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Jony Ive Explains Why The Apple Watch Was Harder To Design Than The iPhone

Jony Ive
Jony Ive

Getty Images/Michael Kovac

Jony Ive said it was very difficult to design the Apple Watch.

Apple’s senior vice president of design, Jony Ive, recently talked about the complications that came with designing the Apple Watch.

“Even though Apple Watch does so many things, there are cultural, historical implications and expectations,” Ive said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “That’s why it’s been such a difficult and humbling program.”

Speaking to the audience at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Ive explained that having to deal with people’s expectations of what a wrist watch should be made the design process for the Apple Watch harder than the iPhone.

“As soon as something is worn, we have expectations of choice,” said Ive, before joking that “only in prison” do you see uniformity in what people wear.

Ive also discussed how using the Apple Watch differs in the type of interaction when compared to something like the iPhone, noting that a device worn on the wrist is best used for “lightweight interactions” and “casual glancing.”

Ive’s comments echoed what he said weeks earlier at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit, where he detailed the trial and error process with the Apple Watch that included starting with questions such as “what if” and “how do we do this?”

Ive believes, however, that the wrist is the natural evolution of the clock, which evolved from being worn around the neck in the 17th century, to the pocket with pocket watches, and finally to the wrist.

Apple’s treatment of the Apple Watch as both a consumer tech product and a fashion accessory led to the Apple Watch be the most customizable Apple product to date, with two different screen sizes, six different custom metal alloys, and six styles of watch bands.

The Apple Watch, which was announced on Sept. 9 alongside the iPhone 6, has yet to see a firm release date, but Apple has promised the device will debut in “early 2015″ and start at $349.

You can watch Jony Ive’s interview at the Vanity Fair summit below.

Read more stories on Business Insider, Malaysian edition of the world’s fastest-growing business and technology news website.