TL;DR
Apple plans to disrupt the $200B eyewear market the way it disrupted watches. Swatch fell 28%, Fossil 70%. Smart glasses are targeting late 2027.
When Apple launched the Apple Watch in 2015, the mid-tier wristwatch market had a handful of dominant companies. Swatch Group sold watches under Tissot, Hamilton, and Longines. Fossil Group sold under Michael Kors, Armani, and Kate Spade. Movado sold under Coach, Hugo Boss, and Tommy Hilfiger.
Ten years later, the damage is quantifiable. Swatch’s revenue is 28% lower in 2025 than it was in 2014. Fossil’s sales dropped roughly 70%. Apple became the world’s largest watchmaker by unit volume within a few years and last year overtook Rolex as the number one watch brand by revenue. The Apple Watch now generates an estimated $17 billion annually.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple is planning the same playbook for glasses. The company sees the $200 billion global eyewear market as a bigger opportunity than watches and intends to compete directly with products sold between $200 and $500, a segment dominated by EssilorLuxottica (Ray-Ban, Oakley, Persol, Oliver Peoples), Safilo Group (Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss), and Warby Parker.
The addressable market is staggering. The WHO estimates 2.2 billion people globally have some form of vision impairment. Hundreds of millions of pairs of glasses are sold each year. Apple believes its brand, industrial design, iPhone integration, and AI features will lead people seeking new regular glasses to buy an Apple pair instead.
The first Apple glasses, codenamed N50, were initially planned for late 2026 with shipping by early 2027. Delays have pushed the timeline to a launch at the end of 2027, Gurman reports. The product will use oval-shaped cameras, unique colours, and multiple frame styles. Over time, Apple believes the glasses could become a health device and eventually incorporate augmented reality.
Meta has a substantial head start. It 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 rolling out new models, with more coming in June. Meta also leads on AI features and has the advantage of working with Android, which remains larger than iOS globally.
Apple’s historical refusal to support Android gives Meta an opportunity to own that side of the market permanently. Ironically, Apple’s entry could benefit Meta by generating broader consumer excitement about smart glasses, with Android users then steered toward Meta’s models.
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 landscape is widening before Apple’s product even ships.
The risk for Apple is timing. Every month of delay gives Meta more users, more retail presence, and more data on what consumers want from smart glasses. The product 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. Incoming CEO John Ternus is the driving force behind the project. The Vision Products Group developing the glasses has operated under his leadership for the past two years. The 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, names like 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 way it went after Swatch, Fossil, and Movado. The pattern is clear: enter an established consumer product market, offer something that integrates with the iPhone, and wait for the incumbents’ revenue to 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 it. 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.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
