iWatch Concept Images Show Curved Screen, Thick Band, and Sensors

While some hints about the functionality of Apple's upcoming smart watch have surfaced through software leaks and the company's hiring of a slew of sensor experts, the design of the product still remains a total mystery.

It is unknown what kind of screen the device will have, how the band will work, and how it will incorporate the myriad sensors it is rumored to include. For that reason, a wide variety of concept images have been surfacing, ranging from the Nike Fuel-style band shared by Todd Hamilton to a new, thicker design concept shared today by Swiss industrial design site DesignerEI.

These concept images feature a wide band with a deeply curved screen that would wrap around the front and sides of a wrist. A home button is built into the band, while a metal clasp potentially houses some sensors.

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The underside of the band houses a sensor that would be in contact with the skin, an important design element as many of the sensors that are rumored for the iWatch, such as the heart rate or hydration monitor typically require direct sensor-to-skin contact.

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While the creator of the concept suggests the iWatch might be powered via kinetic energy, such a concept is unlikely to provide enough power to the device, which is said to be powered by standard lithium-ion batteries rather than motion or solar energy.

It is unlikely that the iWatch will take on such a thick and bulky design, but this concept does give a look at how various sensors might possibly be incorporated into the product.

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Top Rated Comments

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ZacNicholson

66 months ago

glad to see they got flappy bird on the watch :D

Rating: 12 Votes

rablat

66 months ago

Well thank god thats just a concept cause its ugly, way too wide

Rating: 8 Votes

Nieval

66 months ago

It may just be me but that design reminds me of the original iPhone rumours (see image below). It's lazy; take what we know of apple (read iPod/iPhone) and take what we know of watches (read wristband), add them together, presto!

I'd be disappointed if Apple's motivation is "We can do some stuff a bit better, or a bit flash-ier, than what's out there." Personally I want a game changer or don't enter the market at all.

Then again, it would be easy money for them but I'm a romantic... let me dream.

Rating: 8 Votes

Rogifan

66 months ago

Another concept, another day. Yawn.

I very much doubt iWatch will look anything like that.

I'm still trying to understand how concept designs are considered news or rumors.

Rating: 5 Votes

Nunyabinez

65 months ago

This story doesn't interest me, but I clicked on it anyway, then I posted to let you know that it doesn't interest me and to complain that there was something on MR that didn't interest me and yet I read it and posted about it.

Thank you.

/Sarcastic rant

Rating: 4 Votes

illicit2k1

66 months ago

Looks like an android version of an iWatch concept from a year ago:

http://www.yankodesign.com/2013/02/18/iwatch/

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Another concept, another day. Yawn.

I very much doubt iWatch will look anything like that.

I also doubt it is going to run what looks to be android at worst, or a terribly skinned iOS at best.

Rating: 3 Votes

musika

66 months ago

It won't look like this, and god help them if they go with a grid of icons on this thing.

Rating: 3 Votes

Lepton

66 months ago

No. It's not going to be a bracelet. It's not going to be huge or thick. It will be much like a.. watch.

Hardware: A squarish but not square case, slightly taller than wide but with a square 1.6" 320x320 color retina screen, tapered smoothly into a tapered segmented watchband. The band will have the battery in it (Apple has a patent for a segmented watchband battery), and likely the antenna. The watch case will be unibody liquid metal.There will be zero or one button. The sapphire watch cover will be touch sensitive. The case is sealed, waterproof. Control with tap and swipe, recharge with induction. No speaker or audio jack. Vibrator. Built in mic. Bluetooth smart. Accelerometer. If the band has a sensor to will be for pulse.

Software: Arm movement turns on the screen to see time, stocks, whatever you set for the screen display. No obvious flick needed, any little movement lights it up, but it goes dark again fast. Connects to an iPhone with Bluetooth. Your input is tap, swipe, talk. Tap the watch and talk to Siri. Siri answers on the watch (it already gives perfectly acceptable text answers on the iPhone screen, those go to the watch). Right there you have tons of power. Notifications go to the watch, caller ID goes to the watch. You can decline a call with a tap, or reply with a text. Answering you do as usual on the phone or headset cause its the only way to hear the caller. This setup is fine - if you are in a meeting you typically don't take a call, you refuse it or text you'll call them later, these you can do on the watch unobtrusively. A health app for the M chip plus pulse plus arm motion that sends that data to the M chip.

Security: The watch knows when it is attached to a wrist or detached. So you attach the watch and tell the phone or watch with a pin or print its indeed you and you are now authenticated until you remove the watch.

Oh, and even when not synced to your phone, as a bonus, it still tells the time.

Rating: 3 Votes

dannyyankou

65 months ago

Yeah, I have a feeling we're not going to know anything about the iWatch a week up to the event. This was a mockup of the iPhone a week before it was unveiled.