When I put on my Apple Watch Series 10, I’m putting on a watch that’s as recognizable as some of the most iconic watches ever made, and easily the most recognizable smartwatch there is. The Apple Watch celebrates its 10th anniversary on April 24, and while its shape has evolved over all these years, it has never drastically changed, and it’s one of its biggest strengths.
The Apple Watch is an icon
When people think of a dive watch they probably think of a Rolex Submariner or some version of it. Think of a pilot’s watch, and something like the IWC Mark series may come to mind, while the rugged watch space is dominated by the original Casio G-Shock DW-5600 and its square case. Ask a child to draw a sports car, and whatever they draw it will end up red, because the definitive sports car in many people’s mind is a Ferrari. Whether due to a certain shape or a specific design motif, all these are considered the definitive silhouettes in their respective spaces.
The Apple Watch should be considered the definitive smartwatch silhouette. Ask a normal person (by which I mean, those who aren’t deeply entrenched in the tech world) to sketch a smartwatch, and they will probably sketch the Apple Watch’s rectangular shape, and not a round watch. Round is the shape most commonly associated with non-smart watches, not smartwatches. We naturally associate rectangular shapes with smartphones and what is a smartwatch, if not an extension of our phones?
Apple’s success here is due to never veering away from the rectangular shape of the original Apple Watch, which has been refined and improved over a decade to become fantastic to wear and instantly recognizable. I like watches, and almost always notice what’s on someone’s wrist, whether it’s out in real life or on TV or YouTube. The Apple Watch, whether regular or Ultra, is just as easy to spot as a Rolex Daytona or Patek Philippe Nautilus at a glance. I love that about it.
So many Apple Watches
The Apple Watch’s immediately recognizable shape is not the only reason it’ll be a lot of people’s idea of what a smartwatch looks like. The other reason is Apple has sold absolutely loads of them right from the start. In 2016, the year after it was released, Apple controlled 49% of the smartwatch market, and still had 40% at the end of 2020.
In 2019, the Apple Watch outsold the entire Swiss watch industry on its own, with claims a massive 31 million Apple Watches were shipped around the world that year alone. In 2023, 59% of smartwatch owners in the U.S. wore an Apple Watch. Today, it has 22% of the market, but remains the world’s number one for smartwatch shipments. Huawei is second with 13%, and Samsung has 9% of the market, according to Counterpoint Research’s latest data.
What this means is, over the last decade, Apple has sold a dizzying amount of Apple Watches, and huge popularity like that inevitably leads to recognizability.
It takes a lot of effort
The Apple Watch isn’t so popular only because it’s an Apple product, or that it’s the best smartwatch currently available. It’s because Apple cared about the design, its relationship to non-smart watches, and also the future stylistic implications of a completely digital piece of wrist wear. Watches are pieces of jewelry, and we have to want to wear one. Apple got it right from the beginning.
In 2015 after handling the first Apple Watch, Vogue’s Suzy Menkes saw the future when she wrote, “From a fashion point of view, the external aesthetic seemed neutral: neither super-stylish nor repellent. I would imagine that geeks would love it more than aesthetes. Yet smartphones have already transformed the fashion world in a way we never imagined. I like the idea of setting the visual aspects according to my mood. And perhaps my wardrobe.”
Ten years on, Menkes’ musing was absolutely correct. Watches in general have seen a renaissance, as more people choose to wear one as a fashion accessory or status symbol. The Apple Watch — through partnerships with Hermés, a thriving accessory industry, and regular updates to its watch faces — has become part of that world in a way other makers, such as Google with its Pixel Watch, can only dream about.
On the subject of watch faces, this wonderful deep dive into the inspiration behind some of the original Apple Watch watch faces shows the attention to detail that went into their design, something which still separates Apple from the competition today. No other technology brand treats smartwatch watch faces with such care and attention, and it hurts the end result enormously. Not so with the Apple Watch.
Never round
Ubiquitous and unmistakable, the Apple Watch should be considered the default smartwatch shape today. What was once questioned and even ridiculed, the rectangular Apple Watch has been refined and improved for years, and has become the wrist wear of choice for millions of people. It’s still copied too, with the Huawei Watch Fit and Redmi Watch 5 “sharing” the design, along with the dozens of imitators found on Amazon.
I’ve worn every Apple Watch model since the first, and adore the refined Series 10, especially in titanium. Considering how it’s now ten years old, it’s surprising how little it has actually physically altered, yet how much difference the steady changes have made to the way it looks, feels, and wears. It’s futuristic too, and I still get the “living in the future” vibe from it, which is just as essential as its watch-like feel.
No other smartwatch has such a clear, long, and carefully curated history behind it. Does that matter? Ask Rolex, Tag Heuer, Omega, Oris, Seiko, Timex, or any other watch maker if history matters, and they’ll all point to how designs from decades ago still influence their watches today. The Apple Watch deserves to represent smartwatches today, and no other model comes even close to it.
