5 ms·

> When Apple first showed off the Apple Watch, I was stunned. It looked glorious and larger than life. Shiny and precision-machined. Like an object from the fut

by JTon 12y ago

> When Apple first showed off the Apple Watch, I was stunned. It looked glorious and larger than life. Shiny and precision-machined. Like an object from the future that time-traveled back to the present just to blow everyone away. I too was stunned, but for the exact opposite reason. I thought, and still think, the Apple Watch looks hideous. And no, I'm not exaggerating. I _really_ don't like it. This is coming from a non-apple user who thinks Apple makes beautiful hardware.

pervycreeper 12y ago
Apple tends to be very hit-or-miss with its aesthetic choices.
fit2rule 12y ago
I'm with you - I also think it looks terrible, design-wise, and I was somewhat disappointed when it was announced. But like so many I'll be eager to see what comes of the re-design needed for V2.0 .. so I'm in a holding pattern about purchasing one. Writing apps for it on the other hand, I'm quite eager to do ..
- dhagz 12y ago
  It's fun. I've already got one on the App Store (I think Apple has been rushing the review process on apps for the Watch). WatchKit is limited, but it's fun to push those limits. And I'm betting at WWDC we'll see a more fleshed out framework for interacting with the watch.
return0 12y ago
The rounded rectangle design is nauseatingly ugly. There's a reason we cant find many examples of rounded rectangles throughout history - they re not beautiful. It looked OK on iphones which are useful items, but for a luxury item like this its almost a dealbreaker.
- jowiar 12y ago
  The original iPod? The Emeco Navy chair? A decent chunk of Dieter Rams' work? Feel free to say "I don't like rounded rectangles". But categorically calling rounded rectangles "not beautiful" or "nauseating" is laughable.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - maaku 12y ago
    All of those are hideously ugly. What's your point?
    - derefr 12y ago
      You may have some sort of synaesthetic revulsion. Do you also hate the word "moist"?
      - maaku 12y ago
        No, I just think rounded rectangles are ugly.
  - alexqgb 12y ago
    Rounded corners are a defining element of virtually every product made by Apple since they set their design trajectory with the Cube. As as aside, for a product commonly chalked up as a misfire, the Cube has got to be the single most successful, influential "failure" in living memory. Indeed, it marks the point where Jobs and Ive truly clicked. Since then, Apple spun the world's most valuable company out of their combined vision, which has proliferated wildly since making its public debut in that unprecedented machine. It was kind of like a concept car, but one that Apple actually shipped.
    - DonHopkins 11y ago
      You don't say! ;) Round Rects Are Everywhere! Author: Andy Hertzfeld Date: May 1981 Characters: Steve Jobs, Bill Atkinson Topics: Software Design, Inspiration, QuickDraw Summary: Steve inspires Bill by pointing out something about the real world Bill Atkinson worked mostly at home, but whenever he made significant progress he rushed in to Apple to show it off to anyone who would appreciate it. This time, he visited the Macintosh offices at Texaco Towers to show off his brand new oval routines, which were implemented using a really clever algorithm. Bill had added new code to QuickDraw (which was still called LisaGraf at this point) to draw circles and ovals very quickly. That was a bit hard to do on the Macintosh, since the math for circles usually involved taking square roots, and the 68000 processor in the Lisa and Macintosh didn't support floating point operations. But Bill had come up with a clever way to do the circle calculation that only used addition and subtraction, not even multiplication or division, which the 68000 could do, but was kind of slow at. Bill's technique used the fact the sum of a sequence of odd numbers is always the next perfect