From 1993 to 2014, Hong Kong's Times Square New Year's Eve event lowered an apple-shaped object.
The celebration took place at Times Square, a major shopping and office complex in Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island. It deliberately mirrored the famous ball drop at New York City’s Times Square, but substituted an apple for a ball. The fruit was lowered through the complex’s electronic signage as midnight approached.
The choice was also a visual play on the shared name “Times Square,” allowing Hong Kong to create its own localized version of the New York countdown. The event ran from 1993 through 2014. In 2015, the Hong Kong Times Square complex discontinued the drop and replaced it with an afternoon concert series during the holiday season.
The object is sometimes confused with a conventional New Year’s Eve ball because of the New York inspiration. It was not a peach, orange, or pear: the distinctive fruit-shaped object associated with the Hong Kong event was an apple.