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Marc Newson says his role at Apple is only part-time for a specific project

In an interview with dezeen.com, designer and new Apple employee Marc Newson spoke about his latest project with Heineken while providing a little bit more insight into his new role at Apple. While we knew as of early last month that Newson, who happens to be a close friend of Apple design guru Jony Ive, was joining Apple, Newson confirmed in the interview that the position will only be part-time for a specific project.

When asked if he’d still be taking on projects other than at Apple, Newson said: “Yes absolutely, because my role at Apple doesn’t necessitate all of my time and that was for very specific reasons, so absolutely, my company still exists and I remain based in the UK.”

As for what exactly has been working on at Apple, you’ll have to get through PR first:

Newson did, however, talk a bit about his thoughts on the future of the watch industry: “There will always be a place for mechanical watches. Apart from telling the time – which is all they do – they’re about something completely different. You know, I think that the mechanical watch industry will continue to exist in much the same way as it does right now. To be honest I’m not really intimately aware of what’s happening with the world of mechanical watches right now.”

His new draft beer machine for Heineken happens to look at a lot like a Mac Pro.

The interview with Newson is available to read in full here.

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Comments

  1. Taste_of_Apple - 9 years ago

    Interesting…

  2. No where in the interview does he or Apple PR say he was working on a specific project. It simply says that he’s part-time for “very specific reasons”…

  3. rogifan - 9 years ago

    So basically he’s a part-time Apple employee working on special projects, which right now is most likely the watch. Not surprising.

  4. taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

    Pretty obvious he designed the watch bands since most look like previous designs he has done.

    • I’d go as far as to say he had a pretty heavy hand in the design of the watch itself. The official “hiring” is just to make it official and for fashion cred. for this extended promotional rollout. Of course, I’m probably way off base as usual.

  5. herb02135go - 9 years ago

    If he can create an app that makes decent beer … oh wait, my S5 already has that. Plus it’s water resistant!

  6. Don Horne (@DonHorne) - 9 years ago

    I still remember his design of the Pentax K-01 body and cringe at the thought of him influencing the design of any Apple product.

  7. dolf (@shindolf) - 9 years ago

    This guy’s underware… The most overrated designer. I see big A’s fall

  8. helimpro - 9 years ago

    Btw who is the girl in middle ?

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.