“On Tuesday, Apple, the venerable leader of cool, is expected to unveil a wearable iWatch that will, given the company’s track record, likely be the opposite of ugly,” Nick Bilton reports for The New York Times. “While we don’t have much of an idea what the coveted iWatch will look like, I was able to glean one small detail from people at Apple who work on the company’s wearables.”
Bilton reports, “According to a designer who works at Apple, Jonathan Ive, Apple’s design chief, in bragging about how cool he thought the iWatch was shaping up to be, gleefully said Switzerland is in trouble — though he chose a much bolder term for ‘trouble’ to express how he thought the watchmaking nation might be in a tough predicament when Apple’s watch comes out.”
“If anyone can change the perception of wearables and ugliness, it’s definitely Apple,” Bilton reports. “The company’s iPod turned the once-geeky MP3 player into a fashion accessory, the iPhone made smartphones into a status symbol, and the iPad took tablet computers, once the nerdiest gadget of all, and made them coveted and sexy accessories.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: 🙂
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Apple’s iWatch could clock Swiss watchmaker Swatch – July 8, 2014
Apple hires TAG Heuer sales director – July 6, 2014
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Swatch CEO: ‘We’re going to wait’ on smartwatches – June 17, 2014
Swatch objects to authorities over Apple’s filing for ‘iWatch’ trademarks – May 4, 2014
Apple’s iWatch could take out Swatch, others, even luxury watch makers – May 29, 2013
Swatch CEO on Apple iWatch potential: ‘Personally, I don’t believe it’s the next revolution’ – March 6, 2013
As a Brit he could have meant England’s Euro 2016 football match against Switzerland on Monday night – then again based on their performance against Norway I think you’re right, he meant the iWatch!
LOL with tears. Nice one.
Could have been mis heard and it wasn’t Switzerland that he was saying was in deep shit in that regard.
Now that sounds like music…
Bilton reports, “According to a designer who works at Apple, Jonathan Ive, Apple’s design chief, in bragging about how cool he thought the iWatch was shaping up to be, gleefully said Switzerland is in trouble —
This is a joke right? Someone at Apple actually blabbed to the press about iWatch? Total BS. Can’t believe this story made the rounds, and make Ive look like a stereotypically arrogant Apple fan. How embarrassing.
Funny thing a ship that leaks from the top…
Oh come on get real, comments like this will be made all the time and its hardly a leak is it. If the designer isn’t proud of his work not likely anyone else will be. That Sid probably totally made up by someone bigging themselves up and no doubt any comments overheard.
For the iwatch to succeed it needs to convince a rolex would be buyer to change their mind. I have always thought this and this gives me hope it will be the case.
I’m totally convinced the iWhatever will be completely successful but there’s just no way someone who is predisposed to wear a Rolex will permanently forego it and switch to wearing an Apple device. They’re just two different devices and two different demographics.
Being utilitarian, I’ve never understood the point of paying for a Rolex. I have a cheap Timex that does what I want and survived a trip through the washing machine and dryer. If there is an ‘iWatch’, I’ll want one if it’s useful and durable.
A Rolex is either aspirational bling or disposable income.
I guess I’m lucky. I was a professional student for quite a long while and got used to living the working student lifestyle. I never stopped. I get along well with Quakers. Hand me a $million and I’ll be figuring out how to put it to work benefiting our miracle planet. Of course, I draw the line at my computer gear. I have to be on the bleeding edge.
Don’t know what all the fuss is about I bought a lovely cheap Rolex in Turkey that did me very nicely for a few years. Kept perfect time too consistently losing 3 minutes a day without fail. God I miss that beauty.
I think they are adjustable so you can better synchronize with real time. But I expect you’d need a savvy jeweler to fish around in the guts and turn that teeny tiny little screw in there that changes the sprint tension, or something. Great watches are incredible feats of mechanics and electronics! I love that stuff. I was glued to the telly watching the program ‘Longitude’ about John Harrison and his brilliant seafaring clock.
Swiss watchmakers: We’ve learned and struggled for years figuring out how to make a decent high end watch. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.
I’ve seen BlackBerry’s in high class stores that cost thousands of dollars because it was designed by someone from BMW or something like that.
In the end, it was still a BlackBerry.
Vulgarity in a headline?…really? C’mon, MDN, how “uncool” is that? As a long-time follower, I’ve grown to expect more class.
How “long-time” could you be when MDN has used “shit” in headlines since 2008:
http://macdailynews.com/?s=shit&submit_button=Search
Having done it before doesn’t make it any less tasteless today. I’m with macrunner on this one.
The others are quotes. This is an editorial headline. It’s different.
E.g., media outlets around the USA are enacting policies against referring to the Washington Redskins football team by their politically-hot name in articles & columns. However, appropriate printing of the name in quotes, letters to the editor and stories specifically ABOUT the controversy will of course continue.
