Luxury brands hedge their bets with smartwatches

By Astrid Wendlandt PARIS (Reuters) - The flurry of technology deals luxury watchmakers announced this week to tackle the Apple Watch threat are more a way to hedge their bets in case the smartwatch market takes off than a strategic U-turn. On Thursday, LVMH's Tag Heuer and Bulgari, and Kering's Gucci were among the more than dozen or so watch brands that announced partnerships with technology companies. Regarding Tag Heuer's alliance with U.S. chip maker Intel and Google unveiled