Apple reaches license agreement for Swiss rail clock design
Swiss Federal Railways announced on Friday that it has reached an agreement with Apple for the use of its famous clock design on iOS devices.
Left: Apple's iOS 6 clock. Right: the clock design owned by SBB.
Apple and the Swiss Federal Railways SBB have already agreed to and signed the deal, the railway announced in a press release. Both parties agreed to keep the licensing fee associated with the deal secret.
The iconic design of the railway station clock was built in 1944 by engineer and designer Hans Hilfiker. A nearly identical design to the SBB clock is featured in the iPad version of Apple's iOS 6 mobile operating system.
The railway announced last month that it would meet with Apple to discuss a deal over the use of its clock design. The design appeared in the "Clock" application of iOS 6 without a proper licensing deal.
The SBB publicly said that it was "proud" Apple chose to use its iconic clock design in iOS 6. The company said it was flattering to have a "brand as important as Apple" use their design.
"There are a lot of brands that use the SBB logo, though nothing like Apple," a company spokeswoman said in September. "It's not just about exchanging money, rather drawing up a contract stating where the logo can be used, under what conditions and for how long."
SBB licenses the clock designs for various products, including its own collection of watches that are available for sale.
Left: Apple's iOS 6 clock. Right: the clock design owned by SBB.
Apple and the Swiss Federal Railways SBB have already agreed to and signed the deal, the railway announced in a press release. Both parties agreed to keep the licensing fee associated with the deal secret.
The iconic design of the railway station clock was built in 1944 by engineer and designer Hans Hilfiker. A nearly identical design to the SBB clock is featured in the iPad version of Apple's iOS 6 mobile operating system.
The railway announced last month that it would meet with Apple to discuss a deal over the use of its clock design. The design appeared in the "Clock" application of iOS 6 without a proper licensing deal.
The SBB publicly said that it was "proud" Apple chose to use its iconic clock design in iOS 6. The company said it was flattering to have a "brand as important as Apple" use their design.
"There are a lot of brands that use the SBB logo, though nothing like Apple," a company spokeswoman said in September. "It's not just about exchanging money, rather drawing up a contract stating where the logo can be used, under what conditions and for how long."
SBB licenses the clock designs for various products, including its own collection of watches that are available for sale.
Comments
It's about time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Netcrawler
It's about time.
Et touché
Quote:
Originally Posted by jd_in_sb
I don't see that design in the ios 6 clock app.l
Its in the Ipad version of the clock app on the World clocks page, and now I look closer, even the Icon
Quote:
Originally Posted by Netcrawler
It's about time.
I second that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RichL
I second that.
comedy gold
Frustrating that AI keeps using the old version of the SBB design in these articles. With the current version, it's much clearer:
Looks like one of the two does not have the correct time ;-)
with this deal, Sammy doesn't know which version to copy.
The secret part of the deal is that it won't be licensed to Samsung.
Some pretty nice ones... reasonable prices too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Scubadiver
Those clock faces look nothing alike.
Hyperbole much? These two look NOTHING alike?
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Scubadiver
Those clock faces look nothing alike. Not only do they show completely different times, but minute markers are significantly longer and the five minute markers are squatter. Plus, the Mondaine watch face is an actual watch face whereas the iPad clock is simply an image of a clock face. I think Apple gave them a gift.
As mentioned in the comments, the article image is out of date. Even the actual watch face image included in the comments further down is a little out of date, the real things having a shorter minute hand which doesn't obscure the minute marks as it passes.