A new report in Bloomberg has offered insights into the development of the Apple Watch.
Popular Apple analyst Mark Gurman profiled Apple’s operations chief Jeff Williams and revealed some interesting information about the development and selling of the device.
For example, just months before the Apple Watch was unveiled in 2015, some Apple employees who were testing the product had allergic reactions to the nickel used in the Apple Watch casing.
Because of that, Williams had to scrap the thousands of units already produced and restart manufacturing with a different type of nickel to avoid any further reactions.
“Apple Watch models with stainless steel or an aluminum case, the stainless steel portions of some Apple Watch bands, the metallic portions of the Hermès bands, and the magnets in the watch and bands, each contain some nickel,” Apple now states on its website.
“However, they all fall below the strict nickel restrictions set by European REACH regulation. Therefore, while nickel exposure is unlikely to be a problem, you should be aware of the possibility in case you’re susceptible to nickel-related reactions.”
The profile also lifted the lid on Apple Watch’s Taptic Engine, which was prone to corrosion from long-term usage on beta models.
To overcome the challenge, Williams decided to give those watches to employees as gifts, rather than binning them, before fixing the issue prior to public release.
Finally, the $10,000+ 18-karat-gold Apple Watch Edition, which was released alongside the original Apple Watch.
According to the report, sales were “in the low tens of thousands” and were “few after the first two weeks”.
Apple discontinued the Edition model just a year after release, and the models are now obsolete, as Apple limits them to watchOS 4.
Today, Williams is responsible for overseeing all of Apple’s hardware products and is the frontrunner to succeed Tim Cook when he decides to step down from Apple.
Did you buy an Apple Watch Edition? Let us know your thoughts on these revelations via @AppleMagazine and check back for more Apple tidbits as and when we get them.
