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Apple Watch makes its U.S. cover debut courtesy of Self Magazine

candice-apple-watch

It’s been a few months since the Apple Watch was featured on the cover of Vogue China, but now the upcoming gadget is finally making its debut on the cover of a U.S. magazine this month. Self Magazine announced today that its March issue will feature cover model Candice Swanepoel wearing Apple’s unreleased smartwatch.

Swanepoel’s Apple Watch of choice appears to be the low-end Sport model with the white sport band.

From Self:

Considering Swanepoel’s athletic prowess, it was an ideal accessory for her sporty cover shoot. She told SELF, “I’m an athlete. I use every single muscle, especially my core and arms, when I pose. It’s so important for me to feel strong!”

The Apple Watch was announced late last year and is scheduled to go on sale this April.

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Comments

  1. Leonson Stapleton - 9 years ago

    it begins!

  2. acslater017 - 9 years ago

    I wonder about her dimensions, and which size that is. She makes it look a little large.

  3. RP - 9 years ago

    I wonder how this picture will age in say ten years. Tech and fashion both move at lightning speed, will it look completely dated?
    It’s a bit clunky but since it’s design is so clean it may not age as badly as computers and phones. Well, it will age better than android wear that’s for sure.

    • cdm283813 - 9 years ago

      I got my Android Wear watch because it was cheap and functional ($79 with $50 Google Play credit). I didn’t buy it as a fashion accessory with the idea that it would be worth more than what I paid for it. And I plan on replacing it when the round models get deeply discounted. Isn’t that true with smartphones, tablets and computers as well. Tech becomes worthless after so many years. Those 1st gen iPad’s are pretty much fancy picture displays after almost 5 years on the market.
      Will Apple promise that the resale value on the 1st gen watch will not decrease when Gen 2 is released? That’s why I think people are foolish to spend $1000’s on a smartwatch that will look less appealing a year from now.
      And who’s to say that Apple won’t replace the iPhone altogether in 10 to 20 years? Can’t assume that the tech we have today will be the tech we have 20 years from now.

    • acslater017 - 9 years ago

      Interesting thought. I would guess it’ll age well. Fashion changes, but watches don’t really. Tech progresses, but Apple designs are so thoughtful they age well too.

      The original iPhone is thick, slow, and low-res, but the hardware still looks cool today.

      • RP - 9 years ago

        I llove the way the original iPhone looks. A fantastic design. If it’s not already there, I wouldn’t doubt it will find itself at a museum of modern art.

      • cdm283813 - 9 years ago

        Both the original iPhone and the original iPad still looks good but would you still use them as daily drivers? When I buy technology I already know upfront it’s getting replaced in a few years. I remember spending hundreds of dollars upgrading a Pentium 66 to a Pentium 100 or a 14.4kbps to 28kbps modem back around 1994. After 20 years the cpu has been sitting in a landfill for the past 15 years. The modem only lasted a year. Looking back I wasted so much money because computers back then were advancing so quick.
        These smartwatches are no different to me. There will be faster, thinner and more power efficient as they get replaced. Just compare that 1st gen iPhone to the iPhone 6. And don’t forget that the 1st gen iPhone cost more. So who in their right mind would still want to pay top dollar for a first generation Apple watch 5 years from now? If the innards can’t be upgraded on the gold model you’re screwed if you bought it as an investment.

  4. cdm283813 - 9 years ago

    Fashion first. Function later.

  5. Lars Pallesen - 9 years ago

    I don’t know about Apple’s strategy of selling the Apple Watch as a fashion item … One can hardly describe it as “elegant”.

    • Garrett Fahey - 9 years ago

      I would disagree. Check out this article (http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/hodinkee-apple-watch-review). You may come away with a different perspective. Also, best not to question Jony Ive and Marc Newson when it comes these things.

      • RP - 9 years ago

        here are a couple snips to the article you linked, and I agree with both of these observation.

        “no matter if Jony Ive (or Marc Newson) designed it, could ever replace that, if for no other reason than sheer life-cycle limitations. My watches will last for generations; this Apple Watch will last for five years, if we’re lucky. On an emotional level, you can’t compare them, and that is why I don’t believe many serious watch lovers (who, again, would normally be racing to spend their cash on an Apple release) will go for this.”

        “If I had to criticize the actual form of the Apple Watch, it would be a complaint you’ve heard from me before (most recently with the Habring2 in our latest Three on Three); the Apple Watch doesn’t fit under my shirt cuff without serious effort, if at all. I believe that great design should not disrupt daily life, and a watch that doesn’t fit under a shirt sleeve is missing something.
        Apple is amazing at building thin, elegant machines, and I was surprised by how bulky this is, especially when the 45 minutes prior to the introduction of the Apple Watch were spent discussing how svelte the new iPhone 6 is. I understand the physical limitations and the required dock on the rear of the watch, but the Apple Watch is bulkier than I would’ve liked.
        Could I have likely figured out a better solution for all that went into the Apple Watch to make it thinner? Certainly not, but to get mass adoption, I think it needs to be sleeker.”

    • rogifan - 9 years ago

      Is Self a fashion magazine?

      • willsummers - 9 years ago

        Ostensibly a workout/health magazine. I think it does have a fashion heavy bent and this is probably exactly the right market for apple to target. My girlfriend knew about the apple watch right after the keynote and wanted one, she doesn’t follow tech news.

    • As the old adage goes, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.

      Labeling the Apple Watch as a fashion item is exactly how Apple should sell this because then it becomes less about the technology and more about how it looks on you. I for one think it looks great and has the perfect shape and size for what it’s trying to do.

