
How Apple Makes the Watch - dshankar
http://atomicdelights.com/blog/a-glimpse-at-how-the-apple-watch-is-made
======
eitally
What really interests and fascinates, and impresses, me is that because of
Apple's ludicrous scale and huge profit margins, they can actually afford to
manufacture their products in the best way possible. They don't have to cut
corners, they don't have to worry that their EMS partner doesn't have the
absolute best and newest machines, they don't have to worry about contention
in their supply chain (except perhaps at the macro level with things like
Samsung chips and Corning Gorilla Glass).

I work in high tech manufacturing and these kinds of things happen to normal
companies all the time. An essential part of every BOM is the "alternates and
substitutions" section, which lists the 2nd, 3rd, etc options for components
if the first choice isn't available. Another is the potential inability of an
EMS partner to build any given product at any given location because they
literally do not have plug & play equipment at all of their facilities. And if
a customer forces the issue, it could takes months to 1) spend the capex, and
2) wait for the machine suppliers (Fuji, Siemens, Yestech, Saki, Orbotech,
Agilent, etc) to deliver it. To give you an idea of why Apple chose Foxconn as
their premier partner, Foxconn owns their whole supply chain outright, and
they operate at a scale similar to Apple, which allows them to drop a billion
here or there on capital investments at Apple's request. Others have tried
(Pegatron, Jabil), and failed.

~~~
archagon
As a counterexample, see the poor display quality of the iPad Mini compared to
Amazon's offering. Apple bloggers were speculating that Apple simply couldn't
manufacture enough of the good displays at their scale, whereas Amazon had no
such problem.

~~~
glasshead969
I think it has more to do with iPad Mini being differentiated from iPad Air as
a entry level iOS device.

------
tajen
Aren't you amazed that the richest billionaire who buys this watch from their
palace or skyscraper has only access to the same promotional videos we have?
Do they have a personalized purchasing experience? I thought the same when
watching golden phone cases for iPhones: However rich you are, what's inside
is still the same iOS, with the same usability perks and defects, with the
same Flat UI, with the same Appstore apps as everyone. How mundane.

I reckon it's excellent that Apple finally addresses the billionaire market
with a gold experience. By taking the money where it is, it provides a revenue
stream that can fund features that average people will use.

~~~
giarc
In the watch world, a $10K watch is nothing. Billionaire watch collectors
likely don't even have the Apple Watch on their radar.

~~~
StevenRayOrr
I don't particular disagree, but I also don't think Apple is going after
either "billionaires" or "watch collectors". Not that they would turn away
sales from either category, but the Apple Watch Edition seems to be pointed at
those that use Apple products already but also happen to have a boatload of
cash. I guess I am saying that I see the target market as celebrities.

~~~
giarc
I'd agree with that. I actually think it was a bad move on their part. By
having a $10k watch it draws media headlines away from their consumer product.
I've seen many more headlines like "Apple's New $10,000 Watch" rather than
"Apple's New Line of Smart Watches". For those that don't follow the
technology news closely they may miss the launch of the regular product.

------
mrcwinn
The Apple videos are shot beautifully. They are quite a piece of work form a
film-making perspective, and offer a glimpse at how much work goes into
constituent pieces. I really enjoyed this article. Thank you to the author for
putting together so much detail. Great work!

~~~
dntrkv
The steel watch video is the best promotional/informational video I've seen.
The music, cinematography, and story telling is perfect.

[http://www.apple.com/watch/apple-watch/](http://www.apple.com/watch/apple-
watch/)

------
sschueller
These apple craftsmanship videos are trying to appeal to the high end watch
enthusiast but this is not going to work.

Just look at the Patek Philippe 5175R grandmaster chime watch video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGPjFFMD3c0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGPjFFMD3c0)
. You can't compare these hand made masterpieces with a mass produced item.

