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Apple Licenses Swiss Railway Clock Design for iPad's iOS 6 Clock App
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I agree that it's ugly. Thick lines in place of numbers? Nothing new. Smaller lines for the minutes? Nothing new. Red second hand? Nothing new. Adding a big red dot at the end of the second hand? Makes tracking easier. That's a basic, functional design decision... it's not an artistic choice. It's a minimalist way to make the design more functional. I believe it's VERY possible they were both designed independently.
Yeah I could have done those silly Jackson Pollock splashy drippy paintings, so basic....and don't even get me started on Rothko....
Then I am very happy for you, ArdBuijsen, and I'm glad that Apple was able to reach an agreement with the Swiss Federal Railway so that they can keep it.
I agree. Could have just stuck with the clock that was already being used on the iPhone.
Samsung's case is different because Apple offered to work out a licensing deal but Samsung rejected. They paid Microsoft for other patent infringement instead.
Now Motorola/google are still fighting with MS even though every other major Android licensee is paying.
Why pay MS and not Apple when the latter is responsible for the modern smartphone revolution ? The few patents Apple use to sue Samsung are merely a small subset of the iPhone patents. Even MS worked out a cross licensing deal with Apple.
Blorzoga - you probably stumbled across the issue. The Swiss Federal Railway authority is probably licensing the design to some company making watches and clocks. The Swiss probably needed to make sure that licensing agreement was protected.
Apple knew exactly what they were doing when they took the SBB clock design.
I live in Switzerland and can tell you the SBB is the most punctual rail road system in the world. Nothing raidates precision as that clock at the station. You can feel the train starting to move the second the second hand passes 12. In spain (where i also used to live) youre lucky if the train is even there when its supposed to leave.
I would trust my life with the SBB clock.
Now, apple has a "swiss" watch in their phone.
I lift my hat, and nod.
I live in Switzerland and can tell you the SBB is the most punctual rail road system in the world. Nothing raidates precision as that clock at the station. You can feel the train starting to move the second the second hand passes 12. In spain (where i also used to live) youre lucky if the train is even there when its supposed to leave.
I would trust my life with the SBB clock.
Now, apple has a "swiss" watch in their phone.
I lift my hat, and nod.
Aesthetics are as important as function. And it is one of THE key aspects that got Apple to where it is today. So no, it isn't "just a clock".
Wasn't there a story that Swiss Railway wanted no monetary funds from apple, just an admission the copied the design- in fact i thought they were flattered.
I suspect the first. It is, apparently, a widely licensed design, so they may have assumed (seeing the same design on clocks from so many different manufacturers) that it was an unprotected design.
Once it came to light that the design was protected, it was pretty certain that Apple would license the design. They just had to get their lawyers together with the Swiss Railway lawyers to hammer out the details.
Mondaine are one of the companies who are licensed to use the design, so your wristwear is quite safe should any lawyers be hovering.
People say this all the time and, well, they're pretty much always wrong.
I'm not saying this to have a go at you so please don't take this personally, but great, iconic designs, the simple ones that last for generations, they are the hardest to create - if they weren't then we'd all be doing it!
You see it as generic now, but that's only a measure of how successful it has become. Just how so many say that swipe to unlock is generic, or pinch to zoom... accept people were blown away by the simplicity of them, the implementation was so perfect and so natural that they left everyone scratching their heads and asking "why didn't I think of that?!"
This clock design is iconic and, no, you probably couldn't have designed it. Nor could I. If I could design stuff like this, I'd be a richer man than I am today.
Why not? Hans Hilfiker was a designer partly responsible for its creation why can it not have an element of artistic design?
Anyway my original post was aimed at all those who criticise the simplistic by saying "I could have done that!" yet they don't and they didn't and that's what seperates them from the artists who produce orignal ideas concepts and art.
It's apparently a *widely* licensed design. I was at Target recently and saw two clocks with the same (or *very* similar face) made by different companies. If I'd seen that before the initial article here, I'd have assumed it was an unprotected design. I suspect that's what happened here.
(There was a third which was also similar, but it used a diamond instead of a circle on the second hand.)
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I believe they said it was not ONLY monetary compensation they wanted, but also recognition. And yes, they were flattered.