This Designer Says The Apple Watch Was 'Clearly' Designed By Marc Newson - Not Jony Ive

AFP

At least one designer thinks Marc Newson created the Apple Watch, not Jony Ive.

Ive is Apple's lead product designer.

"It's got Marc Newson's fingerprints all over it," industrial designer Bradley Price told Om Malik. "It's clearly something he designed rather than Jony Ive."

Price founded Autodromo, which makes car-themed watches, as well as sunglasses and driving gloves.

Apple announced it was hiring Newson just four days before unveiling the Apple Watch, so there's no way Newson could have developed the Apple Watch as an Apple employee.

But Ive and Newson are close friends.

It's rumored that one reason Apple hired Newson was to keep Ive designing killer products.

Newson also has a history of designing watches. It's possible Ive could have worked with Newson unofficially and designed the watch together.

"It's funny [Apple] announced [Newson] was working with them after the watch," said Price. "But to me that was the Apple way of underhandedly giving him credit for the design without actually saying he designed it."

Newson founded Ikepod, a watch company, and left it in 2012. The Apple Watch has several similarities to Ikepod's products.

"The most obvious giveaway was that the rubber strap had the exact closure method that the Ikepod had," said Price. "But the way the strap integrates with the case is so him, this sort of inflated square."