Apple Watch Sport Band Could Be The Future Of Apple (Updated)

Apple Watch will never be as big a blockbuster or global phenomenon as iPhone, and Apple — for its part — seems to realize and embrace that fact as it frames the wearable as a companion piece to the company’s undeniable and unbeatable flagship.

But that’s not to say the product isn’t necessary or legitimate in its own right as its own platform. It is. And many of its groundbreaking features are bound to make their way into iPhone and iPad, too. First, there’s Force Touch and the Taptic Engine, which — having already landed in select MacBook trackpads — are both expected to end up in Apple’s mobile products in the near term. Then there’s the POLED display, which seems bound for bigger things, too. Even the Apple Watch font is making its way across the entire Apple ecosystem.

But I think there’s one Apple Watch element that might ultimately prove much more impactful than all the above to Apple as a company: the Sport Band.

Yes, that sounds crazy. And maybe it is. After all, the thing doesn’t lend itself to any other product Apple makes, and it’s totally useless outside the context of being a watch strap. I don’t even see Apple using its comfortable elastomer material in any other product save maybe soft-touch iPhone cases.

But that’s not the point.

The point is that Apple didn’t design the Sport Band.

The bigger point is that the company hired the guy who did.

And the still bigger point is that his fingerprints, as much as Jony Ive’s, are all over every aspect of Apple Watch’s design.

And that means that maybe, just maybe, Apple has found in Marc Newson the Ive replacement that won’t significantly impact company stock the day Sir Knight finally decides to take his allegedly long-sought leave for good.

Now, I’ll grant that this is a major conspiracy theory on my part. It’s probably the most speculative thing I’ve ever written about Apple, and you should take everything in this post with a brick of salt lick. But I’ve been writing about Cupertino kit on and off since 2011, and even way back then, it seemed to me that Ive was getting tired of his perch.

For those with artistic minds, high-dollar positions of power in huge multinational corporations might be a bit rough on the old liberal mentality, and every time I see or hear the guy, he seems burned out. That’s not necessarily a bad thing either, as it’s often better to burn out than jade away, and a jaded designer wouldn’t have the tenacity to push a majorly divisive pet project like Apple Watch down the board’s (and the hoard’s) collective throat.

Right now, it’s hard to tell whether or not Apple Watch is Ive’s swan song, though I’m not sure its success will rejuvenate the guy enough to keep him on staff (useless Apple Car notwithstanding). Now, I don’t think the Ive brand (or Ive hand) will ever fully depart the company, but I believe it’s exceedingly likely that his workaday oversight of Apple design will be handed off to the heir apparent — the aforementioned Newson — as Ive becomes more of a figurehead to some internal Apple design haus that might soon bear his name. He’d be a company Executive and draw a salary for as long as he likes, but he’d have more time to spend with his family and his homeland, hobnobbing across the continent with upscale design wonks and fashionistas as is his wont.

Honestly, it seems like Ive’s done everything at Apple worth doing, and in so doing, he’s finally got the name recognition to be the eclectic and eccentric (and wholly unfettered) design maven he’s probably always dreamed of being. He’s the most famous and well-regarded industrial designer on Earth, and as he approaches the big five-oh (he’s 48), he’s probably thinking of big ideas on a smaller scale. (And Apple Watch is as small scale as he’s likely to get in Cupertino.)

Now, a half century is by no means old in this world, and Newson is actually three years Ive’s senior at 51. But Newson’s had the relaxed, freewheeling studio life that Ive hasn’t, and you can see the greater age in younger man’s face. I’ll grant that photos can highlight things that aren’t there, but tell me which one of these guys looks worn right out and which one looks ready to be the next chief of Apple design:

I know what you’re thinking: Does Newson have the chops? I mean, we’re talking about replacing Jonathan Freakin’ Ive, here! But I’ll tell you this: Ive isn’t a design genius. He’s a design god, to be sure, but there are thousands of perfectly capable Dieter Rams devotees just like him, minus the opportunity and the social good graces that famously let him keep his job once Jobs came back for his second stint at Apple. Newson himself is a particularly accomplished one of those thousands, and there is significant overlap in his and Ive’s professional sensibilities.

If you look through Newson’s portfolio, you’ll see a lot of similarities between the two friends’ formed metal curves and strong matte ideals. You’ll see that same austere-yet-elegant bent, that same gravitation towards simplicity that’s so defined Apple products over the last decade. That’s why Ive and Newson have such an easy time collaborating on projects and exhibitions, and it’s why Newson was able to help Ive dial in Apple Watch to its final (but sure-to-evolve) glorious form.

And that’s the biggest takeaway for me, that the Apple Watch’s design is so obviously Ive around the edges and Newson everywhere else (including that maybe-great, maybe-awful constellation homescreen). The whole package looks like a shrunken-down old iPhone, exactly as anyone would expect an Apple Watch to look, but it’s gussied up with Newson’s accoutrements (he designed the Link Bracelet and Milanese Loop, too), and nothing — nothing! — looks at all out of place. Ive and Newson are interchangeable.

At least, they’re interchangeable artistically. Ive clearly has the edge in managerial experience, but that can be taught, and it’s probably not as important as everyone thinks, anyways. As long as Newson can lead a small design team of delegators, that’s all that matters.

As a fan of aesthetic considerations in consumer products, I appreciate Ive’s unremitting attention to detail and insistence on limited, shared cues across the Apple family of devices. But I’m also ready for something a little bit different out of Apple, and Newson could be the very guy for it — precisely because he’s only a little bit different. He’s not different enough to displace or alienate Ive’s — or Apple’s — legions of devotees, which means he’s not different enough to alter the grand scope of Apple’s trademark look. He is, however, different enough that dedicated fans of design will see his signature flair and enjoy those subtleties as everyone else just sees another awesome Apple product.

Apple as a brand will maintain its image and its style. Ive set that foundation, and Newson seems primed to add just a touch of the unexpected — but still patently Apple — going forward. There are eras to design. And there are eras to design.

I hope Apple gives Newson a chance to make his mark. And I hope Ive starts making his elsewhere in the far-flung realm of the luxury baubles inside his head.

The electronic Apple Watch sells.

A mechanical Ive Watch would, too.

And so would literally anything else he’d care to create.

Update: And so Jony Ive’s “exit” begins. Engadget just passed along some breaking news from The Telegraph that Jony Ive’s been promoted to a heretofore nonexistent position inside Apple. That position, Chief Design Officer, has been created with the sole purpose of giving Ive more breathing room inside — and presumably outside — of the company. But, as Engadget explains:

He’ll still oversee the company’s broader design efforts, but there will be leaders dedicated to user interfaces (Alan Dye) and industrial design (Richard Howarth) as of July 1st. …

The CDO role is arguably as much about giving Ive room to breathe as anything else — he doesn’t have to worry so much about splitting his attention in several different directions. …

The big difference is that these newly minted executives have considerably more sway, and Ive might not be as directly involved with their work as he used to be.

Where that leaves Marc Newson remains unclear, as he’s always functioned in something of a covert capacity within Apple. Due to his closeness with Ive, it’s not hard to imagine how the latter’s promotion might be a big step towards an eventual passing of the torch, particularly if Howarth isn’t keen on being a big-time public personage. Regardless of who steps in for Ive on the studio floor, however, it seems like the big guy is indeed slowly planning his exit.

(Coming hot on the heels of the Apple Watch launch, I wonder if this news doesn’t lend a little credence to my other big conspiracy theory re: Ive, namely that he might have promised a certain someone to see a certain project through before calling it a career.)