It's like trying to get Pagani Zonda owner to buy a Corvette.

~~~
Spearchucker
The Corvette/Zonda compare demonstrates the point well. It doesn't account for
Apple's target market though. The person that wears an expensive watch on the
wrist, rather than the arm. The person that drives a Bentley convertible, or
paints their Lamborghini matt black. These people don't buy a gold Apple Watch
because they think it's beautiful. They buy an Apple Watch because they think
_other_ people think it's beautiful. They have an inherent need to parade
their wealth to others.

They're easy to spot, too. Expensive clothes, no sense of style. Usually loud,
if not vulgar. Lack of empathy, coupled with an overdeveloped sense of
entitlement. They won't buy a Murakami because it appeals to them
aesthetically, they'll buy one because their rich friend bought one "for the
kid's room". And enough disposable cash to buy an Apple Watch for no other
reason than that they can. In Europe they're often called nouveau riche, or
even Euro-trash.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
Unfortunately I think that's exactly the market Apple _aren 't_ aiming for -
but will probably get.

Watch is a slow-motion PR disaster. It's doing a lot of damage to the Apple
brand, because Apple seem to have stopped pretending to make useful,
affordable, luxury, and are now trying to make unaffordable, useless, luxury -
which is a completely different market, for completely customers, with
completely different rules.

This would be fine if the product itself had clear Veblen-differentiation. But
it doesn't. Watch Edition is just Sport Watch in a blingy case with a nicer
strap.

That is _so_ not how the luxury market works.

High-end luxury is defined by evidence that you can command some other human's
skill and work. So, you can't have mass-produced or machine-made high-end
luxury, by definition.

If it's not hand-made, or hand-marketed, or hand-concierged, or very strictly
limited, of fundamentally different and exclusive in a way that proves that
someone has had to work hard _for you personally_ to make it, it doesn't tweak
those luxury neurons - no matter how much gold it has, or how much it costs.

~~~
ceejayoz
> Watch Edition is just Sport Watch in a blingy case with a nicer strap. That
> is so not how the luxury market works.

Have you _been_ to an upscale mall? That perfectly describes Williams-Sonoma,
Coach, etc.

~~~
amyjess
I wouldn't call Williams-Sonoma and Coach the luxury market.

At upscale malls, those kind of stores are squarely in the mid-range session,
not the part of the mall with the designer boutique shops.

------
snowwrestler
An interesting claim in this article is that Apple is _not_ using its gold
metal matrix patent for the gold Watch Edition, but are instead work-hardening
a more standard/traditional 18k alloy.

~~~
bidatzi
Not just a claim from the article. The description in the gold video itself is
quite explicit.

------
khet
I enjoyed reading the article a lot more than watching the Apple craftsmanship
videos it was based on.

The article was very easy to understand for someone with little knowledge
about manufacturing processes and did a great job of explaining how much
effort and engineering goes into making a great product.

The Apple videos on craftsmanship were overly clinical and fancy, which for me
took away from talking about the engineering and effort they put into the
product.

------
esusatyo
Here are the videos discussed in the article:
[http://www.apple.com/watch/films/](http://www.apple.com/watch/films/)

The interesting thing is, Apple did not show the Gold video in the event at
all. They showed all the other videos.

~~~
zxcvgm
maybe they wanted to avoid people talking about how they managed to use less
gold in the watches.

[http://leancrew.com/all-this/2015/03/apple-gold/](http://leancrew.com/all-
this/2015/03/apple-gold/)

~~~
morcheeba
Do you mean like Hublot?
[http://www.hublot.com/en/craftsmanship/materials](http://www.hublot.com/en/craftsmanship/materials)

stop trolling; they aren't trying to rip you off.

~~~
jedrek
Spot on.

A Rolex submariner weighs about 135g. Let's pretend that all but 35g of it is
gold (it's less, but w/e). So we're at 100g of 18k gold. Now, 18k gold is 75%
by mass, equal to 75g of 24k gold or $2900.

The cheapest, non-gold submariner costs $7500.

Buying gold watches to get the gold - or even considering the value of their
alloys when buying them - is as dumb as doing the same with computers.

------
marze
So does Apple make these videos more to attract customers or more to
demoralize the competition?

Hard to say.

~~~
IBM
I think it's mainly to show consumers just how much thought they put into
making their products and how well made they are.

