With the release of watchOS 10, the beloved comic strip Peanuts comes to life on Apple Watch with the Snoopy watch face featuring Snoopy and Woodstock. The characters interact and play with the watch hands, react to the weather conditions in the area, or even get active when the user does a workout.
Robert Leedham for British GQ:
Assuming you don’t have the necessary $18,000 to skip the authorized dealer waitlist and pick up a pre-owned ‘Silver Snoopy Award’ 50th Anniversary Speedmaster but are desperate to get in on the hottest watch trend of recent years, help might finally be at hand. Released yesterday as part of the free watchOS 10 software update, Snoopy has arrived on Apple Watch in a major way. Those who already roll with the tech titan’s smartwatch will know about its surprisingly attentive approach to horological history. From world timers to solar dials and even Gérald Genta’s favourite Mickey Mouse, its treasure trove of over 50 customizable watch faces reimagines almost every function you could care to own from the likes of Rolex, Patek Phillippe and AP. Until now, there has been one glaring omission from this catalog. In remedying Snoopy’s absence, Apple and its partners at the Charles M Schulz Studio took the opportunity to create the most detailed and straight-up delightful watch face yet.
That first meeting at the Charles M Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California, was the Watch team’s first in-person meet-up after the pandemic, and what started as a two-hour drive north from Mountain View ultimately ended with plans for 148 unique animations that would be contextual depending on the time of day, local weather and activities. When you go for a swim, Snoopy dons his scuba gear and floats through your watch screen. When night arrives he’ll howl at the moon, and when you’re not up to much at all you can find him draped over his iconic red doghouse in a series of panels that are a direct lift from the comics. It all amounts to over 12 minutes of animation work that stemmed from an unexpectedly chaotic tête-à-tête.
Key to this process was defining the look and feel of Snoopy himself. When he first debuted alongside Charlie Brown in 1950, Schulz’s creation walked on all fours, barked like a dog and had few of the anthropomorphic qualities he’s known for today—let alone the antagonistic attitude towards his owner. Eventually, the team settled on an ’80s-inspired design with a shorter nose than Snoopy had in the ’70s and a straighter one than he did in the ’90s. Such are the details you sweat when you’re working with people who are paid to be Peanuts obsessives.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s famous attention to detail shines through with watchOS 10 and the latest Apple Watch models!
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
