Apple pays up for stealing clock design from Swiss Railways

[John Ashworth]

Apple pays up for stealing design from Swiss Railways

Apple may be willing to spend millions in court over some copyright fights, but it has learned the lessons of history and has decided not to mess with the Swiss...

"For the use of the SBB station clock on devices like iPad and iPhone, the Swiss Federal Railways SBB and Apple have agreed and signed a license agreement"

Apple pays out for copying 70-year-old Swiss railway clock design without permission for its iPhone 5

Apple, sensitive about protecting its own designs, has struck a deal to use Swiss railway operator SBB's trademark station clock design on iPads and iPhones.

SBB holds the trademark for a 1944 design by Zurich-born engineer Hans Hilfiker...

'It is a design icon that has obviously lost none of its appeal in the digital age,' the SBB said.

'Even now, it symbolises the innovation and reliability that are key qualities attributed to both SBB and Switzerland as a whole.'

Hilfiker designed the minimalist clock to help travellers check the time at a distance while hurrying to catch trains.

In 1953, he added a red second hand in the shape of a railway guard's signaling disc, which pauses briefly at the top of each minute "to enable trains to depart punctually,' as he put it.

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

My everyday watch is one of the Swiss Railway watches - a bog standard Mondaine.

I grabbed it when I saw it not because it is a railway watch, but because of its simple clean classic lines (it looks the faces in the article).

Interestingly enough I bought it in Covent Gardens at the London Transport Museum. I saw it there and went home, and that evening "Goggled" the watch and found it was over 75 USD cheaper at the Museum then on the net!

A no boner - I went back the next day and bought it! Along with the usual stacks of other stuff - books of Underground Poetry etc!