What do you think about the Crown?

[pkcable]

Folks,

As you may know I'm a BlackBerry guy. Yea YEA I know dinosaur, BUT one of my favorite innovations back in the day was the BlackBerry Trackwheel found on those older devices, think 8700 and earlier....



It was genius, simple to use yet highly functional. Well I think Apple might have done something just like this with their new "crown" mechanism. Not only does it look lovely on a watch and certainly in place (most watches have them) BUT it serves a great function of allowing you to easily navigate your watch!

So what do you all think of the Apple Watch crown?

 

[Bigeric23]

I think for an interface this small, the Crown is a perfect input device. Leave it to Apple to take something old and make it new.

 

[mikeo007]

Before the days of multi-touch capacitive screens, scroll wheels were used as a crutch for navigating interfaces. Crutches aren't always a bad thing mind you (couldn't have done without it on my Dell Axim) but I always felt that there was a better way to interact with a relatively big touch screen than using a small scroll nub on the side of the device. The technology just wasn't there though, so the 2nd best option was the scroll wheel.

I think the digital crown moves from being a crutch to being the best method of navigation with the Apple watch. It seems like Apple came up with the digital crown concept very early in the design stages for the watch, and designed the entire OS around using the crown as a primary means of navigation. I haven't used one personally, but from the looks of how it works, I can't think of a better way to navigate or enter certain types of data.

 

[John Yester]

I believe the Track Wheel on the 8700 was a click wheel, actually moving mechanism.

Now in 2015 you have a crown which is still a switch mechanism, but with out extra internals.


Most standard watch now days use the crown to complete two functions, set time and date advance setting. Apple took the crown and simply advanced from it. Otherwise they would have left it off. They could have removed it but Apple wanted to keep the Watch a Watch and nothing more nor less. It had to have a crown.

 

[pkcable]

I'm by no means saying the crown is not MUCH more advanced, it IS 10 years later after all. I'm just drawing a parallel in innovation. And yes, it may be the crown is a much bigger innovation. Part of the reason I started the thread was so we could discuss it. I loved the trackwheel, but I really love this crown too, at least what I have seen of it so far.

 

[Ipheuria]

I also played with the digital crown a bit today during my try on. I found it nice to the touch. The watch I had was in demo mode so I couldn't really get a feel for how the OS will react to it but I like it. It was easy enough to rotate but had a resistance that allowed me to feel the clicks. The only thing I worry about is over time if it stops responding. It's another point of failure.

 

[metllicamilitia]

I love the idea for watch navigation. I haven't been able to test an Apple Watch yet so I can't say for sure how much I actually like it, but the idea is solid.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Man, does that device bring back memories......Anyway, I was actually comparing the digital crown to the Blackberry trackwheel just yesterday, I think. Both are used for navigational and input purposes.

 

[FFR]

The crown looks to be a successor to the iPods click wheel, not the blackberry track wheel.




Sent from my iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk

 

[Scatabrain]

I tried it on the mounted watch. It was possibly not as responsive as i had hoped but it isn't like Apple to not get that perfect so I am still optimistic.


Sent from my iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk

 

[ctt1wbw]

For the life of me, I can't understand why people are making a big deal over this thing. Every mechanical watch I've ever seen, and my current Rolex, has a wheel like this that you have to use to set the date and time and also wind the thing.

 

[shanghaichica]

I was skeptical at first because on real watches crowns are a PITA as it's awkward to fumble around with. However after going to my try on appointment I'm more optimistic as the crown was very easy to use its more fluid than on traditional watches.

 

[boovish]

When I went to go play with the watch saturday, the only issue I had was that it was using "Natural Scrolling". Ick

 

[pkcable]

For the life of me, I can't understand why people are making a big deal over this thing. Every mechanical watch I've ever seen, and my current Rolex, has a wheel like this that you have to use to set the date and time and also wind the thing.

U R serious? There is a huge difference between winding the watch and changing the date and controlling the functions and turning the common crown in to one of the main controls for the watch! Well anyways I think its innovative!

 

[Sammuel1973]

IMO, future devices should be less mechanical and more streamlined and minimal, with an interface that is fluid and less cumbersome. The Digital Crown seems to be a departure from Apple's exceptional engineering of their previous products. To me, the DC takes me more time to touch, turn, and then press. Other modes like motion sensor, press, swipe, gesture, and voice commands are more preferred for me.

This is my only criticism of the Watch since the 1st keynote, everything else I love!