Tim Cook Is Most Proud Of This One Beloved Apple Gadget

On September 1, 2026, Tim Cook will step down as CEO of Apple, having led one of the most important tech companies in the world for 15 years. He'll continue at Apple as chairman of the board, with John Ternus set to become Apple's next chief executive officer. Apple confirmed the succession plans on April 20, 2026, confirming the rumors that Cook would end his tenure as CEO of Apple in 2026. The succession announcement was followed by messages from Tim Cook to the world and Apple employees in which its top executive mused over his career at Apple. Cook went over various products that Apple released while he was CEO of the company, with the Apple Watch being at the top of his list.

In a Community Letter from Tim, the CEO said that he has started his days the same way for the past 15 years, by checking his email and reading messages from Apple users. Cook mentioned the Apple Watch in the second paragraph, before any other product. "You share little pieces of your lives with me and tell me things you want me to know about how Apple has touched you. About the moment your mom was saved by her Apple Watch," Cook wrote. "About the perfect selfie you captured at the summit of a mountain that seemed impossible to climb. You thank me for the ways Mac has changed what you can do at work and sometimes give me a hard time because something you care about isn't working like it should."

The Apple Watch was unveiled in September 2014, though Apple wouldn't start selling it until the next spring. Tim Cook called the wearable "the most personal product we've ever made."

Cook and Ternus attended a town hall meeting after the CEO succession announcement, according to Bloomberg. There, the CEO said he's been proud of "so many moments" at Apple, but the Apple Watch is the product he's most proud of. As in the community note, Cook pointed out the wearable's health features that can save people's lives. "I remember getting the very first Apple Watch note from a user who told me that the watch saved their life," Cook said. "Now, of course, I get these on a daily basis, but that first one hit me particularly hard. It caused me to just stop in my steps."

Apple celebrated its 50th anniversary a few weeks before the company announced that John Ternus would replace Tim Cook as CEO. The occasion prompted media retrospectives on Apple's history, including interviews with Cook. The CEO appeared on Good Morning America, highlighting the Apple Watch as one of Apple's biggest contributions. "You know, you can focus on the product moments, reinventing music, reinventing the smartphone, bringing the creative arts to the table, the creative graphics. Saving people's lives with the watch," Cook told ABC's Michael Strahan.

While the Apple Watch seems to be the defining product category for Cook's tenure as CEO of Apple, the iPhone also has a special place in Cook's heart. The CEO told The Wall Street Journal that the launch of the iPhone was his favorite moment. "We were using that generation's smartphone, and it was such an awful experience. And I love the fact that all of a sudden you had this touch interface, and it worked like your mind worked," Cook said.

The iPhone launch event may be Cook's favorite moment at Apple, but it happened while Steve Jobs was CEO of Apple. Under Cook, Apple continued to refine the iPhone, introducing several innovations since 2011, but the iPhone is part of Steve Jobs' legacy at Apple. The Apple Watch was a new product category launched under Cook, which partly explains why the CEO is especially proud of the wearable. The fact that the Apple Watch keeps saving lives thanks to the various health tracking features Apple devised over the years is what makes the product stand out for Cook. In the same WSJ interview, which featured prototypes for various Apple products, Cook also talked about an early Apple Watch version, saying the wearable "wound up being this guardian for your health that we really didn't envision from the start. And it became a fitness companion."

But Cook's legacy is much bigger than the Apple Watch. Apple launched the AirPods in September 2016, a product category that became wildly successful, inspiring most smartphone vendors to create their own AirPods rivals. Apple launched the Vision Pro spatial computer under Cook's leadership in June 2023. At the time, Cook called the product "the beginning of a new era for computing." Cook's Apple also made user privacy a core feature of Apple products and created the M-series chips that power MacBooks and iPads.

It wasn't just smooth sailing under Cook. While the Apple Watch may be his proudest moment as CEO, the Apple Maps launch was Cook's "first really big mistake," which he acknowledged in the same town hall meeting that followed Apple's CEO succession announcement.