Apple has just patented a new design for the Apple Watch. This remodel shows an Apple Watch with no Digital Crown. Overall, it makes the smartwatch look much cleaner, and it also gets much slimmer.
Thick smartwatches are everyone’s worst nightmare. Keeping that bulky and uncomfortable piece of tech on your wrist all day can get very irritating. Towards the top of the filed patent, reads out:
“A watch can include a user input component that employs an optical sensor to receive input from a user. The input components provide an ability for a user to interact with the watch in a manner similar to how a user would interact with a crown that is rotatable and/or translatable.”
In short, this means that an optical sensor could be the replacement for the Digital Crown. You must be thinking something along the lines of: “How would I scroll up and down?” and “Would the ECG feature still work?”. Your questions are answered shortly below in the patent:
“The input component provides a user experience that simulates user interactions with a crown that is rotatable and/or translatable.”
Yes, the Digital Crown is part of the Apple Watch‘s identity, so switching to an optical sensor might have mixed reactions among Apple Watch enthusiasts. If Apple does implement this patent, we could expect it to be in the Apple Watch Series 6 or 7. This change would mean a slimmer and cleaner profile for the Apple Watch.
Are you looking forward to an optical sensor replacing the Digital Crown?