After I placed on my Apple Watch Collection 10, I’m placing on a watch that’s as recognizable as among the most iconic watches ever made, and simply probably the most recognizable smartwatch there’s. The Apple Watch celebrates its tenth anniversary on April 24, and whereas its form has developed over all these years, it has by no means drastically modified, and it’s considered one of its largest strengths.
The Apple Watch is an icon
When folks consider a dive watch they most likely consider a Rolex Submariner or some model of it. Consider a pilot’s watch, and one thing just like the IWC Mark sequence might come to thoughts, whereas the rugged watch area is dominated by the unique Casio G-Shock DW-5600 and its sq. case. Ask a toddler to attract a sports activities automobile, and no matter they draw it’s going to find yourself purple, as a result of the definitive sports activities automobile in many individuals’s thoughts is a Ferrari. Whether or not because of a sure form or a selected design motif, all these are thought of the definitive silhouettes of their respective areas.
The Apple Watch needs to be thought of the definitive smartwatch silhouette. Ask a traditional individual (by which I imply, those that aren’t deeply entrenched within the tech world) to sketch a smartwatch, and they’re going to most likely sketch the Apple Watch’s rectangular form, and never a spherical watch. Spherical is the form mostly related to non-smart watches, not smartwatches. We naturally affiliate rectangular shapes with smartphones and what’s a smartwatch, if not an extension of our telephones?
Apple’s success right here is because of by no means veering away from the oblong form of the unique Apple Watch, which has been refined and improved over a decade to change into implausible to put on and immediately recognizable. I like watches, and virtually at all times discover what’s on somebody’s wrist, whether or not it’s out in actual life or on TV or YouTube. The Apple Watch, whether or not common or Extremely, is simply as simple to identify as a Rolex Daytona or Patek Philippe Nautilus at a look. I love that about it.
So many Apple Watches
The Apple Watch’s instantly recognizable form shouldn’t be the one cause it’ll be lots of people’s thought of what a smartwatch appears to be like like. The opposite cause is Apple has bought completely masses of them proper from the beginning. In 2016, the 12 months after it was launched, Apple managed 49% of the smartwatch market, and nonetheless had 40% on the finish of 2020.
In 2019, the Apple Watch outsold your complete Swiss watch trade by itself, with claims a large 31 million Apple Watches had been shipped world wide that 12 months alone. In 2023, 59% of smartwatch homeowners within the U.S. wore an Apple Watch. Right this moment, it has 22% of the market, however stays the world’s primary for smartwatch shipments. Huawei is second with 13%, and Samsung has 9% of the market, in line with Counterpoint Analysis’s newest information.
What this implies is, over the past decade, Apple has bought a dizzying quantity of Apple Watches, and large recognition like that inevitably results in recognizability.
It takes numerous effort
The Apple Watch isn’t so widespread solely as a result of it’s an Apple product, or that it’s one of the best smartwatch at the moment out there. It’s as a result of Apple cared concerning the design, its relationship to non-smart watches, and in addition the longer term stylistic implications of a totally digital piece of wrist put on. Watches are items of jewellery, and we have now to need to put on one. Apple acquired it proper from the start.
In 2015 after dealing with the primary Apple Watch, Vogue’s Suzy Menkes noticed the longer term when she wrote, “From a style perspective, the exterior aesthetic appeared impartial: neither super-stylish nor repellent. I might think about that geeks would adore it greater than aesthetes. But smartphones have already remodeled the style world in a manner we by no means imagined. I like the concept of setting the visible points in line with my temper. And maybe my wardrobe.”
Ten years on, Menkes’ musing was completely right. Watches basically have seen a renaissance, as extra folks select to put on one as a style accent or standing image. The Apple Watch — by means of partnerships with Hermés, a thriving accent trade, and common updates to its watch faces — has change into a part of that world in a manner different makers, comparable to Google with its Pixel Watch, can solely dream about.
As regards to watch faces, this fantastic deep dive into the inspiration behind among the authentic Apple Watch watch faces reveals the eye to element that went into their design, one thing which nonetheless separates Apple from the competitors at this time. No different expertise model treats smartwatch watch faces with such care and a focus, and it hurts the top consequence enormously. Not so with the Apple Watch.
By no means spherical
Ubiquitous and unmistakable, the Apple Watch needs to be thought of the default smartwatch form at this time. What was as soon as questioned and even ridiculed, the oblong Apple Watch has been refined and improved for years, and has change into the wrist put on of alternative for tens of millions of individuals. It’s nonetheless copied too, with the Huawei Watch Match and Redmi Watch 5 “sharing” the design, together with the handfuls of imitators discovered on Amazon.
I’ve worn each Apple Watch mannequin for the reason that first, and adore the refined Collection 10, particularly in titanium. Contemplating the way it’s now ten years previous, it’s stunning how little it has truly bodily altered, but how a lot distinction the regular adjustments have made to the best way it appears to be like, feels, and wears. It’s futuristic too, and I nonetheless get the “residing sooner or later” vibe from it, which is simply as important as its watch-like really feel.
No different smartwatch has such a transparent, lengthy, and punctiliously curated historical past behind it. Does that matter? Ask Rolex, Tag Heuer, Omega, Oris, Seiko, Timex, or another watch maker if historical past issues, and so they’ll all level to how designs from many years in the past nonetheless affect their watches at this time. The Apple Watch deserves to symbolize smartwatches at this time, and no different mannequin comes even near it.