How do you herald the coming launch of the Apple Watch? Apparently, in true Old Media fashion — by taking out a 12-page ad (no, that’s not a typo) in the March issue of Vogue, which hits newsstands just in advance of the device’s April release. The abstract close-ups fetishize every aspect of the hotly anticipated new wearable, from its sporty green band to its rose-gold-accented face, much as if it were any other luxury accessory advertised in the magazine’s scented pages. It’s one of several recent dead-tree appearances the device has made: It debuted on the cover of Vogue China in October, and was also seen on the current cover of Self, worn by noted early adopter Candice Swanepoel.
Apple’s courtship of the fashion world has, overall, been a very old-school rollout, complete with an unveiling at Colette during this past Paris Fashion Week, where bigwigs like Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour tried on the device. There’s nothing more left to do but win over Alexa Chung, who deemed it “kind of dorky.”
