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The Apple Watch solution that would have really made for a Wow! factor

anarche

anarche

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 11, 2014
109
13
A one-day or less charge time is laughable for a device you typically tend to forget you're wearing.

Apple should have made the Apple Watch a self-winding watch, charged basically by the walking action of moving your arms and thus given an incentive to stay active as well as charge the device for free.
 
anarche said:
A one-day or less charge time is laughable for a device you typically tend to forget you're wearing.

Apple should have made the Apple Watch a self-winding watch, charged basically by the walking action of moving your arms and thus given an incentive to stay active as well as charge the device for free.
Click to expand...

Seiko has motion charged batteries. Casio has solar powered watches. I know what apologists will say 'apple researched and experimented with that.'. but follow me: use such tech simply to achieve longer times between charges not as the only or main power source!! C'mon apple wth?
 
fewlio said:
Seiko has motion charged batteries. Casio has solar powered watches. I know what apologists will say 'apple researched and experimented with that.'. but follow me: use such tech simply to achieve longer times between charges not as the only or main power source!! C'mon apple wth?
Click to expand...

You act like this is definitively possible... You have absolutely no clue of the power requirements of this watch. It's probable that they did do this in prototypes but it added so little battery life that it wasn't worth it or not cost effective.
 
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bigred7078 said:
You act like this is definitively possible... You have absolutely no clue of the power requirements of this watch. It's probable that they did do this in prototypes but it added so little battery life that it wasn't worth it or not cost effective.
Click to expand...

It should have motion AND solar.
 
2 predictions:

  1. Apple will develop watch bands that act as an addendum to the battery in later versions
  2. Apps that share your heartbeat will be used for risqué purposes and lie detection.
 
anarche said:
A one-day or less charge time is laughable for a device you typically tend to forget you're wearing.

Apple should have made the Apple Watch a self-winding watch, charged basically by the walking action of moving your arms and thus given an incentive to stay active as well as charge the device for free.
Click to expand...

The problem with self-winding, like others have said, is probably because the Apple Watch needs a lot more power than that. A combination of powering methods like Self-winding and Solar could be a solution, but is unlikely to be able to power such a powerful device. It's basically a tiny computer on your wrist. They would need a lot more power than that.

Another thing is that while you sleep, self-winding watches do not charge, so over night, the watch will simply lose power. Even traditional watches that self-wind can't stay charged over night. From personal experiences of family and friends, self-winding watches need to be adjusted every week because they miss a few seconds a night due to a lack of power.

I think what Apple should have done is went with a Pebble-like display, without the multi-touch. That would solve a lot of their battery issues, but it's too late for that now.
 
Adding the functions you're talking about would take up space that the battery is currently using. OR would make the watch thicker to accommodate the extra hardware. At that point, you could just add a bigger battery and be done with it.
 
Putting solar and self winding motion technology would be like having a couple D batteries helping power your home. The only reason anyone would ever offer this in the next decade would be solely for marketing purposes, not a serious power source. Have you ever hand cranked a generating flashlight? That's a lot of force for a little light. The kind of watches that run on this technology can be alternately powered by a single alkaline watch battery instead for a few years. That's less power than what is required to run this for a few minutes.

In the far future, that type of feature will be possible, but it's a 2015 watch. It's like saying the new Ford sucks because it can't run on solar power and the power generated by the body heat of it's passengers.
 
fewlio said:
Seiko has motion charged batteries. Casio has solar powered watches. I know what apologists will say 'apple researched and experimented with that.'. but follow me: use such tech simply to achieve longer times between charges not as the only or main power source!! C'mon apple wth?
Click to expand...

It's obvious that solar powered watch would be be that good cause it would raise the price it.. But still it's worth it.. I am sure apple will release some different kind if charging along with the current one, that's y I think they went with a non plug in cable charging and a different magneto c charging...

----------
fewlio said:
Seiko has motion charged batteries. Casio has solar powered watches. I know what apologists will say 'apple researched and experimented with that.'. but follow me: use such tech simply to achieve longer times between charges not as the only or main power source!! C'mon apple wth?
Click to expand...

It's obvious that solar powered watch would not be that good cause it would raise the price it.. But still it's worth it.. I am sure apple will release some different kind if charging along with the current one with the 2nd gen ...that's y I think they went with a non plug in cable charging and a different magneto c charging...

----------
fewlio said:
Seiko has motion charged batteries. Casio has solar powered watches. I know what apologists will say 'apple researched and experimented with that.'. but follow me: use such tech simply to achieve longer times between charges not as the only or main power source!! C'mon apple wth?
Click to expand...

It's obvious that solar powered watch would not be that good cause it would raise the price it.. But still it's worth it.. I am sure apple will release some different kind if charging along with the current one with the 2nd gen ...that's y I think they went with a non plug in cable charging and a different magneto c charging...
 
Besides the questionable amount of power a self wind requires a space consuming mechanical deceive. The aWatch doesn't have much room and Apple doesn't specialize in mechanical devices.


EDIT: If a self winding mechanism was practical for a smart watch Samsung would have 'thrown that spaghetti'.
 
Last edited:
The human body produces quite a lot of power.

It will be interesting to see the 1st company that can actually make use of this.

I thought the other day, given how tiny an amount of power a modern quartz watch uses, perhaps 2 to 3 years on a tiny cell button battery.

You would of thought the heat from your wrist would be able to power one of those dead easy. probably the heat alone would be way way more power than a typical watch needs to run
 
Piggie said:
The human body produces quite a lot of power.

It will be interesting to see the 1st company that can actually make use of this.

I thought the other day, given how tiny an amount of power a modern quartz watch uses, perhaps 2 to 3 years on a tiny cell button battery.

You would of thought the heat from your wrist would be able to power one of those dead easy. probably the heat alone would be way way more power than a typical watch needs to run
Click to expand...

Plug into the matrix :eek:
 
They should add a bunch of these to my car so I can go 1,000 miles on a single tank.

Also, add a bunch to my laptop so I never need to charge it.

Maybe I'll add a bunch of wired weather vanes to my house to eliminate my power bill.
 
anarche said:
A one-day or less charge time is laughable for a device you typically tend to forget you're wearing.

Apple should have made the Apple Watch a self-winding watch, charged basically by the walking action of moving your arms and thus given an incentive to stay active as well as charge the device for free.
Click to expand...

they said they explored the option in a public statement.

my guess on why they went with battery: Software requires a stable source of power to be able to perform tasks.
Very bad things could happen if you low power at the wrong moment, even just for a microsecond.


And there are a lot of possible wrong moments, trust me.
 
the physics would not work.

please do some basic calculations if you're going to post threads like these.
 
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