Original Apple Watch designer shares behind the scenes look at its creation

Original Apple Watch Team (Image credit: Imran Chaudhri)

What you need to know

Former Apple designer Imran Chaudhri has shared some fun facts about Apple Watch.
The designer tweeted out some behind the scenes photos of the team.
He also showed how some of the hardware and software came to be.

Imran Chaudhri was on both the team that created the original iPhone and the team that created the original Apple Watch. While the designer has moved on from Apple to help found Humane, a mysterious company started by a number of former Apple executives, he celebrated the Apple Watch's fifth birthday by posting some fun facts about the device's creation on Twitter.

a few fun facts to celebrate 5 years of #AppleWatch

here's a photo taken of the team on launch day, that's me in the centre. (the beard ages me but my wife @bella_bongiorno won't let me leave home without it) pic.twitter.com/E1GufksZM1a few fun facts to celebrate 5 years of #AppleWatch

here's a photo taken of the team on launch day, that's me in the centre. (the beard ages me but my wife @bella_bongiorno won't let me leave home without it) pic.twitter.com/E1GufksZM1— Imran Chaudhri (@imranchaudhri) April 24, 2020 April 24, 2020

Chaudhri showed a resketch of the original design of the home screen, saying that "the crown gave the home screen a dimensionality, allowing you to scrub through layers of the UI."

here's a reproduction of my original sketch for the home screen. the shape of the circular icon was driven by the clock that lived in the centre of what i originally called the dock. the crown gave the home screen a dimensionality, allowing you to scrub through layers of the ui. pic.twitter.com/w2QITncvHlhere's a reproduction of my original sketch for the home screen. the shape of the circular icon was driven by the clock that lived in the centre of what i originally called the dock. the crown gave the home screen a dimensionality, allowing you to scrub through layers of the ui. pic.twitter.com/w2QITncvHl— Imran Chaudhri (@imranchaudhri) April 24, 2020 April 24, 2020

He posted another tweet talking about how the team created the butterfly watch face. According to Chaudhri, the face was created by Andrew Zuckerman, who photographed a butterfly who had passed.

the butterflies in the motion watch face were shot and animated by @zuckermanstudio. none were harmed, they had already passed. andrew just gave them life.

here's the blue 🦋 he lives with us now: pic.twitter.com/QDE8gORWDothe butterflies in the motion watch face were shot and animated by @zuckermanstudio. none were harmed, they had already passed. andrew just gave them life.

here's the blue 🦋 he lives with us now: pic.twitter.com/QDE8gORWDo— Imran Chaudhri (@imranchaudhri) April 24, 2020 April 24, 2020

The Apple Watch celebrated its fifth birthday today, originally releasing to the public on April 24, 2015.

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.