The Verge "What if the Apple Watch were round?"

[Julien]

May I point out none of this 'I can prove it with maths' means a toss..

Some people prefer the look of a round faced watch....

I accept the rectangle vs round debate but it must be fair. You can't compare a 45% larger screen, say it's bigger, will hold more info and make the conclusion that it is better.

They must be the same relative size to have any meaningful round vs rectangle debate.

If not then next increase the size of the rectangle that much larger than the round and compare. Then make the round larger again than the rectangle and keep repeating until you have a watch the size of a house.

 

[Julien]

We're not arguing about the aesthetics, we're arguing the fact that given the same dimensions, a circular display will display less than a rectangular one, and given our alphabet it's far less suited to readable text.

There's a lot done about the golden ratio in nature, but the ratio doesn't only apply to circles. "Nature does it" is in general a poor argument to apply to engineering. Birds and bats fly by flapping their wings; human airplanes do not. Trying to mimc nature has not gotten us far....

Here is a perfect example of the problem with round. This is my Garmin 620 display 4 running metrics. When running and glance down this is hard to read. Our brains naturally align in columns and this offset takes extra time to process. It would be much easer to read at a glance if you had 2 equally spaced and aligned columns for the same info.

 

[576316]

That is super nice. I fell in love with the Moto360 when I saw it and I really don't like Android. One of the main gripes people had with that was that it felt like a rectangular UI with the corners cut off. With Apple's totally original and thought-through WATCH UI, it would have worked perfectly on a circular display. I was fully expecting Apple to go with the classic circular watch face design, really surprised with what they went for.

I mean, I'll buy one, but I won't be surprised if the WATCH 2 is round.

"A year ago, we released the Apple Watch and it totally revolutionised the wearable market. Today, we're introducing the New Apple Watch and boy, is it gorgeous. We totally re-thought the design and we've come up with something we think you'll really like. We took the timeless, classic round watch face that we've become so familiar with and we built it into the Apple Watch. We think it's really great and unlike anything else on the market. Only Apple could do this."

 

[McGiord]

The apple watch is the only product that indeed makes total sense to be thinner than everything else on the market. Maybe when they release version 3 we will have it.
I also prefer the watch shape to be circular and it can be made as big as needed for the UI to handle all that is needed.
For any other bigger screen needs you can use handoff or use any other device including AirPlay.
Remember it's a watch not all your devices into one.

 

[Piggie]

I have to agree

It is strange that so much of the UI and on screen visuals are round, or rounded, and then put it all on a rectangular display.

It does, to me, clash visually.

I know many here rubbish the idea of a round Apple Watch.
But don't take any notice of them, as if the Apple watch was round, they would be here posting how round was best and any other shape would be wrong.

 

[diamond.g]

Eh, Apple may do a round watch, eventually. Especially if it is shown that round smart watches sell better. After all we now have 4.7" and 5.5" iPhones and there were folks here that swore up and down Apple would NEVER do that.

 

[Piggie]

Eh, Apple may do a round watch, eventually. Especially if it is shown that round smart watches sell better. After all we now have 4.7" and 5.5" iPhones and there were folks here that swore up and down Apple would NEVER do that.

Indeed.

A watch has been for a LONG time as much about fashion as it is about function.

Fact is, like it or not, and despite what Apple are trying to tell us.

There is only 1 design/shape/look of Apple watch.
One model, that's it.

Sure, you can dress it up with a different colour, a different strap, and a different face, but you are not fooling anyone.
It's the same watch.
they are not even, yet, selling different models that do different things.

Like making a Volkswagen beetle. offering it in 4 colors of paintwork, 6 type of fabric seat covering, but the same shape, engine etc etc.

We'd all realize pretty dam quickly we are all driving the exact same car.
The changes are pretty irreverent.

Of course, we can cut Apple some slack here. It's v1.00 and I'd not expect much more.

Perhaps when we've gone thru many revisions. Perhaps Apple watch v6, a lot thinner, better battery etc etc, they may explore other form factors.

Else it's going to become VERY mundane seeing everyone wearing the same model, just in a different colour.

 

[SHNXX]

I cannot believe we are discussing elementary school geometry.

It baffles my mind how poorly educated some of you who are unable to understand basic terms like diameter, diagonal, area, etc are...

 

[frifra]

"No pain, no gain" fits it quite actually