The Apple Watch isn’t even in stores, let alone on anyone’s wrist, and Apple’s first smartwatch has already earned a distinctive award.
Out of 1,624 finalists to receive the Gold Award at Munich’s International Forum, Apple's smartwatch was one of 75 products to win the Industrial Design award. The 2015 iF Design Awards, which has given out golden trophies every year since 1954, are considered prestigious within the design community. The Germany-based design community had judges award the Apple Watch top honors even though the product won’t be available to consumers until April.
Apple is expected to provide all the details about the smartwatch, including a definitive launch date, at a March 9 event in San Francisco. The Jony Ive-designed watch will be available in three versions. With the Sport model ($349), the top-of-the-line Apple Watch Edition ($4,999), and a third yet-to-be revealed watch still on the table, the smartwatch is highly anticipated by analysts, pundits and technophiles.
Presented as a luxury item, the Apple Watch will be part fitness tool, part activity tracker, and part smartwatch. It is also entering a crowded field of wearables all clamoring for a place on consumers’ wrists, with the latest of these devices unveiled at this year’s Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona. This also included the Android-powered Huawei Watch, the Pebble Time Steel, and other properties by Samsung seem to be adding fuel to all the hype.
With iF judges describing the device as “an altogether extraordinary piece of design” and “already an icon,” it seems that the world will soon learn just how much a must-have fashion accessory the Apple Watch is. Apple, believing this as well, already has been pushing the levels by taking out a full 12-page advertisement, which is set to appear in this month’s Vogue Magazine.
Do you believe that the Apple Watch is fully deserving of the International Forum award? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
Photo: Apple Computers, NASA | Flickr
