Apple pays Swiss watchmaker $21 million for clockface


From the towering Big Ben to the early Android phones, clock faces, digital or analog, create a visual identity to the entities they are perched on. Much the same with what Apple expects from the becoming of the iOS 6 clock face. The Cupertino giants went on to pay $21 to the Swiss Federal Railway for using a clock face on their newest operating system, that matched the company’s. The 1944 design seems to have stuck in the minds of Apple designers who, we have noticed, seem to be running out of visual ideas with each passing day. The design has also been honored by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the London Design Museum.


The money is a substantial sum and may have been parted with, begrudgingly. The money has been received by Modaine, a Swiss manufacturer, that holds the rights to the design.

[Dvice]