The New Yorker tells the story behind Apple Watch

This article comes from New Yorker, author Ian PARKER, produced exclusively by Machine heart. Participating members: Zhao Saipo, Viola, mirror psychology, Spoon, Huei, Salmoner, Red Dragon fly, small fat, seven Qi, Zeng, pop pop pop, electronic lamb, complement, Scipio_africanus, Angela, Sang Xia, Zhenglaure, QiQi.

In recent months, Sir Jonathan Ive, the 47-Year-old senior vice president of Apple design, has said he feels "deeply tired" and "often anxious". Only when he sits on an aluminum stool in an apple design room or in the back seat of his president Chariot Bentley's cream-coloured leather will he be able to make a feeble, cynical complaint. He received enough admiration, but the burden he had caused was palpable. Over the past 20 years, he has thought about leaving Apple several times, but stayed to become a confidant of Steve Jobs and established the appearance and surface design of the imac, MacBook, IPod, iphone and ipad. He is now one of the two most powerful people in the world's most valuable company. But the fact that Apple's 100,000 employees are dependent on his decision and his taste often makes him uneasy, suddenly announcing that his retirement news will hit Apple's shareholders. (For example: Apple's 10% per cent drop represents a 71 billion dollar loss in market capitalisation.) Steve Jobs ' widow Laurene Powell, who has a close relationship with Jonathan and his family, said: "jony has an artistic temperament, he will be the first to come out and tell you that the artist should not be responsible for such things.

When I asked if Apple Watch more purely the idea of Jonathan's design than the previous Apple products, Jeff Williams, the company's senior vice president, paused for 25 seconds--a mere 25 seconds before Apple could bring in 50,000 dollars in profit-- Finally spit out a word, "yes".

In 2007, when Apple's mobile phone was released, Jonathan's family bought a 11-bedroom house in 17th century in the Lake Somerset village in western England. By the end of that year, Jonathan had spent 15 years at Apple, and his children were at the age of entry. At a fundraiser in San Francisco, Jonathan and his wife showed a small, fresh look in a group of dark, lacquered-skinned guests who seemed a little puzzled as if they were lost in the scene of Jane Austen's script. At the time, Jonathan's father thought Somerset's house heralded the eventual return of their couple. But over the years, he told me that he had learned to avoid asking three questions: "When are you going back to England?" ";", what are you doing? ";" going to have some more kids? 」。

Clive Grinyer said Jonathan had considered returning to the UK at the time, devoting himself to a "magnificent early retirement campaign" with his old friend Marc, who designed the luxury goods. But according to what Grinyer and Jonathan were talking about, the take-off of Apple and the deteriorating condition of jobs made it impossible to proceed as planned. Apple sold 6 million handsets in its first year of mobile phone production. By 2012, that figure had risen to 100 million a year. During the same period, Apple also released its ipad and MacBook Air, which doubled its valuations. "iphone no doubt changed the world,"grinyer said, "I think this success has become Jonathan's bond, he has no choice but to insist, although I am not saying that he is not not not to enjoy, but I understand that this is not his intention." by the spring of 2011, Jonathan had sold the house in Somerset.

Jonathan told me that he had never planned to move-he and his wife bought the house on vacation and sold it when the use rate was low. But he also linked the Sell-off to a report he thought was wrong in the 2011 London Times, which stated that the Apple board had watered down Mr Jonathan's hopes of returning to Britain; Jonathan was awarded the Knight's Medal at Buckingham Palace in 2012, when the couple became citizens of the United States, but did not give up British citizenship.

Jobs diagnosed pancreatic cancer in 2003. Aixasen, author of Steve Jobs, said that in 2009, Mr. Jobs was hospitalized with a liver transplant, even though the words were vague and criticized the design of the oxygen mask. Jobs then returned to work and presided over the ipad launch. But 2011 (for health reasons) he had to step back from his job and never came back strong again. Jonathan was a frequent guest of the jobs family, and in the afternoon of October, Jonathan accompanied Mr. Jobs until he died.

