Whether it's rumors of bringing back the MacBook MagSafe charger or reintroducing multicolored iMac options for the first time in about 20 years, Apple designers don't seem afraid to dip into the past to dictate the future.

That trend appears to have continued with the redesigned Siri Remote for the newly released 2021 Apple TV 4K. Looking for inspiration when it came to replacing the previous Siri Remote, one of the most divisive designs in Apple history, Apple designers apparently borrowed from an iconic piece of past Apple design: The click wheel from the original iPod.

A Useful Bit of Nostalgia

Speaking with the UK's Express newspaper, Tim Twerdahl, Apple's Vice President of Product Marketing for Home and Audio, said that:

If you think about it, since we first had on-demand formats, like the VCRs and DVDs, we've been stuck with those 2X, 4X, 8X kind of control speeds and it's just not very intuitive or useful. You always overshoot and then try to get back to a point.

Once we came up with this circular design we thought it looked a lot like the iPod [click] wheel, so what could do that could really help people with their TV using an interface like that? The scrubbing of video came as such a natural thing, professional editors often use these jog-style controls, which are quite powerful, and it's really nice to bring this into people's living room. It's super accurate and I can't wait for customers to get it in their hands.

The click wheel on the original iPod, circa 2001, made it incredibly easy for users to navigate through their song catalog, alongside rewinding or fast-forwarding tracks as required. It was a beloved piece of Apple design, and it makes perfect sense that Apple would revive it---and not just for nostalgic reasons either.

The Click Wheel Returns

Apple did consider bringing back the click wheel on one previous occasion. When it was working out the interface for the original iPhone, Apple engineers actually prototyped a model that would have featured a click wheel as a means for navigating the interface and even dialing numbers. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and Apple went with the exclusively touch-oriented version that fans know and love.

Still, skipping through TV and movies isn't a problem that's totally dissimilar to skipping through songs, which is why it's not too surprising to see this interface element make an eagerly anticipated comeback.

To put it another way, Apple saw no reason to reinvent the wheel. Semi-pun fully intended.