Apple Watch Designed by Marc Newson, not Jony Ive, Designer Says

Shortly before Tim Cook announced the Apple Watch, Marc Newson said he was joining Apple. This is rather interesting in the light of comments from industry professionals saying that Apple’s wearable bears Newson’s fingerprints, or at least that it bears a strong resemblance to his own watch designs.

When asked to reveal whether he was part of the team of designers behind the Apple Watch, Newson obviously declined to answer. But there is one designer who strongly believes Newson, not Jony Ive, is the creative mind behind the Apple Watch design: Bradley Price, the founder of Autodromo, the manufacturer of car-themed watches, sunglasses, and driving gloves.

In an interview with Om Malik (via iGen.fr), Price said, “It’s clearly something he designed rather than Jony Ive.”

BP: It’s beautiful. 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. 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.

To back up his claim, Price points to Newson’s Ikepod watch, highlighting that the rubber strap of the Apple Watch had the exact closure method the Ikepod had. The way the strap integrates with the case, this “sort of inflated square”, is absolutely Newson.

Not that another designer wouldn’t be able to do that, of course, but what makes this move so specific is the influence Marc Newson had on the Ikepod watch, Price says, admitting that even he was influenced by it.

Ive and Newson are close friends. It is possible that the two worked together unofficially and maybe designed the Watch together. Who knows? Apple is silent, and so is Newson.