Even though Jony Ive was the executive Apple chose to talk about the development of the Apple Watch and the three-year effort that went into the design of the company’s first smartwatch, at least one designer isn’t convinced that Apple’s design guru is the only man who should take credit for the creation of the wearable gadget.
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Industrial designer and founder of Autodromo Bradley Price told Om Malik in a lengthy interview that the Apple Watch looks more like the creation of a different designer than of Ive’s.
“[The Apple Watch] is beautiful,” Price said. “As someone who designs consumer electronics and watches, the more I looked at it the more impressed I was. It’s got Marc Newson’s fingerprints all over it.”
“It’s clearly something he designed rather than Jony Ive,” he continued. “It’s funny they announced he was working with them after the watch. But to me that was the Apple way of underhandedly giving him credit for the design without actually saying he designed it. But it seemed to me very Marc Newson.”
According to Price, the design element that gave Newson’s involvement away is the rubber strap of the Apple Watch. “[The] way the strap integrates with the case is so him, this sort of inflated square,” he said.
Naturally, this is just speculation from a designer who isn’t likely to be familiar with Apple’s inner workings. In fact, Price admits that any designer could have been influenced by Newson’s previous work.
“Now, obviously any designer could do an inflated square. But Marc Newson’s Ikepod watch is a really influential design. I certainly have been influenced by it,” Price added.
After announcing the Apple Watch as Tim Cook’s first “One more thing” since becoming the CEO of Apple, the company has made Jony Ive available to a variety of publications, which talked to the famed designer mostly about the company’s first smartwatch. More than once, Ive explained the complexity of this project for Apple, stressing on the effort that went into this creation.
The full interview with Price is available at the source link.
