Apple Watch will replace your car keys, says Tim Cook

Exclusive interview: The Apple chief executive reveals to Allister Heath how the revolutionary features in the company's smartwatch could forever alter our daily lives.

Like millions of people, Tim Cook stopped wearing a watch a while back. The Apple boss no longer needed one: his iPhone told the time just fine. There was just one problem, as he readily acknowledges in his interview with The Telegraph: glancing at one's wrist can be a very useful way to find out information. It is less rude and less intrusive.

So Apple now wants to pull off something that no company has ever managed before: it wants to reverse a cultural trend that it had created itself. It wants us to start wearing a watch again.

The big event on 9 March will showcase the Apple Watch; and it will be launched to consumers in April. Cook, needless to say, is already wearing his new Apple Watch. He couldn't even contemplate living without it anymore, he says.

"I'm now so used to getting all my notifications and all my messages," he says. "It's so incredible just to do this."

The Telegraph had a peek at two watches, one worn by Cook and the other by another senior member of staff. Three versions will be available to consumers; the two we saw seemed to be the Sport edition. One had a dark wristband; Cook's had a white one.

The watch's screen boasts all of the usual Apple interface, but the icons are rounder than those of an iPhone, presumably to match the watches' shape. The first reason to buy the watch will be as a fashion statement and for its striking design.

You don’t need a key (or iWatch - semiconductor was invented in 1958) to start your 57 Chevy :)

Brings back memories of the Chevy cars I owned back in the 1960s, like my '57 coupe. A key for your Chevy would often work on several of your friend's cars. If you weren't carrying the key, cross a couple wires under the dash and start by briefly tapping a third wire. Or under the hood via the starter solenoid. Once when I was 17 parked at a drive-in restaurant, a pretty gal came up to me and asked if I could hot-wire her car. Her date had argued and taken her car keys. So I lay on the floor under the dash while she and three other pretty gals in the car watched me. Hard to concentrate with a gal in a mini-dress sitting in front! Got a safety pin from her, pierced two wires, tapped the third (perhaps purple), and she was happy as can be. So happy she thanked me later (another story).

Side note: you can rig an electronic gadget to start your '57 Chevy that operates via an Apple watch. Or other remote, been done for years with a few bucks in parts.

Good stories! We love old cars and trucks and military vehicles. We just sold a 1941 Cadillac that had been restored and I have been working on a 1942 Cadillac which is much more rare because they stopped production soon after Pearl Harbor. The 42 has a very interesting local history, but we are going to set it up as if it were procured by the military as a majority of 42 Cadillacs actually were which is another reason there are so few of them left.

I have had an interest in key making for quite a while. I have one of the inexpensive key cutters that they used to include in locksmith correspondence courses. I bought it at an antique store; it didn't look like it had been used more than a couple of times.

There are a number of suppliers on the Internet that sell tens of thousands of different varieties of key blanks. The plain ones are usually around $.25. The blanks that look like keys but have programmable chips in them are usually only a couple of dollars.

Sometimes the suppliers charge enough for shipping that it is cheaper to get blanks through eBay or Amazon. The dealers will charge you up to a hundred bucks for the programmable ones; most of them can be programmed by placing them in your car's ignition and following a special procedure and don't actually need a special programmer.

The ones keys that are a total rip off are the ones that don't even look like keys... some of them can only be obtained through a car dealer and then you are stuck.

Lol! Actually, I was just having a little fun :) Chevys of that era, both cars and trucks had a lock position and a off position. If left in the off position the key could be removed and it would not be necessary to use the key thereafter until the key was reinserted. The last Chevy that I owned with this feature was a 63. I think, but not sure, it was the last year for this feature. I liked the feature as it was handy. But, alas, a different era. We never locked our house either. I’m not sure anyone even knew where the key was :)

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