Do you think there's a reason they went with a rectangle screen as oppose to a circul

[Trent0341]

First off, thank you for not taking anything I said personal as none of it was meant that way. Ill go point by point as you did.

For electronic wearables, it's a primary frame of reference. That's when we first saw wrist data devices really arise.

(I'm not counting digital watches, like the first LED one I got in 1975 or so while in the Army.)

Fair enough

Oh I appreciate them. I'm a major collector of aerial navigation devices, and certainly Santos-Dumont made square popular in the early days of pilot watches.

However, that was pretty much the last time square was used for pilots. Round offered so much more, including the ability to include a rotating slide rule bezel... something that square watches cannot have

Obviously our perspectives come from two unique areas of horology. I would argue (in a friendly manner) two points. The first being that my viewpoint would be more mainstream horology whereas yours is a niche field.

The second point would be that the reason you mentioned for pilot watches are no longer square/rectangle in shape is exactly the reason the apple watch is rectangle. Simple efficiency of the overall interface and usability. I really feel that this was demonstrated above much better than I could hope to do in a few sentences.

Retro because it's round. Futuristic because non-rectangular displays are still a bit unique, and often only seen in sci-fi.

I would argue that a lot of things only seen in sic-fi should stay that way

Yep, and availability.
Regards.

I agree and would simply say that if there is enough demand apple will eventually oblige. Overall though I believe that apple took the most efficient design and then made it as watch like as possible. I believe that doing the opposite (taking the most watch like design and then trying to make it efficient as possible) could turn out to be a disaster. Time will tell.

 

[zacheryjensen]

There is a pretty simple explanation.

Watches have traditionally been circular because that's what's best for a clock. That's the watch's primary purpose, so a circle makes sense.

But the Apple Watch is designed to display information and the clock is only one function of many. So for displaying text and other information, it simply makes a lot more sense to do a square or rectangle.

Ive said himself:

The thread should have ended at this comment. Period. *THE* designer has said the reason.

And frankly, I'll take a world renown and respected designer's opinion about design over 10,000 jerks on a web forum any day.

 

[Oppressed]

Image

Ah yes thank you for reminding me that I too live on the planet Earth in which square watches exist. Very insightful addition to the topic at hand.

The issue is that the square design of those watches do not add any additional functionality to the watch's ability to display time. Meanwhile a square design smart watch will be able to display more text than a circular design watch. Given that the two displays have equal PPI and bezel sizes.

 

[kdarling]

And frankly, I'll take a world renown and respected designer's opinion about design over 10,000 jerks on a web forum any day.

Most of the experienced people here would not take Ive's opinion on UI/UX. It's clear that it's not his forte, no matter how much he wants to expand out from his consumer electronics case designer niche.

Ah yes thank you for reminding me that I too live on the planet Earth in which square watches exist. Very insightful addition to the topic at hand.

A more realistic picture would show how many square watches any department store or jeweler carries as compared to round ones. Square is almost always less than 10%.

--

The purpose of a smartwatch is more than just displaying more lines of text than can fit on a screen. Clever, quick, smart interaction is important too. (That's why I really like Apple's smart replies where they look for the "or" in messages and present those items as choices.)

For example, imagine a tip calculator. On the Apple Watch, it's quite likely that we'll be expected to tap each number and then move to the crown to dial in each value. On a round Android Wear watch, the radial aspect is utilized, which also keeps the touch paradigm going instead of flipping between touch and dial.

The point is, both square and circular can work pretty well. There's no need to diss either style if that's what someone prefers.

 

[Oppressed]

To be honest looking at Apple Watch UI it looks like the first internal version of it was circular. Those bubbles would look great on a round watch.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

OP, thank goodness you're not an Apple Engineer/Designer!

 

[sniffies]

The reason they put a huge bezel around it is that the thin bezel is reserved for Apple Watch 2.

 

[ZombiePete]

I think either way can work, it really just depends on the UI. There is no "better" way; it's all a matter of preference and the manner in which the watch was designed to work.

Square, rectangle, or circle; I just want it to work well and with great integration into my phone. Bashing one design choice or another is potentially short-sighted, since you never know what the future holds for Apple Watch. Maybe an oval? Why is the oval getting short shrift here?

 

[sniffies]

Neither looks cool.

Personally, I'd rather it be star-shaped.

 

[ZombiePete]

Neither looks cool.

Personally, I'd rather it be star-shaped.

How about an M.C. Escher Watch? You're never quite sure about what it is you're seeing...

 

[sniffies]

How about an M.C. Escher Watch? You're never quite sure about what it is you're seeing...

Horrible. Just imagine trying to get driving directions on that thing?

 

[Pupi]

I'm guessing they'll have a choice of a round face in a future version. Then they'll have some new built in software that resizes everything to make it work. Apple will trademark the term "circleizing" and tout it as revolutionary.

That's just as likely as coming up with a choice of a optical drive for the new MacBook. Apple doesn't go backwards.