square (For example, 1 + 3 = 4, 1 + 3 + 5 = 9, 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 16, etc). So he could figure out when to bump the dependent coordinate value by iterating in a loop until a threshold was exceeded. This allowed QuickDraw to draw ovals very quickly. Bill fired up his demo and it quickly filled the Lisa screen with randomly-sized ovals, faster than you thought was possible. But something was bothering Steve Jobs. "Well, circles and ovals are good, but how about drawing rectangles with rounded corners? Can we do that now, too?" "No, there's no way to do that. In fact it would be really hard to do, and I don't think we really need it". I think Bill was a little miffed that Steve wasn't raving over the fast ovals and still wanted more. Steve suddenly got more intense. "Rectangles with rounded corners are everywhere! Just look around this room!". And sure enough, there were lots of them, like the whiteboard and some of the desks and tables. Then he pointed out the window. "And look outside, there's even more, practically everywhere you look!". He even persuaded Bill to take a quick walk around the block with him, pointing out every rectangle with rounded corners that he could find. When Steve and Bill passed a no-parking sign with rounded corners, it did the trick. "OK, I give up", Bill pleaded. "I'll see if it's as hard as I thought." He went back home to work on it. Bill returned to Texaco Towers the following afternoon, with a big smile on his face. His demo was now drawing rectangles with beautifully rounded corners blisteringly fast, almost at the speed of plain rectangles. When he added the code to LisaGraf, he named the new primitive "RoundRects". Over the next few months, roundrects worked their way into various parts of the user interface, and soon became indispensable. http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Round_Rects_Are_Everywhere.txt http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Round_Rects_Are_E...
bambax 12y ago
This picture (from the OP) is terrible: https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/1400/1*hTina7sOR2axZWnBA9u-tg.png https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/1400/1*hTina7sOR2a... The Apple watch is clearly the ugly duck of the bunch.
- slantyyz 12y ago
  >> The Apple watch is clearly the ugly duck of the bunch. So why is the photo terrible? When I looked at that photo in context to the copy, I thought the intent was to compare size, not beauty. In that regard, it appears to be an effective photo.
  - bambax 12y ago
    Maybe I misspoke. I meant that the image is terrible for the Apple watch, not that it's a terrible image per se. It makes the Apple watch look awful compared to the others (IMHO).
    - Yhippa 12y ago
      I still don't know what you mean. Also that sport edition is the most accessible version of the watch and is the one I bet you're going to see most in the wild.
- ctdonath 12y ago
  The picture is terrible. The watch in person looks great.
MarkMc 12y ago
Got to admit that the Moto 360 looks beautiful and classy while the Apple watch looks like a cheap casio from the 80s: http://i.imgur.com/V9YZ5Kz.png http://i.imgur.com/V9YZ5Kz.png
- nostromo 12y ago
  It's way too big though. http://i.imgur.com/MAmL4a4.jpg http://i.imgur.com/MAmL4a4.jpg
  - hyperliner 12y ago
    You should add "... for my wrist"
  - grubles 12y ago
    That is just a really skinny arm. Here is how it looks on someone ~160lbs (like myself): http://imgur.com/Cejo1rl.jpg http://imgur.com/Cejo1rl.jpg
    - dhagz 12y ago
      I mean, it looks a little better, but I still feel that the watch face is unnecessarily large. It doesn't look proportional. And while the rectangular face of the Apple Watch is evocative of Casio watches, it looks proportional to the band and the wearer's wrist.
- joshuapants 12y ago
  The Moto looks like it's trying to be beautiful and classy, but the size and the fact that the screen isn't actually circular kind of kills it in my opinion.

