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Would you like a round or a square design?


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    87

The Cockney Rebel

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 16, 2018
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I think there has to be some form of redesign, come September.

Would you like a round or a square design?
 
I assume you're referring to the sides of the watch and not the display?

If so, I would really like to see a squared off watch that still has a softness to the edges, like the iPhone 15 lineup. There's nothing wrong with the round edges but those square mockups that came out a couple years ago looked stellar.
 
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I personally like round watches, but for a smartwatch I think the form factor of the Apple Watch works best. You can put more info in a smaller form factor with a square than a circle. Currently, my AW is the Ultra 1, but even the older 38mm AW's packed in a lot of info depending on the face.

For example, I have a Seiko Astron. It's an analog watch but has a ton of info on the dial: hours, minutes, seconds, date, plus day of the week (on one subdial) second time zone ( on another sundial) and power reserve, airplane mode, number of satellites it connects to when referencing time, daylight savings, etc. (on a third subdial) and AM/PM for the second time zone on a fourth small subdial. That watch is 44 mm and I can't imagine it being useful in a smaller size.

A lot of the larger round smartwatches can look like a dinner plate on the wrist. So, another vote for square.
 
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I voted square. As for redesign, I love the raised lips and flat screen of the Ultra, and hope that design comes in smaller sizes so slightly built people like me can wear it comfortably.
 
Assuming you're meaning the display shape and not just flat sides vs rounded sides (i.e. iPhone 11 vs iPhone 12).

The square shape makes so much more sense when you consider what the watch actually does. A round display is would require a significant OS overhaul, plus would be awful for anything text based. We've seen other companies do the round smartwatch thing, and I think all of them have been worse (OS differences etc aside).
 
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A round smartwatch (display) is idiotic in my opinion. Text and other content is most efficiently rendered in square/rectangular formats.

Round should be reserved for mechanical watches and there are countless beauties out there.

While I love my Ultra 2 and S7 Edition titanium watches, I think the non-ultra watches could look more luxurious or “high-end.” In fact, the first gen Apple Watches looked more like jewelry and less like tech than the more rounded design of later watches. The big bezels of the older watches did not age well though.

I do hope the S10 redesign somehow blends the tech better with traditional watch aesthetics. BUT NO ROUND!
 
While I prefer "round" watches, given the additional functionality of this watch, the square shape makes more sense. Then again, I would also add a 'link' on the top and bottom of the watch for the watch band to connect to that serves as a battery.
 
I'd like them to offer both round and rectangle, and on the rectangle one, put a bit of curve on it. I'd also like to see less buttons - Just the crown. The mechanical UI is inelegant and unnecessary.
 
I 2nd the request for the ceramic or at least a DLC version. My SBTi series 7 still shows 100% battery and looks like new. For me the stainless is too heavy and the aluminum screen can scratch.
 
I voted round, but I'm in the squishy middle ground where I basically want a traditional watch 90% of the time, but would also like if it could do some smartwatch stuff like count steps, do Apple Pay, pop up a key bit of information occasionally. I am under no illusions Apple will ever make such a thing or that it would be generally well received (except by a few weirdos like me) if they did.
 
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