Philip Houska It's slowly approaching the second anniversary of the introduction of the Apple Watch, which took place on September 9, 2014. Tim Cook, who showed the watching crowd directly on his wrist during the keynote, launched Apple into a new segment, wearable products. There was a lot of work behind the development of the Watch, including big debates between Apple's various teams. Experienced engineer Bob Messerschmidt, who is behind one of the most important elements of the current Apple Watch, talked about that.
He doesn't get talked about much (like most of Apple's lower-ranking engineers anyway), but Messerschmidt definitely deserves his credit. An engineer who joined Apple in 2010 and left the company after three years (and founded his own company Cor), is behind the key heart rate sensor, which is an important part of the entire Watch experience. It was with this topic that the interview started Fast Company.
At the outset, Messerschmidt mentioned that he acted as an architect in charge of researching the various technologies that could be equipped with the Apple Watch. Together with his colleagues, he usually came up with the first idea, which was subsequently developed by other specialized engineers. “We said we thought it would work, and then they tried to build it,” Messerschmidt recalls. The initial thoughts about the watch mainly revolved around the user experience, which had to be perfect.
[su_pullquote align=”right”]It wasn't easy to make it work.[/su_pullquote]
This is also why Messerschmidt encountered many obstacles when developing heart rate sensors. First he designed them to be placed at the bottom of the band for better (closer) contact with the hand. However, he ran into this proposal at the industrial design department, which was overseen from the highest position by Jony Ive. “It wasn't easy, given the design requirements, to make it work. That was quite special about it all," admits Messerschmidt.
The proposal with sensors in the belt was rejected because it did not meet current design or fashion trends, and in addition, the production of replaceable belts was planned, so the sensor placed in this way did not make sense. After Messerschmidt and his team brought proposal number two to the table, which discussed placing the sensors on top of the tapes, saying it would have to be very tight to allow for accurate data acquisition, they again met with opposition.
“No, people don't wear watches like that. They wear them very loosely on their wrists," he heard from the designers on another suggestion. So Messerschmidt had to return to his workshop and think about another solution. "We just had to do what they said. We had to listen to them. They are the ones closest to the users and focus on user comfort," Messerschmidt added, saying he was proud of what he and the team had finally created. Unlike the competition -- he mentioned Fitbit, which is currently dealing with lawsuits over inaccurate sensors -- the sensors in the Watch are generally considered to be among the most accurate, he said.
In addition to the collaboration between different teams inside Apple, Messerschmidt also talked about Steve Jobs, who he experienced during his short career at Apple. According to him, many employees did not understand the specific company culture and the general attitudes and attitudes that Jobs promoted.
“Some people thought that when you have a development plan and there are a thousand different things that need to be solved, they all have to be given equal attention. But this is an absolute misunderstanding of Jobs' approach. All are not equal. Everything has to be absolutely right, but there are things that are more important than others, and that gravitates towards user experience and design," explained Messerschmidt, who is said to have learned to say no from Jobs. "If the product wasn't really remarkable, it didn't get past Jobs."
According to Messerschmidt, Apple is not the same place today as it was when Steve Jobs was CEO. However, the experienced engineer did not mean it in any bad way, but was primarily describing the situation of how the Californian company coped with the departure of its iconic boss. "There were attempts to encapsulate what makes Apple Apple," says Messerschmidt, but according to him, something like that - trying to transfer and instill Jobs' approach to other people - didn't make sense.
“You want to think you can train people to think that way, but I don't think that's what they've got at all. That cannot be taught," added Messerschmidt.
Full interview is available on the web Fast Company (in English).
