Apple is considering how to redesign the Apple Watch and its band, so that the watch can be quickly put on and taken off, allowing owners to take it off their wrists to use it as a small wearable device.
Apple slowly built the Apple Watch as a separate device, less and less dependent on users with an iPhone. Besides the technological issues of packing more functionality into such a small device, there’s the fact of how the watch is worn.
According to a recently granted patent, “Watch Have a Release Mechanism”, Apple considers being worn on the wrist to be both good and bad.
“Wristwatches and other wearable devices are generally attractive to users because of their portability, aesthetic appeal, or the distinct functionality they may offer depending on whether they are worn or attached tightly to the body of a person. a user,” the patent says.
“Unfortunately, existing portable devices remain limited in the range of functions they offer or in their ease of use for many desirable functions,” the filing continues.
The patent makes it clear that these constraints include technological constraints, but it does not address what might be inside the watch, or what the watch might be used for. Apple describes the benefits, however.
“This can be useful, for example, to allow sensors such as a camera in the watch case to be operated while held in the wearer’s free hand or when otherwise removed. of the user’s wrist,” the patent states. “The watch attachment mechanism may allow new or useful features to be incorporated into the watch case that may not be possible or practical to use when the watch case is restrained on the wearer’s wrist. [wrist].”
The sensor part of the Apple Watch may be in a “nest” or a hole in a band
Beyond this description, the patent explains how to further facilitate use by making the watch body quickly removable.
“[For instance, the] The watch may have a fastening mechanism that provides quick or ergonomic release from the watch case or main case from the user’s wrist,” the patent states. “This can be useful, for example, to enable sensors such as a camera in the watch case. be actuated while held in the user’s free hand or when otherwise removed from the user’s wrist.”
“The watch attachment mechanism may allow new or useful features to be incorporated into the watch case that may not be possible or practical to use when the watch case is retained on the user’s watch” , explains Apple.
Several “fastening mechanism” proposals are included in the patent, but the first and perhaps the main one is to have a hard strap. So rather than today’s typical fabric or other bendable strap material, there could be at least one part that is stiff.
Maybe the whole strap could look like a strap, but it’s the part under the Apple Watch that needs to be strong.
“[The] The attachment mechanism can be implemented with a nest-like mechanism,” Apple explains, “in which the watch strap can remain wrapped around the user’s wrist upon removal of the case from the user’s wrist and/or or the attachment of the case to the user’s wrist. “
Being able to remove a watch from the strap is pointless if you then have to fiddle with it to reattach it. Apple refers to the need for a “quick or ergonomic release of the watch case or main case”.
By “nest”, Apple means having a hole in the band where the watch can sit. The underside of the watch, where the sensors are, could get into the hole.
It sounds like Apple’s intention to ditch the current way of securing straps, but that’s not necessarily true. Because among the other variants of the patent on this idea, the old-fashioned connectors remain, and it is only part of the watch that comes off.
It’s possible that an Apple Watch works as a bracelet
Apple’s goal is to have a device that, along with other unspecified technological advancements, can be worn on the wrist, but removed to perform other tasks. It’s easy to imagine a camera remote, if not an actual camera, and there could be health benefits to being able to place the watch on different parts of the body.
That’s what this newly issued patent focuses on, but it also briefly acknowledges that the whole thing could end up being just a different way to put on an Apple Watch.
“Additionally or alternatively,” Apple explains, “the attachment mechanism may allow for more rapid, ergonomic, or convenient release of the watch or watch components from a user’s wrist, without the need to operate a clasp, buckle, or closure mechanism, which may be relatively heavier to operate or disposed relatively far from the watch case (e.g., on an opposite side of the wearer’s wrist).”
