Sir Jony Ive, the chief designer behind both the Apple Watch and the iPhone, the most revolutionary consumer product of a generation and a device that has transformed the daily lives of millions of people, now wears a Rolex Daytona.
The watch was first spotted by Jake Ehrlich of Jake's Rolex World in a video released last week about Ferrari's new EV. In the footage, Mr. Ive can be seen speaking with video journalist Cleo Abram while wearing a platinum Daytona. Another photograph shows Mr. Ive wearing the same watch while standing alongside Piero Ferrari, the son of Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari.
That a technology executive wears a mechanical watch is nothing new. But Mr. Ive helped create not only the iPhone, one of the most influential consumer products ever made, but also the Apple Watch, a device that within a few years was outselling the entire Swiss watch industry. Today, the fact the architect of both revolutions wears a Rolex is closing a circle that seemed impossible when Apple first entered the watch business over a decade ago.
Rolex has never publicly commented on the Apple Watch, but hindsight suggests it correctly recognized it was not a direct competitor. Still, Apple's continued development of a watch packed with apps and sensors is reminiscent of an earlier era at Rolex, when the brand expanded what a wristwatch could do with waterproof cases, self-winding movements and multiple time zones.
Since then, the smartwatch has helped define Rolex by showing consumers what Rolex was not, and in the process, may have made mechanical watches even more desirable. Judging by Mr. Ive's choice of wristwear, Rolex is emerging from the smartwatch era not as a survivor of disruption, but as its ultimate winner.
Marc Newson, Sir Jony Ive and Piero Ferrari in the Ferrari archives. (Photo credit: Cleo Abram via Jake’s Rolex World)