by Jason Snell
The Apple Watch and manufacturing methods
I couldn’t love this post by Luma Labs’s Greg Koenig more. It’s a Zapruder-like analysis of the three Apple Watch Craftsmanship videos1 Apple released on Monday during the Apple Watch segment of its media event:
When we add the rest of the product line to the mix, it becomes clear that Apple’s supply chain is one of the largest scale production organizations in the world… In the manufacturing world, we hear rumors of entire German CNC mill factories being built to supply Apple exclusively, or even occasionally hear that one of our supplier’s process experts has been “disappeared” to move to Cupertino or Shenzhen. While we all are massively impressed with the scale of Apple’s operations, there is constant intrigue as to exactly how they pull it all off with the level of fit, finish and precision obvious to anyone who has examined their hardware.
Koenig knows a lot about manufacturing, and it’s fascinating to read about where he thinks Apple is ahead of the rest of the world, and where it’s rapidly catching up. Also, I say that any piece that contains the phrase “the most stunning video of the smelting process ever committed to film” is worth reading.
- Apple showed two of them, on alumin(i)um and stainless steel, on stage. The third, on gold, is only on the web—a sign, perhaps, of how Apple was soft-pedaling the Apple Watch Edition during Monday’s event. ↩