by JTon 12y ago

pervycreeper 12y ago

Apple tends to be very hit-or-miss with its aesthetic choices.

fit2rule 12y ago

I'm with you - I also think it looks terrible, design-wise, and I was somewhat disappointed when it was announced. But like so many I'll be eager to see what comes of the re-design needed for V2.0 .. so I'm in a holding pattern about purchasing one. Writing apps for it on the other hand, I'm quite eager to do ..

dhagz 12y ago
It's fun. I've already got one on the App Store (I think Apple has been rushing the review process on apps for the Watch). WatchKit is limited, but it's fun to push those limits. And I'm betting at WWDC we'll see a more fleshed out framework for interacting with the watch.

return0 12y ago

The rounded rectangle design is nauseatingly ugly. There's a reason we cant find many examples of rounded rectangles throughout history - they re not beautiful. It looked OK on iphones which are useful items, but for a luxury item like this its almost a dealbreaker.

jowiar 12y ago
The original iPod? The Emeco Navy chair? A decent chunk of Dieter Rams' work? Feel free to say "I don't like rounded rectangles". But categorically calling rounded rectangles "not beautiful" or "nauseating" is laughable.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- maaku 12y ago
  All of those are hideously ugly. What's your point?
  - derefr 12y ago
    You may have some sort of synaesthetic revulsion. Do you also hate the word "moist"?
    - maaku 12y ago
      No, I just think rounded rectangles are ugly.
- alexqgb 12y ago
  Rounded corners are a defining element of virtually every product made by Apple since they set their design trajectory with the Cube. As as aside, for a product commonly chalked up as a misfire, the Cube has got to be the single most successful, influential "failure" in living memory. Indeed, it marks the point where Jobs and Ive truly clicked. Since then, Apple spun the world's most valuable company out of their combined vision, which has proliferated wildly since making its public debut in that unprecedented machine. It was kind of like a concept car, but one that Apple actually shipped.
  - DonHopkins 11y ago
    You don't say! ;) Round Rects Are Everywhere! Author: Andy Hertzfeld Date: May 1981 Characters: Steve Jobs, Bill Atkinson Topics: Software Design, Inspiration, QuickDraw Summary: Steve inspires Bill by pointing out something about the real world Bill Atkinson worked mostly at home, but whenever he made significant progress he rushed in to Apple to show it off to anyone who would appreciate it. This time, he visited the Macintosh offices at Texaco Towers to show off his brand new oval routines, which were implemented using a really clever algorithm. Bill had added new code to QuickDraw (which was still called LisaGraf at this point) to draw circles and ovals very quickly. That was a bit hard to do on the Macintosh, since the math for circles usually involved taking square roots, and the 68000 processor in the Lisa and Macintosh didn't support floating point operations. But Bill had come up with a clever way to do the circle calculation that only used addition and subtraction, not even multiplication or division, which the 68000 could do, but was kind of slow at. Bill's technique used the fact the sum of a sequence of odd numbers is always the next perfect square (For example, 1 + 3 = 4, 1 + 3 + 5 = 9, 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 16, etc). So he could figure out when to bump the dependent coordinate value by iterating in a loop until a threshold was exceeded. This allowed QuickDraw to draw ovals very quickly. Bill fired up his demo and it quickly filled the Lisa screen with randomly-sized ovals, faster than you thought was possible. But something was bothering Steve Jobs. "Well, circles and ovals are good, but how about drawing rectangles with rounded corners? Can we do that now, too?" "No, there's no way to do that. In fact it would be really hard to do, and I don't think we really need it". I think Bill was a little miffed that Steve wasn't raving over the fast ovals and still wanted more. Steve suddenly got more intense. "Rectangles with rounded corners are everywhere! Just look around this room!". And sure enough, there were lots of them, like the whiteboard and some of the desks and tables. Then he pointed out the window. "And look outside, there's even more, practically everywhere you look!". He even persuaded Bill to take a quick walk around the block with him, pointing out every rectangle with rounded corners that he could find. When Steve and Bill passed a no-parking sign with rounded corners, it did the trick. "OK, I give up", Bill pleaded. "I'll see if it's as hard as I thought." He went back home to work on it. Bill returned to Texaco Towers the following afternoon, with a big smile on his face. His demo was now drawing rectangles with beautifully rounded corners blisteringly fast, almost at the speed of plain rectangles. When he added the code to LisaGraf, he named the new primitive "RoundRects". Over the next few months, roundrects worked their way into various parts of the user interface, and soon became indispensable. http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Round_Rects_Are_Everywhere.txt http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Round_Rects_Are_E...

bambax 12y ago

This picture (from the OP) is terrible: https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/1400/1*hTina7sOR2axZWnBA9u-tg.png https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/1400/1*hTina7sOR2a... The Apple watch is clearly the ugly duck of the bunch.

slantyyz 12y ago
>> The Apple watch is clearly the ugly duck of the bunch. So why is the photo terrible? When I looked at that photo in context to the copy, I thought the intent was to compare size, not beauty. In that regard, it appears to be an effective photo.
- bambax 12y ago
  Maybe I misspoke. I meant that the image is terrible for the Apple watch, not that it's a terrible image per se. It makes the Apple watch look awful compared to the others (IMHO).
  - Yhippa 12y ago
    I still don't know what you mean. Also that sport edition is the most accessible version of the watch and is the one I bet you're going to see most in the wild.
ctdonath 12y ago
The picture is terrible. The watch in person looks great.

MarkMc 12y ago

Got to admit that the Moto 360 looks beautiful and classy while the Apple watch looks like a cheap casio from the 80s: http://i.imgur.com/V9YZ5Kz.png http://i.imgur.com/V9YZ5Kz.png

nostromo 12y ago
It's way too big though. http://i.imgur.com/MAmL4a4.jpg http://i.imgur.com/MAmL4a4.jpg
- hyperliner 12y ago
  You should add "... for my wrist"
- grubles 12y ago
  That is just a really skinny arm. Here is how it looks on someone ~160lbs (like myself): http://imgur.com/Cejo1rl.jpg http://imgur.com/Cejo1rl.jpg
  - dhagz 12y ago
    I mean, it looks a little better, but I still feel that the watch face is unnecessarily large. It doesn't look proportional. And while the rectangular face of the Apple Watch is evocative of Casio watches, it looks proportional to the band and the wearer's wrist.
joshuapants 12y ago
The Moto looks like it's trying to be beautiful and classy, but the size and the fact that the screen isn't actually circular kind of kills it in my opinion.