At Steve Jobs ' memorial at the lawn in front of infinite Loop, Jonathan said, "Steve told me--he's not just said once--" Hey, Jony, I have a stupid idea, sometimes these ideas are really stupid or terrible. But there are moments when, as in a dreary room, there is a breath of fresh air, and some thoughts can hold us breathless. Is that fearless, crazy, magnificent ideas, or seemingly simple, but in the subtle way to see the mysterious trick. "Look at the personal relationship between us and see that I'm still in the same place, sitting on the edge of a table that we've been working on for 15 years, and who cares about him more than I do?" 」

Apple watch--This is the first time the company has introduced a product that has a history of design that is longer than that of the founder or designer-the concept of the product, "Jobs is dying," Jonathan said. Because the company's past history and future intentions are part of intellectual property, it is difficult to set a clear timetable for any Apple innovation product, including watches. But by the year 2011, the company's demand for new product research has grown in appetite. It can be imagined that the executive layer of the company is eager to act in response to pessimistic expectations, market mutations or questionable news coverage. "We looked at all kinds of products and thought about what we should choose to develop," said the president. "As a result, the company began to develop the ipad Mini. By the end of 2011, the studio will be based on a 4-inch screen, 6-inch ceiling, 0.1 inches per increment will be designed to develop an iphone 6 prototype. Earlier, the studio designed a bigger Apple phone based on the iphone 4 architecture, but Jonathan recalls that the phone was "unwieldy" and "uninteresting".

I have wondered whether the smart watch project and Jonathan's software role can be seen as Apple's thanks and protection for Jonathan: it's made of gold and rose gold. "To be honest, I never thought of that," said Cook, "I think Jony really loves apple--likes to work at Apple and love Apple." And the intrinsic driving force is that our products will become better. "If jobs and Jonathan are father-son relations, then Jonathan and cook are more like respectable cousins," he said. Mr. Cook called Jonathan "a very supportive partner","" when he declared him a homosexual last fall. When you do something like that, there will be a large group of people attacking you, and it's great to have someone remind you to keep going. 」

Jonathan had a habit of collecting watches, and he often discussed the design of watches with his colleagues, and the other person he would discuss was the Newson of Aikebau Watch Company, founded in the 90 's. "The job of a designer is to try to imagine the world for the next five or ten years," ",newson told me," You have to think about what people will need. " "In the 2011, with the development of micro-technology, the answer was to embed a wearable device with a reminder in a cell phone, making it easier to interact, whether it's information about love or information about being late."

That summer, Google unveiled a eight-pound Google Glass that can be worn on its face. For Jonathan, who was unaware of Google's plans at the time, the prototype was clearly more applicable to the wrist. Then he saw Google Glass, and Jonathan said he was adamant that his face was "wrong". "We always think that it's not a sensible way to put out glasses, from the perspective of whether people really want to wear them," Cook said. Their approach is too intrusive, and not as we have always believed, that technology is supposed to be just a background low-key existence. "We've always thought that the introduction of glasses would have been a fiasco, and it has failed so far," he said. He looked at the Apple Watch on his wrist. "It's not a nuisance, it's not a barrier between you and me," he continued, "If I get a notice, it will beat my wrist, of course, in a quiet way." I can easily see what's going on. "We were in a ring conference room, and only wall in the former conference room, and at this historic moment in the development of personal intelligence, Cook was still asking a young woman to give a hint in his field of advice."

In the fall of 2011, Jonathan said a conversation about watches became a formal project, albeit a "still hypothetical stage and fragile" idea. He made this moment both commonplace ("We have explored a lot of things, and we refuse to accept the idea that they will not go on.") "And it's incredible (" starting a new platform is not something we often do.) 」）。 When Jonathan talked to me about his work, he was always able to see the happiness of his responsibility for history by talking about things like the development of portable devices. Jonathan may not have thought of becoming Somerset, but in the new world of design 20 years later, he gave himself a task that was limited by the previous design specifications. He invited historians and astronomers to give lectures in the studio.

