Square Apple Watch?

[James Falconer]

I know there are design and technical limitations when it comes to making a ROUND screen on a watch. Other manufacturers have conquered this, but I'm assuming Apple wants to stick with the rectangular face to enable them to pack in more goodies and the beefy specs they require.

With that in mind - got to thinking - how about a SQUARE watch face? This would actually offer up MORE space to jam in the tech, and in all honestly, I don't think it'd look that bad. Plenty of square watches out there (Bell & Ross watches come to mind).

What do you think?

 

[StraightlineBoy]

I'll start by saying I prefer round watches even though I also think round isn't best suited for a smart watch. With a round watch it has to be much harder to use every last cubic millimetre of space on the inside and to have the best ratio of screen vs bezel on the outside. For displaying info such as text messages, calendars and pretty much anything else, you're going to see more on a square watch for a given size.

I find it very difficult to imagine Apple changing from square to round so soon into the life of the Apple Watch...it seems more like the sort of thing to do once they've run out of obvious enhancements (cellular, always on clock display etc) and sales are flattening out.

And yet as I say I prefer round watches. Not saying they're better or worse, I just prefer the look. I wear a Garmin Forerunner 935 these days and for the sort of information I want from it, round works perfectly well. And if the next Apple Watch was round would I switch? No, I owned a Series 2 Nike edition and the shape wasn't one of my reasons for selling.

 

[Mac Guy]

99% of posts I see everywhere seem to think that rectangle (a lot of people call the Watch 'square') vs round vs square means replacing the current form factor with something else.

I don't think that will happen except for very subtle changes, as in the S1 and S2. I see Apple bring out a round Watch sometime down the road in addition to the current shape or its subsequent iterations.

People seem to believe that because a rectangle/square is the most efficient, that a round smartwatch is unthinkable. That's just crap. Just as you can have a electric car for short hops and an ICE machine for road trips (please don't start with Teslas) you can have two different Watches for different degrees of functionality.

To the question at hand, I don't find square watches to be particularly attractive or elegant and I probably wouldn't get a square Watch. It would have to have a killer feature for me. Elegant Watch faces would make a difference though. Apple has yet to do much in that area for the non-Hermès Watches. But I won't know what I'll do until I see the shipping product announced.

 

[munichblue]

There is a good reason why iPhones, iPads and MacBooks don't have round screens! I will never understand people asking for round smart watches.

 

[Mac Guy]

There is a good reason why iPhones, iPads and MacBooks don't have round screens!

There is. It just doesn't apply to smartwatches! The reason Apple doesn't make a round Watch yet is because it offends Jony Ive's sensibilities. That's a reason. That's the reason. It's just not a good reason.

If Apple has to make only one Watch, then a rectangular one is a good choice, better than square. But there doesn't have to be one Watch to rule them all.

Sir Jony should get that through his head. There's not one iPhone, iPad, or MacBook. And a watch is often about style or form over function, something Apple is very familiar with. A round Watch could be an Apple Watch Air. Like. oh say— a MacBook Air.