Apple released three new commercials for its latest iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2 on Sunday, each showcasing new hardware features like water resistance, fitness tracking and iPhone's low-light camera capabilities.
The first ad, "Go Time," is a minute-long spot touting the Series 2's "swim proof" design. Unlike the original Apple Watch, this year's refreshed model works down to 50 meters, a feature highlighted by today's ad through scads of people jumping into large bodies of water.
Along with pool lounging, lap swimming and cycling in what appears to be a monsoon, Apple shows users surfing with Apple Watch Series 2, a testament to the new internal design's rugged nature. Bonus footage: the lap swimmer is able to interact with Watch's screen post workout, suggesting Apple tweaked the device touchscreen for wet fingers.
Beyond water resistance, the ad promotes watchOS 3 software features, specifically fitness tracking abilities and a new first-party app called "Breathe."
Next up, Apple turns its eye to iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, the company's flagship smartphone lineup that launched worldwide on Friday.
In keeping with a literally and figuratively dark motif introduced with iPhone 7 ad last week, both of today's spots are filled with brooding and -- gasp -- foreboding imagery.
"Morning Ride" tells the tale of a cyclist valiantly taking on Mother Nature's fury with nothing but a bike, his clips and an iPhone. Standing in his garage, he checks the Weather app: lightning storm. He looks up (because he's standing directly in front of an open window), yes indeed, lightning. Drama.
Making ready his kit the cyclist slips into a pair of clips, dons a black rain slicker, straps on an equally black helmet -- safety first -- and plots a route on his handlebar-mounted iPhone 7. As the garage door opens to the throbbing opening chords of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck," the biker is silhouetted John Ford style against a drenched hellscape. And scene.
In "Midnight," Apple carries forward the slightly off, serene-but-menacing atmosphere as a youth skateboards his way around town after hours, snapping low-light pictures with an iPhone 7 Plus, as one does. The new phone's water resistant housing gets an obligatory test by some lawn sprinklers, and the 7 Plus' dual-camera array takes in all the light as our protagonist frames photos of moths churning around an Edison bulb, an emo deer and a nighttime cityscape. Fittingly, the commercial is set to Hamilton Leithauser +Rostam's "In a Black Out."
Apple released iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2 on Friday after activating pre-order sales a week prior. The company is not providing launch weekend numbers, but sales appear to be brisk, as Apple earlier this week announced pre-order customers completely depleted initial iPhone 7 Plus and jet black iPhone 7 supply.