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All-Glass Apple Watch – A First Step Toward Jony Ive's Dream iPhone?
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There is precedent for an "all-glass" design, with MB&F and Richard Mille for example. However, those are using machined sapphire and cost somewhere deep in the six figures, if not seven. Curious to see what material Apple would actually go with to make this cost-effective. The economies of scale will be different, sure, but there's no getting around the difficulty of such a thing.
The other “most obvious hurdle” is no one wants this.
They could also make the Apple Watch out of a single sheet of uranium if they could overcome the obvious hurdle of radiation. 🙄x1000
They could also make the Apple Watch out of a single sheet of uranium if they could overcome the obvious hurdle of radiation. 🙄x1000
So much concern over durability in the comments. The stuff has been super durable for years for me, I've never personally broken an iPhone or Watch but even the people I know who used to break them a bunch in the early days have dropped off as everything's gotten more durable.
Maybe this could have Ceramic Shield? Or preferably sapphire for the all "glass" model, since glass is still glass. I'm not that concerned about durability, sounds cool.
Maybe this could have Ceramic Shield? Or preferably sapphire for the all "glass" model, since glass is still glass. I'm not that concerned about durability, sounds cool.
Okay, sure, watches are bumped and scraped sometimes, but who constantly drops their watch? It's literally strapped to your wrist.
I agree with others that glass is fragile on a watch. I mean, even analog watches have glass covers. But outside of ditching the Digital Crown, I'm not sure what other benefits it would provide. And tactile controls are usually better on small devices like watches. What I'm more interested in is how Apple will incorporate their C1 chip into the Watch. That just might be able to untether the Watch from iPhones.
I bought my last Apple Watch just before the blood oxygen sensor legal case and so therefore ... my blood oxygen sensor STILL WORKS. So ... probably no upgrades until Apple figure that one out.🍸😿
Hopefully something with high thermal conductivity, otherwise it's going to always feel cold. Both titanium and sapphire crystal have pretty great thermal conductivity and quickly match your skin temp. Glass has terrible thermal conductivity.
Also the 2018 exhibition pocket watch for the Citizen Caliber 0100 high accuracy quartz (HAQ) movement (drift no more than ±1 second per year) - its case was all sapphire: https://www.citizenwatch-global.com/100th/product/calibre0100/index.html
It might be a little tricky at the watch band/strap slot attachment points, but that aside, an entirely sapphire-cased Apple Watch is probably doable - I mean, they made ceramic case models, so why not?
I’m more excited for apple’s 4g / 5g modem being on the iPhone plus then the rumoured blue tooth and WiFi additions next year.
My watch 9 already has impressive battery life - if apple can make their full wireless stack power efficient, the regular watch could see 2-3 days battery life being the norm with the ultra closer to 5 days.
Here’s hoping.
Interested too that if the power consumption can get even lower, if apple will ever put solar panels on the watch as certain watches from G-Shock and garmin have.
The ultra probably has enough size to do that. A solar power ultra with a low power mode that allowed the essentials to work would be amazing.
My watch 9 already has impressive battery life - if apple can make their full wireless stack power efficient, the regular watch could see 2-3 days battery life being the norm with the ultra closer to 5 days.
Here’s hoping.
Interested too that if the power consumption can get even lower, if apple will ever put solar panels on the watch as certain watches from G-Shock and garmin have.
The ultra probably has enough size to do that. A solar power ultra with a low power mode that allowed the essentials to work would be amazing.
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Me too. My favourite iPhones were the ones that didn’t have glass backs: the OG, the 3G, the 5C and the beautiful jet black iPhone 7.
For me it’s the 5/5S/SE1. They do have a bit of glass at the top and bottom, but the main part is aluminum. I wouldn’t mind plastic or rubber either, although those may be more problematic with heat dissipation nowadays.
I think you have that the other way around: better thermal conductivity allows a touched object to conduct your body heat away from the point of contact, which is why room-temperature carpet feels warmer than a hard floor when you first step out of bed in the morning. Sensation in steady-state skin contact is probably a tad more complicated, but there's still a limited amount of heat-sinking in action, and anecdotally metal watch bands usually feel cooler than polymer ones.