At first, designers had few works. After years of cooperation, "We did it," Jonathan said, "We can know exactly what a person wants to say." "For the first time, they discussed the whole structure of the watch, not the shape of the watch." The role of Jonathan became "good, or very good." "Millions of people have the same mobile phone, but they don't believe the phone can wear equipment. So the question is, "How do we create a product that can be used both widely and concisely and with special ideas?" 」

If diversification is considered necessary, it is also a good opportunity. "We can make an aluminum alloy, stainless steel, gold, or a different alloy." "Jonathan said. (hinting at plans for the future, "Jonathan added," We didn't stop.) "The range of products can be developed into a market-wide luxury that makes Jonathan and Newson exempt from their working conditions. Newson was named Apple's outstanding contributor last year, but he worked on the watch project from the very beginning, and his name appeared on the patent. Newson used to design aircraft components and the Safilo reading glasses that Jonathan often hangs on the collar of T-shirts, but he rarely does a large sales product. He was sometimes jealous of what Apple might do.

In 2007, in order to realize the huge idea of the marble furniture once forming technology, he cooperated with Gagosian Gallery and began to march into fine craft. "I'm looking for an outlet for my creativity," "newson explains." I can't find a customer who wants to do something like that. " "Working with Jonathan would give him a similar license on another scale of manufacturing." A designer at Apple "can think about things in the past that you thought were unrealistic or superficial or economic." "newson said.

According to Clive Grinyer, "jon has always wanted to do luxuries. "At that time, Grinyer said, Jonathan has fulfilled his industrial design obligation: to design a perfect stapler when the world is flooded with bad books." (Many designers follow the philosophy of "don't rule the world completely," says Grinyer. "They just dominate the world of stapler." A few years ago, Grinyer had considered working with British handset maker Vertu, Vertu's products were decorated with jewellery, technology, and sales were surprisingly good. The existence of Vertu challenges customers ' stubborn notions of not taking electronic products as luxuries. Jonathan was very interested in vertu",",grinyer recalls.

According to Bob Mansfield, who was deeply involved in the watch project, Mr Jonathan's role was set "himself and jobs". Jonathan must propose to Apple, according to Mansfield recalls "heavy resistance." No one knows how Apple will display a watch in a store, and there are worries about a gap between rich and less affluent customers. As Mansfield said: "Apple wants to make a product that everyone can use." But Jonathan won the argument, and in 2013 Apple announced the appointment of Burberry former chief executive Angela Ahrendts and former chief executive officer of Saint Laurent group Paul Neve as senior. Last year, Apple also hired Patrick Pruniaux, the global sales director of the LV's Hao ya watch.

Apple announced that the cheapest watch would be worth 349 of dollars. In a world of smartphones, the price is clearly enough to make it a tempting graduation gift, Brunner said, in the pricing of Beats headphones. But Jonathan's gold is plainly named Apple Watch Edition, estimated to be worth thousands of of dollars. One influential fruit powder, John Gruber, wrote: "From the perspective of the technology industry, the price is staggering ... But it is surprisingly low from the standpoint of traditional watch manufacturing and jewellery industry. Audemars Piguet, a Swiss manufacturer who runs a watch museum, says the watch industry has not been disrupted by Apple's plans, "We have no fear, we laugh at Cloud show." He joked that if people generally wore jewellery that did not have a chronograph function, the Apple Watch would indeed be a threat.

Jonathan's decision to provide the choice inevitably challenged Apple's recurring theme. In a conversation, Jonathan criticized his opponent's products anonymously, "their value proposition is" Choose your love. Choose what color you want. "I think it is shirking the responsibility as a designer. "cook told me that"jony was the most tasteful person I have ever met in my life, "Jonathan may not have any objections. During lunchtime at the Apple Café, he would never want to challenge the technical decisions of "the world's best silicon chip designers" around us. He said, but industrial designers rarely get the same respect, partly because most people often make decisions based on taste, such as shoes or lamps.

Studio for watches using a modular design system, different materials of the table body, optional strap. 6 weeks later, the studio came out of the first model.

"It's a bit awkward when you're dealing with a model," says Jonathan, "and usually you react to novelty or difference." "It will take a while for new things to provoke resentment and disappointment." A few years ago, Jonathan and his colleagues carried a variety of iphone prototypes for testing for several days. According to his recollection, "the first one to give us is really good, the size is 5.7 inches." Then, when I woke up, I thought ' ah, that's too big ' and 5.6 inches looked too big. "(That's how Cook described the process"jony not taking 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches out of his trouser pocket.) ）

As for the watch, it took Jonathan a year to fit the buckle of the slot. Jonathan then wore a strap and other tables outside his work to test him. But at the same time, the shape of the body is almost not how to change the "rounded quadrilateral." Jonathan said, "When most of the functions are enumerated," Enumerate names or appointments, "circles have no meaning". Iwatch's final form resembles Newsom's watch, and Cartier 1904.

