Apple Watch
The Apple Watch is a line of smartwatches developed and marketed by Apple. It has fitness tracking, health-oriented capabilities, and wireless telecommunication, integrating with watchOS and other Apple products and services. The first Apple Watch was released in April 2015, and quickly became the world's best-selling wearable device. 4.2 million were sold in the second quarter of fiscal 2015, and more than 115 million people were estimated to use an Apple Watch as of December 2022. Apple has introduced a new generation of the Apple Watch with improved internal components each Septembereach labeled by Apple as a 'Series', with certain exceptions.
Each Series has been initially sold in multiple variants defined by the watch casing's material, colour, and size, and beginning with the Series 3 and Series 11, by the option in the aluminium variants for LTE and 5G cellular connectivity, respectively, which comes standard with the other materials. The band included with the watch can be selected from multiple options from Apple, and watch variants in aluminium co-branded with Nike and in stainless steel co-branded with Hermès are also offered, which include exclusive bands and colours. Any user may use digital watch faces carrying those companies' branding.
The Apple Watch operates in conjunction with the user's iPhone for functions such as configuring the watch and syncing data with iPhone apps, but can separately connect to a Wi-Fi network for data-reliant purposes, including communications, app use, and audio streaming. LTE and 5G-equipped models can also perform these functions over a mobile network, and can make and receive phone calls independently when the paired iPhone is not nearby or is powered off. The oldest iPhone model that is compatible with any given Apple Watch depends on the version of the operating system installed on each device., new Apple Watches come with watchOS 26 preinstalled and require an iPhone running iOS 26, which is compatible with the iPhone 11 or later.
The Apple Watch is the only smartwatch fully supported for the iPhone, as Apple restricts the APIs available in other smartwatches, so other smartwatches always have less functionality.
Development
Apple design chief Jony Ive became interested in building a watch shortly after Steve Jobs' death in October 2011. That December, The New York Times reported that Apple was exploring various ideas, including a "curved-glass iPod that would wrap around the wrist", which users would interact with through the Siri voice assistant, and which "could relay information back to the iPhone". In February 2013, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal again confirmed that Apple was working on a smartwatch with a curved display, and Bloomberg News said the team had grown to about 100 designers.In March 2013, Apple hired former Adobe chief technology officer Kevin Lynch, reporting to Bob Mansfield, to lead the watch project, which would become the company's first major new product without input from late co-founder Steve Jobs. Apple started the project without specific use cases in mind, not knowing what problems the watch would solve, but felt that "technology was going to move onto the body", according to Alan Dye, who was in charge of its user interface. According to Lynch, the team felt people spent too much time on their phone, nagged by notifications, and a watch would provide "that level of engagement in a way that's a little more human, a little more at the moment when you're with somebody".
In July 2013, the Financial Times reported that Apple had begun hiring more employees to work on the smartwatch, and that it was targeting a retail release in late 2014.
The software evolved more quickly than the hardware. To test it, the team created a prototype, an iPhone strapped to the wrist with Velcro, which showed the Apple watch software in its true size and an onscreen watch crown for input. The crown was later turned into a physical dongle plugged into the headphone jack. Early on, the user interface and bundled apps were inspired by the iPhone, but they were too complex and underwent three rounds of redesign to avoid awkwardly long interactions that would annoy users. The team worked on notification vibrations and sounds for more than a year, attempting to make them reflect the nature of different notifications. They also added a way to show a contextual menu by pressing the display more deeply, called Force Touch. In contrast with Apple's usually narrow design options, the team thought a watch would need to appeal to users' diverse tastes in fashion, so they opted to give a choice of bands, models, and watch faces.
Unveiling and release
In April 2014, Apple CEO Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal that the company was planning to launch new products that year, but revealed no specifics.In June 2014, Reuters reported that production of a smartwatch product was expected to begin in July for an October release.
During a September 2014 press event where the iPhone 6 was also presented, the new watch product was introduced by Tim Cook's "one more thing" section. After a video focusing on the design process, Cook reappeared on stage wearing an Apple Watch.
In comparison to other Apple products and competing smartwatches, marketing of the Apple Watch promoted the device as a fashion accessory. Apple later focused on its health and fitness-oriented features, in an effort to compete with dedicated activity trackers. The watchOS 3 added fitness tracking for wheelchair users, social sharing in the Activity app, and a Breathe app to facilitate mindfulness.
The device was not branded as "iWatch", which would have put it in line with its product lines such as iPod, iPhone, and iPad. In the United States, the "iWatch" trademark is owned by OMG Electronics – who was crowdfunding a device under the same name; it is owned in the European Union by Irish firm Probendi. In July 2015, Probendi sued Apple Inc. for trademark infringement, arguing that through keyword advertising on the Google search engine, it caused advertising for the Apple Watch to appear on search results pages when users searched for the trademarked term "iWatch".
Release
Pre-orders for the Apple Watch began on April 10, 2015, with the official release on April 24. Initially, it was not available at the Apple Store; customers could make appointments for demonstrations and fitting, but the device was not in-stock for walk-in purchases and had to be reserved and ordered online. CNET felt that this distribution model was designed to prevent Apple Store locations from having long lineups due to the high demand. The first ever retail store to display the Apple Watch to the public was Colette in Paris. Later on, selected models were available in limited quantities at luxury boutiques and authorized resellers.On June 4, 2015, Apple announced that it planned to stock Apple Watch models at its retail locations.
On August 24, 2015, Best Buy announced that it would begin stocking the Apple Watch at its retail stores by the end of September. Both T-Mobile US and Sprint also announced plans to offer Apple Watch through their retail stores.
In September 2015, Apple launched a new subset of the Apple Watch, with a stainless steel body and leather band, in collaboration with Hermès. The following year, Apple launched another subset of Apple Watches in collaboration with Nike dubbed "Apple Watch Nike+". Both subsets featured cosmetic customization, but otherwise functioned like standard Apple Watches.
The Apple Watch went on sale in India in November 2015. The device also launched in Chile, the Philippines, Indonesia, and South Africa.
Hardware
Design and materials
Each Series of the Apple Watch is offered in multiple variants, distinguished by the casing's material, color, and size, with special bands and digital watch faces available for certain variants co-branded with Nike and Hermès, which are also sometimes accompanied by other unique extras, like stainless steel charging pucks, premium packaging, and exclusive color basic bands.Originally at launch, the Apple Watch was marketed as one of three "collections", designating the case material. In order of increasing cost, the collections were:
- Apple Watch Sport
- Apple Watch
- Apple Watch Edition
Apple did not explicitly market the first-generation Apple Watch as being waterproof, stating that it can withstand splashes of water, but does not recommend submersion. Apple introduced a higher level of water resistance with the release of the Apple Watch Series 2, and the device was explicitly advertised as being suitable for swimming and surfing. The Series 7 also includes an IP6X certification for dust resistance.
Size
Since the introduction of the Apple Watch, it has been available in two sizes, primarily affecting screen resolution and area. The smaller size at launch was, referring to the approximate height of the watch case; the larger size was. Starting with the Series 4, the two nominal sizes changed to. The nominal sizes changed again with the introduction of the Series 7: ; and yet again in 2024 with the launch of the Series 10 at.The overall shape and width of the watch have not changed significantly since its release, so customizable bands and accessories are typically compatible with any Apple Watch of the same size class. Bands that fit the smaller size class and larger size class are generally interchangeable within the class. The casing of the watch includes a mechanism to allow the user to change the straps without special tools.