Mike Peterson
On the five-year anniversary of the first Apple Watch, Imran Chaudhri, one of the original device's designers, has shared a few facts and tidbits about the development of the wearable.
Imran Chaudhri, an Apple alumnus who now serves as the co-founder of a stealth startup called Humane, shared a handful of "fun facts" about the original Apple Watch and some elements of its interface in a Twitter thread on April 24.
For example, Chaudhri posted a reproduction of the original sketch for the Apple Watch's home screen, and added some details about the interface.
here's a reproduction of my original sketch for the home screen. the shape of the circular icon was driven by the clock that lived in the centre of what i originally called the dock. the crown gave the home screen a dimensionality, allowing you to scrub through layers of the ui. pic.twitter.com/w2QITncvHl
— Imran Chaudhri (@imranchaudhri) April 24, 2020
Additionally, the former Apple designer said that his first Apple watch prototype was actually a sixth-generation iPod nano strapped to a watch band. Chaudhri used that prototype to show off Siri and the Notification Center on a wrist-worn platform.
my first prototype was built on a 6th gen nano strapped to this band. i had just wrapped up ios5 and took it down to show the ID team what notification centre and siri was - and what it could be in the future. i never got to share it with steve. we lost him right after ios5. pic.twitter.com/j4JJYNIgIu
— Imran Chaudhri (@imranchaudhri) April 24, 2020
A few other interesting tidbits about the Apple Watch's original development process.
- Digital Touch was initially called "electronic touch," or E.T. Chaudhri said he called it that because of its "potential as a new form of emotional connections."
- Similarly, the drawing "ink" of the Digital Touch feature was inspired by Chaudhri's "graffiti days" — The "ephemera was designed to communicate transmission while making it guilt free."
- Apple's various loop-based straps were inspired by the velcro Speedmaster straps worn by Apollo-era astronauts, and were meant to be uncomplicated.
- The butterflies used in one of the Motion faces were not harmed during animation process since they were already dead. Chaudhri got to keep the blue one.
- The Solar watch face was created as a way for Muslims observing Ramadan to "quickly see the position of the sun and for all to understand the sun's relationship to time," Chaudhri said.
Apple's flagship wearable has come a long way since the original, released in 2015. Current rumors also suggest that an upcoming version of the Apple Watch could include new features like blood oxygen detection, built-in sleep tracking and larger, improved batteries.
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8 Comments
I’m not a Muslim but that solar watch face is pretty cool for Ramadan. Jews also have religious observances related to the position of the sun and moon so I assume useful for them too.
If you told me the Watch in the pic was a Series 5, I'd believe it. This is a "problem" Apple haters express about Apple. That iPhone was so perfect, iPhone 11 still uses the iPhone design and nothing's changed. iPad Pro looks like the original Jobs version. Etc. There's even a meme on this.
I think getting it right the first time is genius.
“The butterflies used in one of the Motion faces were not harmed during animation process since they were already dead.”
I was better off not knowing this, lol.
Sorry for the butterflies being dead, but their beauty lives on.
Now, in retrospect, knowing one is witnessing a dead butterfly on one’s watch is a little creepy. It’s like seeing a dead person animated using strings for a strange play or stage act.
I'm eagerly waiting the next Apple Watch. My current S1 is starting to show it's age, it's so slow, and I really want cellular.
As the Series 5 was such a basic update over the Series 4 I'm hoping the Series 6 really moves the needle.