La Maison Boucheron - Paris, Place Vendôme
It’s been a while since I’ve had fun playing with an iPhone app. I’ve downloaded a number of them including games and utilities but I ended up deleting them afterwards. Lately, fashion and luxury houses have been jumping on the social media bandwagon in the hopes of attracting more technologically-savvy consumers, maintain their loyal customers or explore other ways of marketing and selling their products. Helene of The Luxe Chronicles recently wrote an interesting article about this leap of the luxury industry into Web 2.0. Perhaps they are starting to realize the possibilities of the Internet and social media such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs.
Anyway, I recently downloaded an iPhone app from Boucheron and this may well be the next wave of online marketing and selling products particularly for the luxury industry. This innovative app uses augmented reality and gives you the ability try some of Boucheron’s popular watches and jewelry. You choose the piece, take a photograph of your hand or wrist, scale the piece to size and presto! Instead of imagining how the watch or jewelry will look on your wrist or hand, you’ll have a visual picture of how it would look like.
Here’s a couple of snapshots I took using the Paname and Ronde watches. Which one looks better?
Watch 1 - Chronograph Paname watch
Watch 2 - Automatic Ronde watch
You can even try on a few interesting, or should I say audacious creations from the House’s collections like this one.
Cameleon ring
I usually don’t like trying out expensive watches or jewelry unless I’m willing and able to buy. I find it intimidating enough when I have to be buzzed in by security in these high-end jewelry stores. At least with apps or programs like this, I can try them on without being embarrassed or intimidated (not that I really have to or should feel that way). Just imagine all the possibilities — like trying on a tie, a coat or a hat, maybe even shoes! I guess we’ll just have to wait and see when more and more apps like this come out.
Here is the iPhone application demo from Boucheron.
You can download the application here. You’re welcome!
