Apple Watch one of the first post-Steve Jobs products at Apple, says Jony Ive
In an interview with a design magazine, Apple's design chief reveals that he never talked about the Apple Watch with Steve Jobs, and elaborates on the early design process.
Jony Ive, Apple's Chief Design Officer, spoke with Hodinkee, which describes itself as the world's leading online wristwatch magazine, in a new interview published this week, where Ive reveals some surprising things about the creation of the Apple Watch.
Amid discussion of what inspired Ive as a young man, and his favorite watches, Ive reveals in the interview with Hodinkee founder Benjamin Clymer that he doesn't remember ever talking about the Apple Watch -- or watches in general -- with Steve Jobs, nor was the Apple Watch ever a consideration for Apple during Jobs' time at the company.
"The first discussion took place in early 2012, a few months after Steve's passing," Ive says in the interview. "It caused us to take time, pausing to think about where we wanted to go, what trajectory we were on as a company, and what motivated us. Also, what concisely was our contribution to our users. And I think, incontrovertibly, that Apple since the 1970s has made difficult-to-comprehend and inaccessible technology easy to understand and accessible."
Ive goes on to describe the process of how the Apple Watch was developed, leading up to its initial release in April 2015. He calls it "both typical and atypical" for Apple's product development.
"We are a tight knit group of designers, and as always, these things start with an idea that quickly becomes a conversation that changes in nature as soon as you start to draw and make physical objects," said Ive. "Things are exceptionally fragile as an idea -- entirely abstract -- but once there is an object between us, it is galvanizing."
Ive added that Apple enlisted seven watch experts to develop the first Apple Watch. After years of speculation, the device was unveiled in September 2014, and released in April 2015.
While Ive says in the interview that he doesn't remember Jobs ever even wearing a watch, but the interviewer had bid unsuccessfully for the Seiko watch that Jobs was wearing in the famous Norman Seef photograph with the Macintosh from 1984.
Apple's wearables division on its own, as of the most recent earnings release last week, is now the size of a Fortune 300 company.
Ive's tenure as the top design mind at Apple began with the creation of the iMac two decades ago. Ive became chancellor of the Royal College of Art in London last year, and is regularly interviewed by design publications.
Jony Ive, Apple's Chief Design Officer, spoke with Hodinkee, which describes itself as the world's leading online wristwatch magazine, in a new interview published this week, where Ive reveals some surprising things about the creation of the Apple Watch.
Amid discussion of what inspired Ive as a young man, and his favorite watches, Ive reveals in the interview with Hodinkee founder Benjamin Clymer that he doesn't remember ever talking about the Apple Watch -- or watches in general -- with Steve Jobs, nor was the Apple Watch ever a consideration for Apple during Jobs' time at the company.
"The first discussion took place in early 2012, a few months after Steve's passing," Ive says in the interview. "It caused us to take time, pausing to think about where we wanted to go, what trajectory we were on as a company, and what motivated us. Also, what concisely was our contribution to our users. And I think, incontrovertibly, that Apple since the 1970s has made difficult-to-comprehend and inaccessible technology easy to understand and accessible."
Birth of a Watch
Ive goes on to describe the process of how the Apple Watch was developed, leading up to its initial release in April 2015. He calls it "both typical and atypical" for Apple's product development.
"We are a tight knit group of designers, and as always, these things start with an idea that quickly becomes a conversation that changes in nature as soon as you start to draw and make physical objects," said Ive. "Things are exceptionally fragile as an idea -- entirely abstract -- but once there is an object between us, it is galvanizing."
Ive added that Apple enlisted seven watch experts to develop the first Apple Watch. After years of speculation, the device was unveiled in September 2014, and released in April 2015.
While Ive says in the interview that he doesn't remember Jobs ever even wearing a watch, but the interviewer had bid unsuccessfully for the Seiko watch that Jobs was wearing in the famous Norman Seef photograph with the Macintosh from 1984.
Apple's wearables division on its own, as of the most recent earnings release last week, is now the size of a Fortune 300 company.
Ive's tenure as the top design mind at Apple began with the creation of the iMac two decades ago. Ive became chancellor of the Royal College of Art in London last year, and is regularly interviewed by design publications.
Comments
1) I'm glad to see that headphones are being counted as wearables. The amount of pushback I had on this forum regarding that issue was ridiculous. Hopefully everyone is onboard with that basic concept by now.
2) Beats, AirPods and Watch are all popular, but I wonder how what percentage Apple Watch accounts for that Fortune 300 ranking.
You do know Steve Jobs was the ultimate flip flopper right? He could be totally against something one day and be convinced it was a good idea the next and be totally onboard with it (iPad mini, iOS App Store, etc).
I seriously doubt its taking away from the Mac mini or Mac Pro being developed...if that's what you're thinking.
Also, its not like Steve thought of every single little thing at Apple. There are other people (very talented people too) who work at Apple and still do to this day who also thought of things and convinced Steve that it was a good idea.
Stupid comment but in line with your negativity of the past.
I’m sure in the past 3 years or so Apple has learned a lot. Their focus now seems to be exclusively health and fitness. The Watch as an app platform is kind of dead (same could be said about Apple TV) which is OK as I don’t think it’s the best use of the device. I can’t remember the last time I launched a 3rd party app on my Watch. It will be fascinating to see where Apple takes the device in the future.
Everyone, including Jobs for sure. He was fond of "hobbies"
Some people looked at the 1st gen watch and saw how slow it was, how confusing it was to setup, the fact that if you do a software update and brick it, you have to ship it to Apple to fix it, how slow it is to restore when it really doesn't have all that much to load, etc. They took all of that and decided it wasn't a good product or should even be called an Apple product.
I get that you can tell it was a post Jobs product, but I believe it had the spirit of Steve, it didn't have the conflict that Steve would create when making a product. That's what made their products great. If you don't have that push to be a little better and have competition between engineering groups, then you get mediocre products which is what the original watch was.
Sure you can compare it to the iPhone and say this is a new space and it's not fair that I'm so hard on a 1st gen product, maybe. I guess since there isn't a Steve Jobs to go with it to explain why it has the shortcomings it does, it will always be looked down upon.
Tim, Phil, Jony, Craig, Jeff can't hold a candle to Steve when it comes to presentations. He would have sold that watch and all the naysayers would have bought at least 1.
Plus Steve and Kevin Lynch hated each other over flash, you know how that turned out.
Such a flop....it just can compare to the great success that you are...
Regardless of your poor personal opinions of what has merit, I hope you are nowhere near responsible for anyone's money or business. Only a complete fool would say an overnight billion-dollar business that is now the size of a Fortune 300 company is a "joke".
Excellent point about the iPad Nano and I had forgotten about the move to make the iPad nano a wearable, which apple was clearly supporting. It seem impossible for Jobs not to have seen the future potential of wrist-worn wearables from Apple, but it doesn't disprove what Ive said and I don't see why that should be questioned. Jobs not discussing it with Ive isn't the same a saying Jobs not having the idea.