Apple's Jonathan Ive: Apple Watch will always be beautiful

Apple designers Jonathan Ive and Marc Newson spoke with Vogue's Suzy Menkes about the Apple Watch and their work ethic at the opening of the first annual Condé Nast International Luxury Conference on Wednesday.

"When people think of luxury goods, they think of expensive handbags, jewelry, clothes, etc. How does Apple enter the luxury market?" Menkes asked.

"I think we're following the path that Apple took in the 1970s, when they tried to make computers more friendly and more personal," Ive said.

Menkes then asked a more direct question: "There is no doubt that your products are more attractive to consumers than traditional luxury goods, especially to younger consumers. Do you think this is the case?"

"I don't know now. We will know in the future. This is not our purpose. Our goal has not changed, which is to make advanced technology something with personality."

Only a few tech companies have ever entered the luxury market—like mobile phone maker Vertu—and even fewer have made a mark. Menkes went on to mention the inevitable hardware upgrades. Tech-savvy consumers know that product upgrades are a cyclical process, but consumers who can spend $20,000 on an Hermès handbag may not understand this.

Technology is constantly evolving, evolving, changing, and improving. The Apple Watch will probably be obsolete in a year or two.

"We upgrade our phones regularly, and you can imagine that this watch will need an upgrade at some stage," Menkes said. "It's not a collectible watch. You all collect watches, and some watches stand the test of time. Is that the same with yours? Can your watches stand the test of time?"

Ive said he thinks the Apple Watch will always be beautiful, but he pointed out that digital products belong to a different category than mechanical products. The charm of digital products lies in the fact that many functions can be realized through software.

"The Apple Watch will do things that I couldn't have imagined six months ago," Ive said. "I think that's what's so special about it. The mechanical watches we have in our collection are amazing, but our digital watches have so much functionality and performance that they will evolve and change in ways that we can't even imagine. I don't know how to compare them."

Of course, for consumers who have the money to spend on a $20,000 handbag, spending a little more on a $17,000 gold Apple Watch Edition is within the realm of impulse buying.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.