蘋(píng)果公司推出iWatch，這是一場(chǎng)時(shí)尚與科技的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)

Does the Apple Watch Look Good On? Assessing From a Fashion Point of View

蘋(píng)果手表反映了時(shí)尚與科技的鴻溝

And so it has finally arrived: the long-awaited, much-anticipated Apple Watch. Don’t call it an iWatch; this is a new era, people. OMG! OMG! OMG! And all that.

萬(wàn)眾期盼多時(shí)的蘋(píng)果手表終于來(lái)了。各位，不要叫它iWatch;它是一個(gè)新時(shí)代。天哪!天哪!天哪!無(wú)數(shù)的驚嘆。

Because it is Fashion Week, however, and because this is an accessory, I thought it was only fitting – pun intended – that we ask the same question of the wearable (which is another word for clothes, after all) that we ask of the other accessories we see during the week: does it look good on? Is it, finally, a wearables game changer?

不過(guò)，既然現(xiàn)在是時(shí)裝周，而它又是一種配飾，我覺(jué)得本周我們對(duì)其他配飾所提出的問(wèn)題也適用于這件可穿戴設(shè)備(說(shuō)到底，“可穿戴”這個(gè)詞其實(shí)也就是衣服的另一種說(shuō)法)：它戴著好看嗎?它能否最終改變可穿戴設(shè)備市場(chǎng)的格局呢?

It’s definitely a step forward. But does it rewrite the rules of our aesthetic expectations?

它無(wú)疑是向前跨出了一步，但它是否重新書(shū)寫(xiě)了我們審美期待的準(zhǔn)則呢?

No.

沒(méi)有。

The big, giant, amazing thing about the Apple Watch, sartorially speaking, is that it looks like … a watch. Not a device.

從服裝的角度而言，蘋(píng)果手表叫人大吃一驚的一面，是它看上去就是……一塊表。而不是一種設(shè)備。

That is, clearly, an enormous step forward for a gizmo that has the functionality of the Apple Watch. The two other wearable devices introduced this week at New York Fashion Week – the Samsung Galaxy S and the Intel/Opening Ceremony MICA – look like big bangles in comparison: they have much larger rectangular curved screens embedded in hard plastic, or snakeskin-covered plastic, bands.

讓一個(gè)小玩意能夠擁有蘋(píng)果手表這樣的功能，這顯然是巨大的進(jìn)步。本周的紐約時(shí)裝周上還推出了另外兩件可穿戴設(shè)備——三星Galaxy S和英特爾/“開(kāi)幕式”MICA智能手環(huán)，相比而言，它們看上去更像大大的手鐲：更大的矩形曲線屏幕鑲嵌在硬塑料腕帶或覆著蛇皮的塑料腕帶上。

The Apple Watch by contrast, has a much smaller, squarer face (it looks a bit like a super chic Nano), framed in stainless steel or aluminum or specially treated super-strong 18-carat gold. It is the first wearable watch to come in two sizes – 38 millimeter and 42 millimeter, presumably for men and women, and it comes in three different lines (Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch Edition, the latter being the most corporate up-market version). It has an enormous number of interchangeable bands that look just like normal watch bands, including leather and stainless-steel bracelets. The only ones it does not seem to offer are evening, or black-tie appropriate, styles. (Which is an oversight to my mind, given that the time a slim, attractive watch/communication device most comes in handy is during an evening event when quick peeks at technology are not appropriate. But maybe that’s just me.)

相比而言，蘋(píng)果手表的屏幕小得多，接近正方形，看上去有點(diǎn)像非常時(shí)尚的蘋(píng)果Nano，它有不銹鋼或鋁制邊框，或是特別制作的超強(qiáng)18k金邊框。它是 第一款以38毫米和42毫米兩種規(guī)格推出的可穿戴設(shè)備腕表，兩種尺寸分別是為男人和女人設(shè)計(jì)的，此外還有三個(gè)不同版本(蘋(píng)果手表普通版、蘋(píng)果手表運(yùn)動(dòng)版和 蘋(píng)果手表 Edition版，其中Edition版是最適合商務(wù)的高端款)。它有多款可供更換的表帶，外觀和普通表帶差不多，包括皮革款和不銹鋼手鐲款。唯一沒(méi)有提 供的是晚裝款，或者說(shuō)禮服款(在我看來(lái)，這是一種疏忽，在新發(fā)明的科技小玩意往往不適合的晚宴場(chǎng)合，一款纖細(xì)迷人的腕表/通訊設(shè)備才是最用得著的。但或許 只有我才這么想)。

Apple is billing the watch as its “most personal device ever,” because aside from all those straps, you can also swap among 11 watch faces (normal, butterfly and Mickey Mouse, for example).

