Apple Licenses Swiss Railway Clock Design for iPad's iOS 6 Clock App - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Licenses Swiss Railway Clock Design for iPad's iOS 6 Clock App

Last month, we noted that the Swiss Federal Railways service was objecting to Apple's use of its iconic clock design for the new iPad clock app in iOS 6.

The Verge now points to a press release [Google translation] from the railway service announcing that a licensing agreement has been reached.

For the use of the SBB station clock on devices like iPad and iPhone, the Swiss Federal Railways SBB and Apple have agreed and signed a license agreement.

swissrailwayclock
Apple's iPad clock app (left) and Swiss Federal Railways clock (right)

Terms of the licensing agreement, including payment and term length details, were not disclosed.

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
HomePod mini and Apple TV Sage

New Apple TV and HomePod Mini Remain 'Ready' to Launch

Sunday March 22, 2026 6:33 am PDT by
Apple has unveiled nine new products this month, but the wait continues for the next-generation Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini models. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said new versions of the Apple TV and HomePod mini have been "ready" since last year, but he reiterated that Apple has held off on releasing them until the more personalized version of Siri and other...
Apple Business hero

Apple Unveils 'Apple Business' All-in-One Platform

Tuesday March 24, 2026 8:53 am PDT by
Apple today announced Apple Business, a new all-in-one platform that unifies device management, productivity tools, and customer outreach features. The service is designed to be a consolidated replacement for several of Apple's existing business-focused offerings, including Apple Business Essentials, Apple Business Manager, and Apple Business Connect. It provides organizations with a single...

Top Rated Comments

justperry Avatar
176 months ago
That's what Apple should have done first place.
Score: 55 Votes (Like | Disagree)
D.T. Avatar
176 months ago
SBB: "We want $20 million for licensing"

Apple: "How about a 20 free iPhone 5s?"

SBB: "20 iPhones?!? Absolutely not!"

Apple: "What if we can guarantee none of them are scratched?"

SBB: "Deal."
Score: 51 Votes (Like | Disagree)
176 months ago
Good to see. It's such a cool clock design.
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)
QCassidy352 Avatar
176 months ago
Thank God. I can finally stop losing sleep over this.
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
176 months ago
This is a clock-face that I could have designed. It's so basic and derivative. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple's designer came up with it on his/her own coincidentally. But yeah, it would look like a total ripoff if it weren't so generic. I would have rejected this design.

People say this all the time and, well, they're pretty much always wrong.

I'm not saying this to have a go at you so please don't take this personally, but great, iconic designs, the simple ones that last for generations, they are the hardest to create - if they weren't then we'd all be doing it!

You see it as generic now, but that's only a measure of how successful it has become. Just how so many say that swipe to unlock is generic, or pinch to zoom... accept people were blown away by the simplicity of them, the implementation was so perfect and so natural that they left everyone scratching their heads and asking "why didn't I think of that?!"

This clock design is iconic and, no, you probably couldn't have designed it. Nor could I. If I could design stuff like this, I'd be a richer man than I am today.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
176 months ago
[fandroid mode on] I really don'r see what the problem is. It is quit clear that there is no other way you can design a clock [/fandroid mode off]

;)
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)