Jonathan has listed the new watch as one of the milestones in Apple's product history, and these products are likely to benefit from new input devices: Mac to mouse, ipod to wheel, iphone to multi-touch. The convex knob on the right side of the watch-the shape and name of the digital crown stems from the traditional watchmaking process. The watch was expected to show the company's long-term development of a technology: the ability to feel the pressure of the touch (and touch it has a different meaning, like click and double-click). It is difficult to gather and open your fingers on a small screen, and to make up for this disadvantage, the digital crown has emerged. In a skin correction, Jonathan asked the Apple engineer to invent it. Subsequently, the function of the Crown includes a list of scrolling. Jonathan was satisfied with his multiple functions, but seeing his colleagues rolling with clumsy fingers made me wonder if a natural gesture to wind a watch would accidentally touch the touch screen with a rough-benzene thumb.

A studio afternoon, Jonathan sketched the side view of Apple Watch, which showed asymmetry on two axes, closer to the top rather than the bottom, closer to the surface than to the back of the table. (There is also a more flat auxiliary button). Later, he quickly drew the front of the ipod, rectangular inside the rectangle, rounded inside the circle. He pointed to the sketch of the Watch. "We should not discuss whether it is symbolic." He said, and he felt it was a very iconic sight. If he focuses more on the digital crown, he explains, the watch will eventually turn into a rather different product. "It's just the wording. You might say, how could this be a problem? If this is a copy of the past, then the function of this watch can not be transmitted information. "The crown spins, but not the clockwork nor the calibration." The aim, Jonathan says, is to create a "strange sense of familiarity".

Apple has found its product direction, including health monitoring, no card payments, graffiti messaging and wrist touch in long-distance commuting. (Apple has repeatedly referred to the term "intimacy" at more than one new product launch.) In 2012, Jonathan concentrated on a company-wide group of people in San Francisco's St. The Regis Hotel was repeatedly discussed. Jony has this great way of inspiring creativity and incredible patience---can keep a long silence, says Jeff Williams. He was able to grasp the key points in the conversation and instantly grasp critical information. On the other hand, it has been observed that although modern automobiles have been able to automatically alert the service center for a technical problem, there is no such alarm mechanism for a child's underlying illness.

When Jonathan took over human-computer interaction in 2012, his top priority was to overhaul iOS. Jobs liked the analog design of digital facsimile machines, and it was reported that the apple-stitched leather-style desktop calendar came from within. Mr Jonathan said the impact was due to the iphone's release, saying they were nervous and worried about how people could adapt to a glass interface that could not be moved from a physical keystroke that could be pressed and accompanied by sound, but he added that it was important to keep questioning the assumptions that had been made. (after 3.5, the spherical imac was replaced before it looked obsolete, a design based on the same idea to simplify the operation of people.) Jonathan is also keen to make the iphone app icon comfortable, he says it makes him crazy, and he wants all outstanding issues to break through.

Did Jonathan intervene before? He replied: "First of all, there is a need to confirm that, I do not think that is correct, I work is too busy." "There was a conversation between him and jobs. "He definitely knows my point," Jonathan recalls, "and I'm not going to speculate what he would do if he were alive." "I asked Cook, who later became CEO of Apple, whether Jonathan was involved in the software part of the job." Cook replied that he obviously did a lot. Jonathan's career sometimes shows a man's trajectory, a rapt brow, a respectful speech, and eventually, in any case, formal.

His discussions with Mr. Cook were inspired by IOS7 's ideas, but for him he should be as clear as the company's creative director, Alan Dye, that the company's industrial designers are at risk of losing control of their product design. Dye recently said that when the ipad became a "piece of glass," software design became as important as hardware. The watch includes some major industrial designs, which are compressed into a metal crust that is fixed with magnets, but there is less chance that Apple can make it happen.

