Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Apple Watch Wins Red Dot 'Best of the Best' Design Award
Still three weeks away from being released to the public, the Apple Watch has received another design award for Apple ahead of launch, this time receiving the "Best of the Best" designation by the German Red Dot design awards (via aBlogtoWatch).
Previously winning the Gold Award, and being called "an icon", at the International Forum Design awards earlier in March, the Red Dot award counts a second win for the wearable in the design category before its April 24 launch date.
The Apple Watch wasn't alone in the smartwatch category, however, as the MB&F HM6 Space Pirate horological smartwatch also received the "Best of the Best" designation.
The Red Dot jury judged the Apple Watch, and all products in the category, on its functionality, durability, ergonomics, and even "symbolic and emotional content", amongst other criteria. As aBlogtoWatch points out, there's a drastic monetary difference between the two winning smartwatch devices this year, even when comparing the $17,000 Apple Watch Edition to the Space Pirate.
Red Dot design award jurors understandably fawned over what is still, by far, the best-looking smartwatch, even though it isn't on the market yet. Given the limitations of technology, as well as the potential of what can come of connected smartwatches, I think it makes a lot of sense that the Red Dot award jury decided to not only recognize the Apple Watch, but consider it as a "Best of the Best" product.The Product Design category of the Red Dot awards celebrates 31 total areas of design, including everything from living room furniture to vehicle accessories, with the "Watches" category getting introduced this year to compensate for the increasingly crowded smartwatch market.
It's an interesting Best of the Best Red Dot watch design award this year, as, on the one hand, you have the $230,000 MB&F HM6 Space Pirate that is limited to just 50 pieces, and on the other hand, you have the mostly $1,000 and under Apple Watch that could easily have 50 million units on wrists before long.
The Product Design category specifically in 2015 had 4,928 entries with only 81 total products receiving the "Best of the Best" award recognition. A gala will be held this June 29 at the Aalto-Theater in Essen, Germany for all of the Best of the Best Red Dot award winners. The winners not only receive the Red Dot designation materials to use on product packaging and marketing, but will have their products displayed in the Red Dot Design Museum in Essen for up to a year.
Tag: Red Dot Awards
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Caution)
[ 70 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
55 months ago
In before "But the watch is ugly" / "The moto 360 is better" / "But it's SQUARE, not ROUND" type comments.
Too late, there's one above you already
----------
come. on. seriously, a DESIGN award for the apple watch...
What's wrong with that?
55 months ago
I am an Apple fan but even I have to roll my eyes at giving a design and functionality award to something that isn't even in the wild yet. Wouldn't it be funny if the thing didn't work?
55 months ago
In before "But the watch is ugly" / "The moto 360 is better" / "But it's SQUARE, not ROUND" type comments.
55 months ago
You'd think all these design companies giving out awards would atleast wait until the watch was out before giving it awards.
For all they know the quartz back could come loose in actual use making it a very poor design. Of course that's unlikely but they should at least wait until it's out and actually buy one to assess.
As it stands this award for the watch just feels like them wanting to grapple on to the Watches publicity and make a name for themselves. "Look everyone, we love the Apple Watch too! We even gave it a reward, please report on us!"
For all they know the quartz back could come loose in actual use making it a very poor design. Of course that's unlikely but they should at least wait until it's out and actually buy one to assess.
As it stands this award for the watch just feels like them wanting to grapple on to the Watches publicity and make a name for themselves. "Look everyone, we love the Apple Watch too! We even gave it a reward, please report on us!"
55 months ago
The Red Dot jury judged the Apple Watch, and all products in the category, on its functionality, durability, ergonomics, and even "symbolic and emotional content"
Durability? The watch hasn't even been released yet!
55 months ago
I am an Apple fan but even I have to roll my eyes at giving a design and functionality award to something that isn't even in the wild yet. Wouldn't it be funny if the thing didn't work?
What's wrong with that? Didn't they give Obama some silly european peace award before he even took office? :D
[ Read All Comments ]
Apple released a public beta of iPadOS for compatible iPad models, enabling users who aren't signed up for the Apple Developer Program to test the software update ahead of its official release in...
Apple today updated its line of iWork apps for iOS and macOS, bringing new features to Pages, Keynote, and Numbers on both iOS devices and Macs.
All of the apps have a new feature designed to...
In a new support document, Apple has indicated that the first public beta release of macOS Catalina does not support switching between multiple iTunes libraries. This also applies to the first two...
Twelve South today announced its latest HiRise accessory, called the "HiRise Wireless," and it's available to purchase now on Twelve South's website. The new accessory is a...
OWC, a well-known maker of storage solutions for Macs and PCs, today debuted what it says is "the fastest USB-C SSD ever."
The new OWC Envoy Pro EX with USB-C is a bus-powered NVMe...
Apple accessory maker Mophie today debuted a three-in-one portable battery pack, wall charger, and wireless charging pad.
The new Powerstation Hub is equipped with a 6,100mAh battery, one 5W...
Encrypted messaging platform Telegram has pushed out an update that introduces a number of new location-based features, including the ability to Add People Nearby.
Users of the chat app can open...
Apple has released the first public beta of macOS Catalina, the next major version of its Mac operating system due to launch in the fall. The availability of the public beta means Mac users don't...