蘋(píng)果公司說(shuō)這款腕表是公司“迄今最個(gè)性化的設(shè)備”，因?yàn)槌吮韼?，還可以更換11款表盤(pán)，比如普通表盤(pán)、蝴蝶圖案和米老鼠圖案的表盤(pán)。

The funny thing is, while I understand why they find this sort of choice extraordinary in the tech world, it’s par for the course in fashion, which points up some of the gulf between the two sectors; What they find revolutionary makes us want to yawn.

有趣的是，我明白他們?yōu)槭裁从X(jué)得這樣的選擇在技術(shù)界是非同尋常，但在時(shí)尚界卻很普通。這反映出技術(shù)界與時(shí)尚界之間的鴻溝——他們覺(jué)得革命性的產(chǎn)品在我們看來(lái)乏味得令人想打哈欠。

But back to the watch. It even has a “crown” – that dial on the side of a chronograph that you normally use for winding, but that here acts as a scroll so you don’t have to worry about a fat-fingers problem on a tiny screen.

但我們還是回到這款腕表上來(lái)。它甚至還有一個(gè)“王冠”，就是表盤(pán)一側(cè)的旋鈕，這種旋鈕通常是用來(lái)上發(fā)條的，但在這里是用來(lái)滾動(dòng)屏幕，這樣即便是粗手指也能操縱小小的觸控屏了。

All of which is smart, and slick, and even chic. But it doesn’t make you reimagine the whole concept of how a watch you might wear everyday should look.

這一切都很智能、很巧妙，甚至是很時(shí)尚。但不會(huì)讓你去重新設(shè)想“一塊每天佩戴的腕表到底應(yīng)當(dāng)是什么樣的”這個(gè)概念。

It makes you reimagine what a watch that you might wear everyday should do. That’s a meaningful distinction.

它會(huì)讓你重新設(shè)想“一塊每天佩戴的腕表到底應(yīng)該能夠做什么”。這是一個(gè)很重要的區(qū)別。

In other words, unlike, say, the iPhone, which resembled no other phone on the market when it appeared, or the iPod, the Apple Watch is firmly in watch aesthetic vernacular – just not other connected watch vernacular. Rather, it speaks the visual language of ye olde-fashioned watches.

換言之，它和iPhone和iPod不一樣，iPhone剛出現(xiàn)的時(shí)候，和市場(chǎng)上任何其他手機(jī)都不一樣，而蘋(píng)果手表嚴(yán)格遵循腕表的美學(xué)語(yǔ)匯——而不是其他和腕表有關(guān)的語(yǔ)匯。它要以老古董式腕表的視覺(jué)語(yǔ)言說(shuō)話。

Ironic, isn’t it? They had to look backward to go forward.

有點(diǎn)諷刺是不是?要想向前走，他們得先向后看。

Which means, in turn, that the truly mind-boggling bit of all this is the fact that Apple figured out how to fit ALL THAT TECHNOLOGY into that relatively wee bit of hardware. Intel, for example, had to distribute its board throughout the MICA, which is why the bangle is the size that it is.

這也就是說(shuō)，真正驚人的事實(shí)是蘋(píng)果想到辦法把這么多先進(jìn)技術(shù)放在相對(duì)較小的硬件之中。至于其他公司，比如說(shuō)英特爾，得把面板分布在整個(gè)MICA手鐲上，所以這款手鐲才是這種尺寸。

Put another way: the shocking thing, the innovative thing, about the Apple Watch is that it can look as normal as it does while doing all the things it does (including opening hotel doors, if you have the Starwood app).

換句話說(shuō)：關(guān)于蘋(píng)果手表令人震驚的創(chuàng)新部分是，它可以看上去其貌不揚(yáng)，卻能做各種各樣的事(比如說(shuō)，如果你裝了喜達(dá)屋國(guó)際酒店集團(tuán)的應(yīng)用，就可以用它打開(kāi)酒店房間的門(mén))。

So, while it may indeed change behavior, and may indeed threaten some in Switzerland, I don’t think Patek Philippe should be shivering in its boots.

所以，它可能真的能夠改變?nèi)藗兊男袨?，也可能真的威脅到了一些瑞士手表，但我并不覺(jué)得百達(dá)翡麗(Patek Philippe)會(huì)嚇得全身發(fā)抖。