Dye, a graphic designer who worked for Kate Spade in New York and later in the company's marketing communications department, became head of the new human-Computer interaction division, which belonged to his studio. In fact, Apple already has a team of human-computer interaction designers who are not in the same place as Jonathan and have no Dutch bells to quarrel with. As Jobs passed, the company's development reflected changes in the company, an atmosphere of tension between the old and new teams, but finally, under Jonathan's leadership, into a team.

I had a talk with dye at the table on the side of the lawn in Infinite loop. He brought a sketch book and opened a page with some simple outlines he drew: Badminton, light bulb, thundercloud, tree. He's already using graffiti to conceive the elements Apple Watch needs. "It's all rough stuff. "dye says he uses this kind of evaluation to describe this way of training for the future.

Last spring, Beats's ceo,jimmy Iovine asked to meet with Robert Brunner. He walked in and told me he had sold the company, Brunner recalls. Iovine can't even name the buyer, Brunner guess most likely is Samsung. But then he learned that the buyers were Apple and they spent more than 3 billion of dollars on it. He sent an email to Jonathan and said he wanted to have dinner with him. Brunner recalls that it was a "strange tacit" moment in Jonathan's response.

When I was chatting with Cook, he first praised the music streaming service and its employees before praising the beats company's hardware. is Jony involved in the design of certain products? Look at these products and come to a conclusion, obviously not, he asked himself. He added: "Buy a product not because of what it is, but because of what it can be." "brunner is proud of the brand, but the design of the melody set it really took him a lot of time, the process is like for a sports shoes company to do the design, at first he hated it, then smiled and said:" We simply use the color of Los Angeles Lakers to make a version! " "Great, purple and yellow." Perfect! "When I asked Cook to verify these bridges, he smiled:" I hope beats is faithful to himself. I'm not going to tell them one day, "You're Apple now." Along this path, we will see what will happen in the future. 」

Brunner and Jonathan had dinner in San Francisco a few days before the September Apple statement, and they rarely talked about the Beats deal. Brunner said: "I told my wife to go home 10:30, but we were still drinking at 12:30." I think he's just trying to vent. Stephen Fry, speaking of Jonathan, said: "He likes luxury hotels and wine." Brunner said: "Jonathan, with" even if jobs is no longer also want to do something, "to concentrate on the conference, and to do his best. But they had some criticism of the designer, and when Jonathan showed the "perfect round marble Corner" painted by the Pacific Heights Hotel bathroom, Brunner remembered the thoroughness of his former employees.

The Apple conference ended in an unusual way. In the bland theatrical abuse of Cook and Bono, the latter implicitly mentions a large but opaque business transaction, including free music downloads between two different institutions. Like Mickey Mouse, U2 may become a symbol of the entertainment world, not just a resource, on the day the surface of the hand is seen. I can imagine Jonathan feeling, and he might say, "Should I finish everything myself?" 」

When people stood up and left, Habb Alexander handed Jonathan a piece of Apple watch--the watch was bigger than the others 2nd, rose gold, with a white rubber strap. Jonathan tried to wear it on his hand, just right. A few minutes later, he went outdoors to a makeshift white shed to make a product display. Jonathan's walking gait shows that the atmosphere there is more serious, there seems to be a default sense of responsibility. Referring to his three-year working hours on the watch, Jonathan said, "It took a long time and the process was bumpy." But the next applause made him feel relieved. The shed was packed with reporters and fashionable celebrities, including Lily Kerr, a model with a golden Rolex-oyster Watch, and a friend of hers, an editor from the magazine The Purple. She posted the relevant information on the Instagram before the end of the conference. Someone commented on her Instagram account, "I'm sorry, Apple." 』」

In the shed, I also tried to wear a watch. Stainless steel strap, the nickel plate is buckled by magnetic force. This clasp, one or two other parts of the perfect integration, in addition to music outside the 10-minute video of the "show" trailer made the only sound. The watch, which is still a few months away from the market, will be available for sale in April, and there are only a few boring words and pictures in the feature currently displayed.

When I walk with Richard Howards and Julian Honnig, they stare at things that people will spend years looking at. When a performer starts telling me about his product, they interrupt him for designing a script. "The design material is amazing," said Howard, "when the surface of the watch is introduced to people, the surface materials mentioned are sapphire glass rather than ordinary glass, which is entirely another material." Moreover, the stainless steel strap is also specially reinforced, and a layer of sapphire is added behind the zirconium ceramic. A similar watch, produced by a Rolex or other company, will certainly be priced at 100,000 dollars. 」

"We only sell 5,000 dollars." Hoenig smiled and said.

