The first Apple Watch prototype was an iPhone strapped to a wrist
Before any watch hardware existed, Apple's designers tested their software by fastening an iPhone to their wrists with Velcro, drawing a crown on screen and later plugging a physical knob into the headphone jack. The team began without knowing what problems a watch would solve, only sensing that technology was about to move onto the body.
Design chief Jony Ive became interested in a watch soon after Steve Jobs died in October 2011, making it Apple's first major new product without Jobs's input. By early 2013 about 100 designers were reportedly on it, and Apple hired Kevin Lynch, formerly Adobe's chief technology officer, to lead the project. Lynch argued that people were glued to their phones by notifications and that a glance at the wrist could feel more human.
Getting it right took iteration. The bundled apps, first modelled on the iPhone, proved too fiddly and went through three rounds of redesign, and the team spent more than a year tuning vibrations and sounds so different alerts would feel different. Breaking with Apple's usual narrow choices, they offered many bands, faces and models, including an 18-karat gold Edition, because a watch is worn as fashion.
Tim Cook revealed it as the one more thing at the September 2014 iPhone 6 event, walking back on stage wearing one. The obvious name was unavailable: OMG Electronics held the iWatch trademark in the United States and the Irish firm Probendi in Europe, which later sued Apple over search advertising. Pre-orders opened on April 10, 2015, but Apple Stores at first offered only fittings by appointment, and the first shop to display it publicly was Colette in Paris.
It soon became the world's best-selling wearable, with 4.2 million sold in its first reported quarter and more than 115 million users estimated by December 2022. Marketing shifted from fashion toward health and fitness, adding wheelchair activity tracking and a Breathe app, and Hermès and Nike versions followed.
Source: Apple Watch
