Jony Ive claims Apple Watch isn't a threat to luxury watch makers

The Apple Watch has finally arrived, putting an end to a lot of the speculation surrounding the device, which means this is the perfect time for Apple's design chief Jony Ive to deliver answers to some of the lingering questions about the wearable.

Ive and his design partner, Marc Newson, did just that during an interview at the Conde Nast International Luxury Conference, which was held April 22-25 in Florence, Italy.

Vogue International Editor Suzy Menkes peppered the duo with a number of questions, mostly focused on the Apple Watch and its impact on the luxury industry.

When asked about whether Apple now considers itself in competition with traditional luxury brands (a great question considering Apple's major advertising push into luxury magazines), Ive answered by describing the company's intention when creating the Apple Watch.

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It wasn't because we thought we could design a better watch

It wasn't because we thought we could design a better watch, [or that we] wanted to compete with the existing watch makers," said Ive. "It was because that we saw that the wrist was a fabulous place for technology. So the motivation was very different from the one that we had when we worked on the iPhone."

Ive's ability to deftly dodge the question about Apple's competition with traditional luxury brands is admirable, but one look at the device's rollout strategy provides a ready answer to Menkes' question. The first brick and mortar access consumers had to the Apple Watch was exclusively at international luxury retail outlets.

Another important question that was raised during the interview was the limited lifespan of the Apple Watch compared to mechanical watches, which are often handed down as family heirlooms. On this question, Ive was similarly non-direct, framing his answer in a way that challenges the notion of the question itself.

"I don't see how we can compare these wonderful mechanical watches that we own and a product that has such a comprehensive functionality and capability that will grow and change beyond our imagining," said Ive.

Despite Ive's somewhat opaque answers, the full 12-minute interview, above, does offer a more detailed look at exactly what Apple's design team had in mind when creating the Apple Watch.

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