

Industrial Designer Explains Methods Shown in Apple Watch Manufacturing Videos - titanas
http://www.core77.com/posts/34524/Industrial-Designer-Explains-Production-Methods-Shown-in-Apple-Watch-Manufacturing-Videos

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cloudwalking
Here's the primary source: [http://atomicdelights.com/blog/a-glimpse-at-how-
the-apple-wa...](http://atomicdelights.com/blog/a-glimpse-at-how-the-apple-
watch-is-made) \-- absolutely worth a read.

Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9195042](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9195042)

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amelius
First, Apple bought all of these technologies, including their patents,
shutting off the competition from using them. This is of course a sad fact.

Second, all this precise machinery to come up with a watch that looks clunky,
and nothing compared to a good vintage Swiss watch. It seems they are doing
something fundamentally wrong.

But despite all of this, the technology itself remains very cool, of course.

~~~
threeseed
Apple acquired all of the technologies used in the production of the Apple
Watch ?

Call me crazy but I think they have just a little bit of experience at high
end industrial design and electronics learnt through the production of the
iPod, iPhone and decades of building Macs. Likewise absolutely no talented
designers, materials experts or manufacturing gurus would ever be attracted to
a company which prides itself on doing cutting edge work at a global scale.

But hey I am sure Apple Watch won't sell at all and definitely won't be making
money on those Edition versions.

~~~
sanoli
You're right, the watch is pretty much a miniature iphone.

About its sales, that I don't agree much. I'd bet it won't sell much, won't
see widespread use like the iphone/ipad. In a venn diagram it would share too
much of the 'geek' part of the diagram with the Google Glass. You have to keep
taking it off the wrist to charge, etc. Of course, what do I know

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Animats
All that manufacturing precision and it's not fully waterproof. Come on,
Apple.

~~~
kaolinite
It isn't a dive watch - the touch screen wouldn't work under water - so
regular water resistance is fine (and industry standard).

It's safe to be worn in the shower, that's enough for most people.

Edit: having looked into it a little more (not very knowledgeable about
waterproofing, I dislike dive watches), there's no such thing as a
"waterproof" watch, just a watch that is resistant to water at certain levels
of water pressure. Information about it here:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Resistant_mark](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Resistant_mark)

~~~
Animats
No, "industry standard" for sport watches is 50-100 meter depth.[1] All
Casio's sport watches can handle that. Rolexes are generally good to 100
meters. Apple's watch can't handle a shower, let alone a bathtub.

There are touch screens that work when wet.[2]

[1]
[http://www.casio.com/products/Watches/Sports/](http://www.casio.com/products/Watches/Sports/)
[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVPku-
xItv8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVPku-xItv8)

~~~
jws
Watch depths on watches are basically lies. Look at the "Water Resistance
Classification" table in the linked "Water Resistance Mark" Wikipedia page.
50m means you can barely submerge it. 100m is snorkeling.

I learned this the hard way when I got a new 30m watch for a sailing trip and
it died the first time I stuck my hand in water. Timex even used to print
something like that table in the paper that came with the watch. So I'll
upgrade my "lies" characterization to "shameless lies".

(That said, I want Apple to do better, and I expect they will in the future.
Underperforming on the first products would be a disaster. Better to under
promise.)

~~~
sanoli
It means that in a sealed water resistance test thing, the watch, sitting
there surrounded by water, will still function when subjected to, in the case
of your watch, 3bar of pressure. That is without moving the watch, with the
crown fully tightened/pushed in, etc. Yours was probably defective, or was
advertised in bad faith, even though by those water resistance tables they say
30m isn't suitable for swimming. However, I've taken both 3 bar and 5 bar
watches to the sea many times with no problem. It's supposed to handle shallow
swimming

