Google Debuts Android Wear 2.0 Alongside Two New LG Smart Watches

[Keirasplace]

Yes. Analog time is round, its ingrained in us.

Why does the Apple pencil look like a pencil ?

Ive's genius is taking the purest form of something and making it a computer. The iPad march to a piece of paper, the Apple Pencil, airpods as just the thing you put into your ear, the keyboard with just the main keys and nothing extra on it, etc, etc.

The purest form of something.

Time is round, watches are round, how do you end up with a rectangular watch ?

I just find the Apple Watch completely uninspiring in its design. The materials are amazing (the ceramic - w o w ), the watches faces are of the highest quality, bands are off the charts. The actual watch itself, specially for a new apple product making its mark, has ZERO personality.

Right.. "ingrained", give me a break. I've owned 4 squarish watches since the 1970s.

The reason watch became round, because it was the cheapest way to produce them.
All through the 1920s to 1930s when watches were still luxury items, they were as much squares than round.
It's when the army started pumping them out by the bushell during the late 1930s and 1940s than the round format started to dominate; why? Cost.
In women's watches, squarish watches continued on though because the whole macho, have a watch like those army/aviator guys wasn't as important there.

Vomiting something round like many other mechanical watch for no good reason really and making it look 10 x worse than any of them is not originality; it is slavish copying. Having the courage to not do the same thing is what makes the Apple Watch a success.

 

[thekeyring]

Like Jobs said, design is how it works. Traditional watches and smartwatches do different things, hence the designs are different.

Absolutely agree

Thats a good quote. When the Apple Watch first came out and it was muddled mess they though the focus was going to be lists, sure, do a rectangle.

Now what is the focus of the watch ? Look at the Apple Watch page :
http://www.apple.com/watch/

How many lists do you see ?

Here is the WatchOS page
http://www.apple.com/watchos/

You could make an argument for the messages list but I don't think it would be a disaster with a round or even oval face.

So the main point of contention would be the complications in the corner of the watch. Put them *inside* the circle, like traditional watches have now.

It not just to hang on the old ways. There is a reason over the course of hundreds of years the vast majority have settled on a round watch.

You could be right about the Apple Watch "getting away with" being circular with the current UI.

However, it seems clear that the reason that for the past few hundred years most watches are circular is because they are designed around a dial.

 

[hipnetic]

I'm firmly entrenched in the Apple ecosystem but I bought a 1st gen Moto 360 when there was a deal on them for about $160 (new). Aside from the flat tire, the physical design was very nice. Round face, which I prefer, but it has a minimalism to it that made it look different than other watches. The lack of the "lugs" for the band was a big part of that. I'm sad to see that the latest watches seem to, more and more, be mimicking traditional watch cases.

The Moto 360 sits in my drawer, unused, though, because it's functionality when paired with my iPhone was a fraction of what it was capable of when paired with an Android phone, and my attempts at trying to use/like an Android phone didn't go so well.

Android Wear 2.0 is supposed to offer much improved functionality when used with an iPhone, so I'm interested to see how true that is. Sadly, my old Moto 360 won't get the OS update. I guess the Huawei would be the closest to what I might want design-wise (round face, no flat tire, ability to use different bands), but it's still priced more than I think any of these watches (Apple Watch included) should be priced at, and I think the Huawai lacks a decent waterproof rating (though that's not a deal-killer for me).

Aside from the round face itself, one huge advantage that even my old Moto 360 had over the Apple Watch is the ability to load any watch face you want onto it. Apple's desire to completely control that is ridiculous. Of course, because of the Apple Watch's four flat tires (dead black area around all four sides of the actual display), it's more limited in the styles of watch faces that will look good on it anyway.

 

[kdarling]

Isn't the quote from Apple about round smartwatches actually a Jony Ive quote, though?

“When a huge part of the function is lists, a circle doesn’t make any sense.”

Apple execs are always marketing whatever they're selling at that moment. It's no different than back when Cook said 4" was the perfect screen size.

Frankly, anyone these days with knowledge of Apple history, would never treat what an Apple exec says as set in stone or somehow of magical origin.

Ive's comment is especially hypocritical in this case because of the round ... not linear... list item screens on the Apple Watch, like the list of contacts. Or all the other roundish screens of data, from exercise rings to other time oriented circles.

Right.. "ingrained", give me a break. I've owned 4 squarish watches since the 1970s.

Not a surprise. More women buy rectangular watches than men.

The reason watch became round, because it was the cheapest way to produce them.

What? No. They're made the same basic way (stamped out and then milled).

Wristwatches started off round for men because they were replacing pocket watches, which were round in order not to catch on a pocket lining.

Round has stayed important for a couple of reasons beyond just fashion. First, they allow a rotating bezel. Second, round watches can be easier made waterproof to about ten times the depth of a square watch.

In women's watches, squarish watches continued on though because the whole macho, have a watch like those army/aviator guys wasn't as important there.

Ironically, rectangular wristwatches originally became popular because Cartier made a couple of famous ones for popular army/aviator guys: the Tank for General Pershing, and the Santos for the famous aviator.

Later aviators like Lindbergh swung the pendulum back to round because of the ability to rotate a large inner dial or outer bezels.

With women, I think rectangular is popular because it slims the wrist.

Vomiting something round like many other mechanical watch for no good reason really and making it look 10 x worse than any of them is not originality; it is slavish copying. Having the courage to not do the same thing is what makes the Apple Watch a success.

Nonsense. If there's no reason to use traditional watch styles, then WHAT THE HECK IS THE DIGITAL CROWN about? Or even the basic layout of the Watch, with a wrist band? Why doesn't it look like those wild fan concepts like bracelets?

A: because Apple wanted to include a lot of traditional watch style in order to get wide acceptance.

Again, a recent Apple smartwatch patent application has a round shape. When Apple brings one out to boost sales, anyone who dissed round is going to have to eat crow for years. Some of you are smarter than to go that route.

 

[shartypants]

super lame commercial

 

[mi7chy]

No thanks.

Men's watch on girl's or ladyboy's wrist will always look funny.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Right.. "ingrained", give me a break. I've owned 4 squarish watches since the 1970s.

The reason watch became round, because it was the cheapest way to produce them.
All through the 1920s to 1930s when watches were still luxury items, they were as much squares than round.
It's when the army started pumping them out by the bushell during the late 1930s and 1940s than the round format started to dominate; why? Cost.
In women's watches, squarish watches continued on though because the whole macho, have a watch like those army/aviator guys wasn't as important there.

Vomiting something round like many other mechanical watch for no good reason really and making it look 10 x worse than any of them is not originality; it is slavish copying. Having the courage to not do the same thing is what makes the Apple Watch a success.

Source?