Imran Chaudhri, Apple’s design lead for hardware from 1995 to 2016, dropped some details about Apple Watch’s history on its fifth anniversary. While Chaudhri is no longer with the tech giant, he shared a photo of the Watch team on launch day, as well as a reproduction of his original sketch for the home screen. “The shape of the circular icon was driven by the clock that lived in the centre of what I originally called the dock,” he tweeted. here’s a reproduction of my original sketch for the home screen. the shape of the circular icon was driven by the clock that lived in the centre of what i originally called the dock. the crown gave the home screen a dimensionality, allowing you to scrub through layers of the ui. pic.twitter.com/w2QITncvHl— Imran Chaudhri (@imranchaudhri) April 24, 2020 He also revealed that Watch’s Digital Touch was originally called ET, short for electronic touch, named for “its potential as a new form of emotional connection.” In addition, the original Watch was apparently built upon a 6th-gen iPod nano strapped to wrist band. Chaudhri said he started working on it right after iOS 5 and that Steve Jobs never got to see it.
