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Today the long-awaited, much-heralded Apple Watch goes on sale. Touted by the company as its "most personal device yet," it promises everything from quicker "interactions and technology" to a more intimate experience with our watches, whatever that might mean. The tech juggernaut, known for its cult-like devotion .and grand live-streamed announcements, welcomes new product launches like Elvis just entered the building, with long lines of fans camped at local stores, and hysteria quickly hitting a fever pitch. Along with online launch countdowns and mass speculation, the company's hype always raises questions of whether their latest product will bring on the future of "X " — whether it ’s tech, retail，communication，or, really, take your pick. Basically，anything Apple does is a big deal.

The Apple Watch，which comes at several price points，from the “ moderately priced” US$350 Apple Watch Sport to the $15,000 luxurious Apple Watch Edition, has received preorders from over 2.3 million consumers and counting. Geek-chic watches have been around for decades, but the design of the iWatch, masterminded by Apple Senior Vice-President of Design and usability "god" Jony Ive, is expected to break the mold of what we can expect from all future time-telling gadgets, not just in terms of functionality but also mass production.

This great leap forward, however, has just as much a foot in the- past as the future — specifically, in an influential Gennan design movement that grew out of the chaos of World War I, aiming to reinvent a more ordered and just society through great design. The Bauhaus school shifted between Weimar (1919-1925), Dessau (1925-1932) and Berlin (1932-1933) during Germany's most pivotal years, and acted as an innovation incubator, not unlike Apple's Design Lab. In both instances, a team of dedicated practitioners thought they could alleviate the alienation of modem society through more personal consumer products, clean lines, and user-friendly interfaces. In other words, a revolution centered on aesthetics that benefited the people.

In 1915, the visionary Walter Gropius, considered by many to be one of the first masters of modem architecture, began to develop his plan for a ''purely organic building," which declared “ its inner laws，free of untruths or ornamentation.” This “ building” was more of a metaphor than a physical object, and extended beyond the concept of architecture to encompass product design, packaging, and even furniture. Not unlike Steve Jobs, Gropius was single-minded, and could be unwavering and brutally direct in his mission. As the head of the Bauhaus school in Weimar, he recognized the need to surround himself w ith a team of talented collaborators, instructors, and designers, on-boarding some of the biggest names in contemporary arts, including Paul Klee, Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Lazio Moholy-Nagy and Vassily Kandinsky — names that history would prove incandescent creators.

New -media artist Anthony Antonellis is one of those inspired by both modern technology and the Bauhaus's approach toward design education. Antonellis, who gained notoriety for his tech-inspired work and turning himself into a cyborg by implanting an RFID chip in his arm, studied at the current Bauhaus Dessau. He explained to me that the Bauhaus system, handed down by Gropius, is still resonant today. “ I arrived where I am as a direct result of my studies in Weimar. I studied alongside other artists, students in media, architects, craftsmen, product designers, graphic designers, and all these disciplines taught and learned from each other in a profound exchange of ideas and approaches."

So whether you pre-ordered your watch online, or are part of the horde checking it out in stores, when you snap on your Apple Watch, just remember: It took literally thousands of brilliant thinkers and over a century of work to bring you that tiny, dazzling device.