Jesse, words really can hurt you!
I just hope that they don’t make a classic watch wannabe smartwatch.
That’s my boy – as a British designer myself I feel real proud!
It’s unlikely the Apple wearable device will be competing directly against traditional Swiss-made watches. Besides most of those Swiss watches are mechanical wonders internally and have nothing to do with electronic circuitry. I’d like to hear exactly what Jony Ive said because I’ve seen a number of articles saying different things. I also can’t believe any wearable device made by one company would affect the entire Swiss-made watch industry. I don’t believe even Apple has that much influence over the watch industry.
No leaks of the watch? That means mo watch next week…as for the phone, all the early pics look accurate. All you fanboys who said they were fake will be proven wrong. I hope they surprise us though…
Uh yeah.. Patek Phillippe is going out of business. Because some of techno-toy. Not gonna happen. Timex, Casio, and Swatch may be in trouble.
You never know. There was some rumor that some iWatches could be as expensive as few thousand dollars. May be fashionable with gold and diamonds. Tag Heuer and Burbery CEO’s at APPLE may not be sitting idle.
Appleinsider:
Apple’s ‘iWatch’ to have two sizes, 8GB storage, multiple material & color options for 2015 launch – report
With Apple design chief Jony Ive reportedly confident of the so-called “iWatch’s” chances when pitted against the famous Swiss watchmakers, a new report from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests that Apple will offer its upcoming wearable — which is unlikely to hit shelves before 2015 — in at least two sizes with 8 gigabytes of internal storage and a variety of color and material options, including gold
The high-end swiss brands like Patek, Audemars, Rolex etc will just be fine. So will the Swatch group, which makes most of its money from high-end mechanicals – though the Swatch brand itself could be in some trouble.
However, over 80 percent of Swiss watches (in terms of units) are quartz and there are dozens of small companies that primarily make quartz watches – and they occupy the mid-priced sector that the iWatch will be aimed at.
The Japanese (who are pretty much all quartz) will also be in a world of trouble. They’ve probably seen the writing on the wall and have tried recently to expand their mechanical watch operations.
Of course, all of this assumes that the iWatch is a hit.
– HCE
This isn’t a quote from Ive, but a second hand, anonymous comment about something Ive “said”. I call BS. Still stoked though!!!
IOW: This is a report of hearsay. It’s gossip, not journalism. Yawn.
i think apple was convinced long ago that their wearable absolutely can not look like one thing. It has to be a chameleon. it has to create an open field for designers to alter the look from a conservative evening accessory to something held on little more than a tattoo. from conservative elegance to shit cool.
Ive could also be meaning design wise as opposed to just putting them into financial trouble.
Ive’s Leica camera for project RED is one of the most beautiful cameras I’ve ever seen. If you just talk about sleekness and beauty and not about amount of functions etc Ive’s Leica puts Canon’s, Nikon’s etc offerings to shame. (the camera was sold for 1.8 million!) .
Ive’s Leica was limited in a way because it had to follow the Leica tradition, the Leica ‘look’ , but there’s no limits to the Apple’s new iWearable.
If Ive’s design is a real killer and radical it might just turn watch design on it’s head.
—
btw as I’ve said before Apple’s leaders look very relaxed and confident when you see them at WWDC etc, they know what apple has in store and they know it’s gonna be good…
Will it be better than my black LED watch from 1982? You push a button and get the red glow numbers. Hard to read in daylight, but I doubt any iWatch will ever be more impressive than that! Ha!
Meh.
Can’t see the point. I have a watch that does one thing perfectly; it tells me the time instantly, day or night, just by taking a glance at my wrist, for all of two seconds. It requires no batteries, and will last over fifty hours without winding. For any other function I have my phone in my pocket, checking the time with it takes thirty times longer than looking at my watch.
Yes, I know the ‘iWatch’ tells the time, but it will require a battery or regular recharging, which means yet another wall-wart, charging cable, and space.
One Apple device which I see no use for whatsoever.
I disposed with wristwatches anyway. My grandpapa’s fobwatch is doing a great job after an overhaul by a watchmaker (the first in 50 years!). There is nothing like raising an eyebrow and pulling out a fobwatch to tell people they are wasting your time :o)
I own a $10K+ Rolex and have religiously worn it on my wrist for at least the last 10 years. However, if Apple comes out with a useful, cool, waterproof and of course very nice-looking iWatch, I will immediately put my Rolex in the safe and buy an iWatch.
I hope he’s right but I already know that I don’t always agree with Jody Ive on what is best or what is cool.
I’ve met the man, and I don’t believe he said any such thing. Gloating is just not his style.
-jcr
My Rolex doesn’t have anything to fear. I won’t be replacing it with an electronic item.
I do, however, have another wrist! LOL!
How is Switzerland in deep shit? Because they make heavier and uglier watches than the Apple Watch?
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