The next day, I came to Jonathan's office. There was a piece of plain cloth that had been uncovered--the glass-topped Apple Watch display window, connected to the bottom by a moving lid that could be dropped, like the gangway at the tail of a freight plane. Meanwhile, Jonathan is also working with Apple sales Vice president Harnz to redesign the layout of Apple's retail stores. The new space will make Gold's window look more natural, although some visitors may not like the design from some corners. Apple did not overnight become an elite-led company, and it was scheduled to sell 75 million iphones by the end of 2014, some of which come from China. But I was wondering if it was rational or purely objective to design a VIP exclusive area. Jonathan said he had heard people say, "I wouldn't buy a watch if I couldn't stand on a blanket." 」

That afternoon, when he was eating salmon sashimi, he complained about seasonal allergies. "I'll be working until the end of the weekend, and then Monday rest." He thought yesterday was a big day. His iphone 6 has a short message beep. For Jonathan's generation, the new, big, flat phones could spark a nostalgia for a tiny, rough phone a decade ago. I asked Jonathan about whether a slightly protruding camera on iPhone6 would make it easy for the phone to lie on the plane. "may be," replied Jonathan. This is a very realistic optimization, if not the design, the thickness of the phone will be increased. "We may be able to speculate on the story behind the design," he said.

As we talked, I took the strap off the Apple Watch and went on, which made Apple Watch look distracting and, in a sense, could be a lot of distraction. "I know, like the iphone," from the "Simple and pure" design concept of Jonathan's short film, "Sometimes it can have a certain effect on people's Sleep, solitude, or the quality of their neighbors ' views." Jonathan's father, Michael Ive, recalls the hamster game he played as a child, and thinks young people may be more focused on the electronic screen now. In an aisle outside Jonathan's work, I later saw an employee iPhone6 on his forearm while staring at Apple Watch.

Apple Watch does not brighten the screen when the wearer does not lift the arm. At the end of last year, some of the earliest wearer tests at Cupertino campus may have some minor problems. In the case of Mark Newson, he made the watch screen light up after three tries, by increasing the range of motion and by making dramatic moves in the natural state. Under normal circumstances, the watch will display one of the nine screens, each of which can be customized privately. One is to display the time at the same time with bright flowers, butterflies or jellyfish patterns, in the background of the dial black, they are dynamic, the entire screen in the start of the watch will dominate, Jonathan expressed his love for this. He picks up his iPhone6 and presses the home button, and he says, "the way it's started is too old for me (in fact IPhone6 is only available in the market after two weeks)." He continued, explaining that "apple watch would use technology that was completely different from the previous LED display on Apple's phone. From the darkening point of view, the new screen will darken more thoroughly, which makes the screen under the glass surface light up and darken the time node to see more clearly. And when Apple Watch shows a jellyfish swimming in a vast space, the whole watch is more like a dynamic picture, and the previous iphone only shows the jellyfish swimming in the background of black ash, with a black frame around it, and the iphone lacks some magic color compared to Apple Watch. 」

Alan Dye later described this "critical moment" as he and Jonathan decided to "avoid screen edges as much as possible" as part of an overall ambition to blur software and hardware boundaries. (This is not a coincidence, Dye points out, the habitual "rounded square" interface of a watch reflects the body of the table.) The studio stopped all work except for removing the edge of the screen, Dye said, "When we find the picture we like to watch, and you have to show the edge of a picture." He smiled and said. "Don't misunderstand me, we did our best!" I can enumerate a lot of bad ideas. They try to blur the edges and compress the images into circles. There are "many halos"-dark colors at the corners of the photos. "In the end, we might put ourselves first," he said.

The day after I left Jonathan, he drove to a bar in San Francisco and ate a buffet for the celebration of Apple Watch. That night, he recalled, "very mild, contemplative, probably because we are too tired." The software on the "apple Watch rewards the user with a virtual medal, embossed patterns and enamel, marking different levels of achievement. Jonathan describes their appearance as "a little nostalgic" with the echoes of the medieval Olympic Games.

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)