How Apple redesigned the Watch, ten years after its debut

When Apple unveiled the Apple Watch for the first time in 2014, the company focused its marketing efforts on positioning the new device primarily as a timepiece that could double as a smartphone companion, a fitness device, and a lifestyle statement. In the official press releases from the time, the company stressed this aspect by calling the Watch an "accurate timepiece that's also customizable for personal expression." The company drew liberally from the vocabulary of horology, shaping the Watch's industrial and UI design language through the history and tradition of watchmaking. There was a smartwatch that, for the first time, dared to use terms such as complications, digital crown, and watch face. It was unexpected, yet it immediately made a lot of sense.

10 years later, as a testament to the effectiveness of that uncharted approach, the Apple Watch is not just the most popular smartwatch on the market. It's the best-selling watch in the world, period, with more than 120 million people wearing one on their wrist every day. The Apple Watch's fundamental dual nature as a tech device and a timekeeping piece has informed every product upgrade since the first "version 0" was announced in 2014.

The Apple Watch Series 10, released by Apple in September, is Apple's Watch's most substantial update. Yet it inscribes itself in the same decade-long tradition of careful and deliberate iterations mixing technological advancement with respect for the horological tradition. "We all think highly of watches. There's so much that we admire and we've learned in terms of manufacturing something so small", says Molly Anderson, Apple's Head of Industrial Design. "At the beginning, that was all very new to us; 10 years later, we feel like we're still learning, but we've become exceptional at refining the product. To decide if something is worth doing, we make many models, try out different ideas, and come back to iterate on it hundreds of times to understand the ultimate essence of the product we're trying to achieve". While it's the most radical redesign of the Apple Watch since its inception, the Series 10 doesn't revolutionize the product's aesthetic. Instead, it's a mindful upgrade that respects the nature of a product thriving in a limbo between the tech market's need for newness and horology's design consistency. 
As a tech device, it's a significant jump from the previous generation. It sports Apple's first wide-angle OLED Display, which is much easier to read when viewed from a steep angle, a better battery that charges super fast, and more powerful components such as the S10 SiP. On the other hand, it's as recognizable as ever as a timekeeping piece.

As Steve Jobs would remind us, design is not just how a product looks; it's how it works—the Apple Watch perfectly incarnates that aphorism. Shaving off 1mm from the device's thickness or going back to a full metal enclosure without compromising the Watch's water resistance or antenna performance might seem like minor details, but they are instead fundamental design upgrades.

"We had to reconsider every aspect of the architecture to really squash everything down. The way we talk about it is like a game of Tetris", explains Anderson. "We're really tessellating the tiny modules by repackaging or reducing their size to squeeze them together into the smallest possible footprint. We've also managed to rearchitect the cellular antenna to include it as a flush split in the back of the case, which in turn has enabled a comeback of the all-metal enclosure, which we had to leave behind with the introduction of LTE in Series 4. That's another way to look back to the first generation of Apple Watch and the inspiration of traditional watchmaking craftsmanship".

Details like these confirm how, over the course of ten years, the Apple Watch gained its own unique place at the intersection between technology and the art of horology. In a way, it went on to become one of the "most Apple" devices ever, with UI design as the magic glue bonding hardware and software together.  "On the software and UI side, we've also been very careful from the very beginning to make principal decisions about typography, or the hour and minute hands that have never changed," says Alan Dye, Apple's Vice President of Human Interface Design. "Even though we have millions and millions of opportunities for personalization and customization to have your own unique watch face, there are certain aspects that we've always kept consistent. 
We're also just one big design team, and we design all the software for all Apple products. We brought various aspects of the Apple Watch to other products and vice versa, to always keep a consistent UI design language across everything".

That's Apple's secret sauce of vertical integration, which permeates every product decision in Cupertino. As an external observer, it's always an interesting modus operandi to witness and compare to the engineering-first or marketing-first approach that drives product choices in many other companies. While it's true that in the last twenty years, design has grown in importance as a decision driver inside most tech companies, Apple's design-oriented product philosophy is still unique for a company of this size. "The magic often happens in the discussion, and discussions often also have some tension to it. Because everybody is coming together from different areas of expertise they're bringing to the table", says Eric Jue, Director of Apple Watch Product Marketing. "Things don't always perfectly align from the start. But out of that discussion, out of that tension, out of all of that mixing, we always end up in an incredible place. At Apple, we're hard on ideas and challenge them all the time because our bar is very high, and we know our product decisions have a large and broad impact".

This unique ability to combine the physical and digital shines in Apple Watch Series 10's new signature watch face, Reflections. A tribute to the traditional craft of watchmaking, the face is what Anderson describes as a "digital etching" that was only possible thanks to the Watch's latest hardware features. "The Reflections face is a great one not just because it references traditional techniques like the Guilloche pattern, which comes from metalsmithing and is a historical place in horology, but also because it's a fully digital product," says Alan Dye. "We could take advantage of the computing power of Apple Watch to understand where the device is at any point in time and actually create these reflections on the face that make it feel very much alive. We always strive for surprise and delight and take advantage of what the hardware lets us do now that we couldn't in the past".

The new selection of materials and finishes for Apple Watch Series 10 also underlines how hardware upgrades and the advancements in industrial processes inform the design team's choices. The new Watch introduces an all-new case material, aerospace-grade polished titanium, replacing previous generations' stainless steel. The ability to use the new metal is a byproduct of Apple's work with titanium on the iPhone. The new material comes in a highly reflective, jewelry-like finish in gold, slate, or natural titanium and is also almost 20 percent lighter than the equivalent Apple Watch Series 9 in stainless steel. Moreover, the beloved and once-beleaguered jet black finish is back.
"With Series 10, we're introducing a new Jet Black in aluminum finish, inspired by the process we originally designed for iPhone 7", says Anderson. "We've adapted and reinvented the recipe for the Watch, considering its different shape and higher reliability requirements for wearability and water resistance. The Jet Black finish combines lightness and comfort with a polished, dressy look— it lets you transition seamlessly from day to evening wear. It's an important upgrade because it reinforces the importance of style and fashion in the watch, complementing its health and fitness features".

As Apple Watch enters its second decade, the Series 10 exemplifies the company's commitment to evolving the product while honoring its roots. By pushing the boundaries of what's possible in watchmaking, both in terms of technology and aesthetics, Apple's designers keep striving for a careful balance between innovation and horological tradition. Along with the health and fitness features enabled by its wearable nature, that's the key to the Watch's success, and it's likely to guide its development in the future. Looking ahead, Apple's design team remains focused on refining and improving, just like a seasoned watchmaker would do. "At Apple, we have a very strong making culture. If anything, we're always in competition with ourselves because we always believe we can make a product better", says Dye. "Sometimes the result of that hard work and effort and all those models and prototypes seems like a small refinement; other times, it's a bigger change. We're very open to any of that, as long as we believe it meets the bar we set for ourselves at Apple and feel that the result is just better than what came before".