      Anyone can make a circle watch, one can be had at Target or Walmart for less than $20, but can anyone make a watch that goes against traditional design disciplines and do something other watches can’t do? I believe Apple can.

      Had Apple just made a circular watch it wouldn’t stand out as much. The silhouette of the product is equally important to Apple’s overall strategy. Trying to make it fit in too much could actually be counterproductive to its intent and appeal. Making it a rounded square makes it stand out and forces the competition to come up with an equally different yet beautiful and functional design.

      The fact that it’s not just another circular watch means it’s going against the grain and isn’t that in Apple’s DNA?! Think about when the MacBook Air came out. “WHAT?!! No optical drive?!! Are you insane Apple?!! How am I supposed to install software or burn content to disc?!!”

      But look at us today, you probably can’t remember the last time you used a CD-R/DVD-R and with the advent of Dropbox and larger attachment sizes in email we’re using jump drives even less. It’s why I was able to buy a 16GB drive for $7 the other day. I can still recall a day when I was salivating over a 1GB stick selling, at the time, for $100. I thought to myself, “one day… one day I’ll be able to afford a 1GB stick and I’ll be set for life!!” Boy, have times changed.

      But I digress (sorry for the tangent).

      My ultimate point is that the Apple Watch is challenging everything we THINK we know about watches, wearables and technology. When the iPhone debuted many, including the infamous Steve Ballmer, thought the idea of a smartphone without a physical keyboard was a huge mistake. Fast-forward just 7 ½ years and you won’t find a single flagship phone on the market that has a slide-out keyboard. Who would’ve thought the the mighty Blackberry would be seen as a relic?! Certainly not (formerly) RIM and not Microsoft.

      Cheers!

  6. doonbelieve - 9 years ago

    apple watch, a part of model Candice’s life and soon to be a part of yours.

  7. hayesunt - 9 years ago

    I’m thinking I’m still going to wait for gen 2. Hopefully thinner, better battery life, more sensors, bugs worked out.

  8. That’s some bad Photoshopping right there. The excessive shadow under the watch is a dead giveaway.

    • rettun1 - 9 years ago

      Why on earth would they photoshop it on?

      • They photoshop things for a great many reasons. Post-control. If you think that’s an actual object sitting on her wrist in that lighting, you need your eyes checked. You would not be seeing anything on that screen if that was an actual watch sitting on her wrist.

    • o0smoothies0o - 9 years ago

      Bad photoshop? If it’s photoshopped, then the shadow is there to draw attention to the watch, so in fact it is fantastic photoshopping.

  9. RP - 9 years ago

    Hit apple product or not, the Edition.watch is the one I would want. First edition in 18k gold? Unless thee is a precipitous drop in the price of gold, it should retain its value and then some.

  10. o0smoothies0o - 9 years ago

    Someone should take this image and Photoshop the Moto 360, LG, Fitbit, Microsoft thingy, and latest Gear, to scale, and let us all laugh at how many orders of magnitude the Watch looks better. It’s not even fair honestly. What’s true about the smartwatch is that Apple wasn’t first, but rather, was years behind the competition. However, they are now years ahead of the competition the second they release theirs. They would have been every bit of 5-7 years ahead of the competition if they could have fully realized their vision, which was numerous biosensors. The other companies should try putting years into a product before they release it, instead of months.

    • OneOkami (@OneOkami) - 9 years ago

      If you pit the Apple Watch against the Moto 360 purely based on looks I’ll take the Moto 360 in a heartbeat.

      But I do agree about the functional vision of this product. If its true Apple intended for this Watch to have a lot more health tracking capability that they had to cut because the tech wasn’t up to snuff (something I find highly plausible because that’s what I suspected when I was underwhelmed by the unveiling) then yes, the Apple Watch would have been far ahead of the competition in terms of capability and value in my eyes. For largely that same reason, I’m likely skipping out on this version.

      • RP - 9 years ago

        Yikes no.
        I am not a HUGE fan of the Apple Watch, but at least it looks high end, …at least compared to the discount store appeal of Android Wear watches.
        There is a good reason why your laptop has right angles, why a tv has right angles, why digital led clocks have right angles, why paper documents as far back as the begging of writing have right angles. It’s the first rule in design. FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION.
        That’s also the exact reason why old fashioned watches have round faces, because it’s function follows the radial movement.

        A round smart-watch is akin to faux wood vinyl coatings on items, serves no real purpose but to look “traditional” to people who need something to look traditional to accept it.

    • Inaba-kun (@Inaba_kun) - 9 years ago

      To my eyes the Moto 360 is the only smart watch which looks even vaguely passable, but even that is absurdly over sized. This is technology which is clearly nowhere near ready for prime time.

  11. Inaba-kun (@Inaba_kun) - 9 years ago

    Looks like a brick on her wrist. This is one of the most obviously first generation products in a while.

  12. Gary Conrad - 9 years ago

    I’m an athlete. I use every single muscle, especially my core and arms, when I eat double meat hamburgers. It’s so important for me to feel strong, said me to no one. Athlete? Give me a break……

  13. COME ON APRIL!!!!

  14. smartwatchessale - 9 years ago

    She looks great to me I hope there are some really ground breaking apps for the watches.
    Lets face it Pebble had to break the ground in the first place a bunch of young independents stole a march.
    On our favourite monster brand .the apps seem to be starting to come and this photo could be an inspiration.
    But by fat the best think we have seen so far was the spoof launch video
    Apple watch iwatch thing but this is a must watch
    http://www.smartwatchessale.com/apple-watch-launch-inspires-one-best-spoof-videos-ever/