Exhaustive list details Apple’s recent hires for rumored iWatch project

iWatch concept (All, Todd Hamilton 001)

Last night we passed along a report from The Wall Street Journal, which featured an interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook talking about the company’s past, and its future. And one of the things he harped on was that it has some big things in the pipeline.

A quick look at the rumor mill tells you what some of those things could be: a bigger iPhone, a new Apple TV product, etc. But perhaps the most anticipated unreleased Apple product is the health-sensing, fitness tracking smartwatch known as the iWatch.

We’ve seen a lot of evidence that Apple is working on a new wearable device, but none of it is more telling than its recent string of medical and fitness expert hires. And 9to5Mac has put together an exhaustive list, detailing what each brings to the table…

iWatch concept (Home, Todd Hamilton 001)

The so-called iWatch team is a mixture of high-profile experts from various fields, including doctors, scientists, fashion experts, fitness gurus and engineers with backgrounds in medical devices. Here’s a list of the most notable hires, again via 9to5Mac:

Kevin Lynch: former Adobe CTO, directing Apple’s software engineering group for wearable products
Jay Blahnik: worked with Nike on the FuelBand, renowned fitness expert
Roy Raymann: former Philips scientist, sleep and activity monitoring expert
Paul Deneve: former Yves Saint Laurent CEO, fashion expert with experience in selling high-end goods
Angela Ahrendts: former Burberry CEO, joining Apple as SVP of retail this spring
Ben Shaffer: former Studio Director of Nike’s R/D program, also worked on the FuelBand
Ueyn Block: former director of engineering at C8 MediSensor, medical device expert, scientist
Nancy Dougherty: hardware engineer for Sano Intelligence, medical device expert
Todd Whitehurst: worked at Senseonics as VP of hardware engineering, oversaw wearable project
Michael O’Reilly: former chief medical officer for Masimo, doctor, medical device expert
Ravi Narashamian: former engineer in R&D at Vital Connect, Inc., expert in biosensors

This is a rather interesting group of people, particularly when you see them all together. You have to believe that with a team like this, Apple has to be working on some kind of device that is capable of both tracking fitness activities and monitoring vital signs.

Of course, all of this is circumstantial until we actually see the device itself. Outside of the team, and a few details provided in sporadic reports, we know little about it. Rumored features include a curved display, various sensors, and deep integration with iOS 8.

Images via Todd Hamilton