------
coldcode
Apple does all of this because Steve Job's father taught him the importance of
craftsmanship even in the parts of cabinets no one ever sees. This stuck with
him forever. When you have kids, what you teach them might someday affect a
lot more than just your kid.

~~~
normloman
Steve Jobs is dead now. And I'm sure the current leadership has reasons other
than Steve's dad to sell high quality goods.

------
baddox
I don't know if it's accurate, because I know little about milling, but I
found this to be the most interesting bit:

> Apple chooses not to show us the manufacturing of the clasp components,
> processes that I think would be (in some respects) more interesting than how
> the watch case is made. Given the complex surfaces of the Modern buckle,
> this might be the first example of Apple using 3D surface tollbooth in order
> to machine a component (all Apple products have been created through the
> very skillful use of relatively simple, precise prismatic 2.5D tool path,
> with any complex curves being created from stampings).

~~~
Animats
"surface tollbooth"?

4 and 5 axis CNC mills for watch-sized objects aren't overly expensive. Roland
has some nice ones in the $8K range.[1] Their little desktop milling machines
are often used to produce medical and dental replacement parts. Apple's use of
laser deburring is a nice touch. That's likely to become popular.

[1]
[http://www.rolanddga.com/products/3d/mdx40/](http://www.rolanddga.com/products/3d/mdx40/)

~~~
gak_pdx
Thanks for the "tollbooth" catch! I've taken to typing "toolpath" as all one
word, and autocorrect got me...

(Author of the linked article).

Also, ain't no way an $8k desktop mill will ever have the rigidity or accuracy
to be building stuff that would even pass as a junky watch.

------
frik
Nothing that special from a technical point of view - but... Some years ago
one would use a 5-axis CNC mill to produce car engine blocks, but not for mass
production for consumer products - everyone would have used plastic for that.
The iPhone was the first phone out of aluminium. Also the using a full block
of aluminium to mill a Apple notebook body out of it in mass production, was
never though before. (Sure higher quality traditional watches were always made
of high quality metals)

------
unijoes
Even those interested are going to suffer with making a choice between all the
various watches and straps.

It's just rather absurd that on the premium "watch edition" apple watch, apple
is charging around $7k just for the watch edition with the best strap.

What I find a bit funny is the $350 apple watch is the most feature rich
watch. It may be aluminum but it is water resistant which makes it more useful
than the more expensive alternatives.

------
gilbetron
All that work to create one of the most boring looking watches I've ever seen.
The craftsmanship is inspired, the design ... blah.

------
oompt
Interesting.
[http://cl.ly/image/360H1Q47090F](http://cl.ly/image/360H1Q47090F)

~~~
blackobelisk
?

------
sparkzilla
Do you need to buy a whole new case when the next version comes out, or will
you be able to drop in a new module?

~~~
bobf
I hope you'll be able to upgrade the module and retain the same case+band, but
I haven't seen anything definitive from Apple to say that's likely.

~~~
DerekL
Since Apple hasn't said anything about upgrades, I think that means that there
won't be any. Apple will replace broken or faulty electronics, but they won't
upgrade you to the newest model.

That really indicates that Apple Watch will evolve slowly. Maybe it will be
three to five years before there's a new model. It doesn't really need
upgrades, because it's mostly a fancy terminal for your iPhone, plus a fitness
band and iPod shuffle. And I think that Apple will support it for a much
longer time than iPhones and iPads. Ten years from now, today's Apple Watch
will work with the latest iPhones and iOS.

But they will introduce new cases and bands every year.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Hmm, I doubt it would be ultra-slow. They'll probably bring out new ones
somewhat regularly (maybe every second year).

------
zaroth
Link to the video?

~~~
esusatyo
Here you go:
[http://www.apple.com/watch/films/](http://www.apple.com/watch/films/)

------
foobarge
Has a bit of "you're not worthy" feel that surfaced as satirical couple pages
built in the mid 2000 (I don't think they are still around.) It was listing
pumped-up exceptional characteristics of Apple products and mentioning that as
not being worthy they probably wouldn't even take your order ;-)

~~~
crististm
A little bit of building "exclusivity" on top of a very much off-the-shelf
product.

------
codecondo
I'm having a hard time taking this company seriously anymore, anyone else feel
the same way?

~~~
nfoz
What does that even mean?

------
crististm
Yep, the watch is just a watch. They know it, I know it, you know it.

Now, how do we make it look more like a "personal, exclusive, luxurious"
experience? I wonder...

The craftsmanship of a real watch is not something to be missed. But since
Apple's watch is just electronics, they can't appeal to customers with a soul-
less PCB. Instead, they make a Discovery how it's made movie about building a
watch case.

