewear industry
▼ Summary
– Apple plans to disrupt the $200 billion eyewear market by targeting mass-market glasses priced between $200 and $500, similar to its strategy with the Apple Watch.
– The Apple Watch caused Swatch’s revenue to drop 28% and Fossil’s sales to fall 70%, while Apple became the world’s largest watchmaker by revenue.
– Apple’s first smart glasses, codenamed N50, are delayed to a late 2027 launch, using oval cameras and multiple frame styles, with potential health and AR features.
– Meta leads the smart glasses market with 82% share, selling over seven million Ray-Ban units in 2025, and benefits from Android compatibility and retail partnerships.
– Apple’s glasses aim to integrate with iPhone and AI features, targeting billions with vision impairment, while luxury eyewear brands are expected to remain unaffected.
When Apple unveiled the Apple Watch a decade ago, the mid-tier watch industry was controlled by a handful of legacy players. Swatch Group owned Tissot, Hamilton, and Longines. Fossil Group held the licenses for Michael Kors, Armani, and Kate Spade. Movado managed Coach, Hugo Boss, and Tommy Hilfiger.
Fast forward to today, and the financial toll is clear. Swatch’s revenue in 2025 sits 28% below its 2014 level, while Fossil’s sales have plunged roughly 70%. Within just a few years of its launch, Apple became the world’s largest watchmaker by unit volume, and last year it surpassed Rolex as the top watch brand by revenue. The Apple Watch now generates an estimated $17 billion annually.
Now, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is preparing to apply the same disruptive playbook to a much larger category: eyewear. The company sees the global $200 billion eyewear market as an even bigger opportunity than watches. Its initial target is the $200 to $500 price segment, a space currently dominated by EssilorLuxottica (owner of Ray-Ban, Oakley, Persol, and Oliver Peoples), Safilo Group (which licenses Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss), and Warby Parker.
The potential customer base is enormous. The World Health Organization estimates 2.2 billion people worldwide have some form of vision impairment, and hundreds of millions of new pairs of glasses are sold each year. Apple believes its brand strength, industrial design, seamless iPhone integration, and advanced AI capabilities will convince consumers to choose an Apple pair when they need new prescription glasses.
The first Apple glasses, internally codenamed N50, were originally slated for a late 2026 launch with shipping in early 2027. However, delays have pushed the timeline to a release at the end of 2027, Gurman reports. The product will feature oval-shaped cameras, unique color options, and several frame styles. Over time, Apple envisions the glasses evolving into a health device and eventually incorporating augmented reality features.
Meta, however, holds a substantial head start. The company sold more than seven million Ray-Ban smart glasses in 2025 and commands roughly 82% of the smart glasses market. It has retail partnerships with LensCrafters and is steadily introducing new models, with more arriving in June. Meta also leads on AI functionality and benefits from compatibility with Android, which has a larger global user base than iOS.
Apple’s long-standing refusal to support Android gives Meta a permanent opportunity to dominate that side of the market. Ironically, Apple’s entry could actually benefit Meta by generating broader consumer excitement about smart glasses, after which Android users would naturally gravitate toward Meta’s offerings.
Meta is also expanding its wearables strategy beyond glasses. A leaked internal memo this week confirmed the company is developing an AI pendant and a “Wearables for Work” enterprise subscription. The competitive field is widening even before Apple’s product ships.
The biggest risk for Apple is timing. Every month of delay gives Meta more users, more retail presence, and more data on consumer preferences for smart glasses. The product’s success depends on a revamped Siri that has already been delayed for two years. The new Siri app in iOS 27 may still launch as a beta.
Tim Cook has described the glasses as his top priority, and incoming CEO John Ternus is the driving force behind the project. The Vision Products Group developing the glasses has operated under Ternus’s leadership for the past two years. Support from Apple’s highest levels is not in question. The execution timeline is.
Not all eyewear companies need to worry. High-fashion brands selling glasses for thousands of dollars, such as Cartier, Lindberg, Jacques Marie Mage, and Maison Bonnet, will likely continue to thrive. Apple never had a meaningful impact on the luxury watch market, despite its attempt at $10,000 gold Apple Watches. Rolex generated an estimated $14 billion in revenue last year, more than double its sales from a decade earlier.
The target is the mass market, not the luxury segment. Apple is going after EssilorLuxottica, Safilo, and Warby Parker the same way it went after Swatch, Fossil, and Movado. The pattern is familiar: enter an established consumer product category, offer something that integrates seamlessly with the iPhone, and watch the incumbents’ revenue decline.
Apple’s Watch business is itself facing new competitive pressure from screenless wearables like Whoop, Oura, and Google’s Fitbit Air. The company needs a new hardware growth category. Glasses, if executed well, could be that category. The addressable market is not millions of users. It is billions.
Gurman also reported that iOS 27’s Siri app will sync conversations across devices via iCloud. Early work on iOS 28 (codenamed Bell) and macOS 28 (codenamed Poppy) has begun, with next year’s releases expected to be “far more significant” than the iOS 27 updates. A new Apple TV set-top box and HomePod mini are nearly ready, having been delayed for months to launch alongside the new Siri.
(Source: The Next Web)