Apple Announces the Apple Watch; Available Next Year
by Joshua Ho on September 9, 2014 2:06 PM EST
Apple has thrown their hat into the wearable ring with the Apple watch, which tries to bring a better user experience to the watch without trying to adapt iOS to the watch with multi-touch gestures that we're familiar with on the iPhone.
There's a single crystal sapphire display, a digital dial crown that acts as a home button and a scroll system. There's also a strong emphasis on haptic feedback which allows for linking of watches to share notifications by sending taps in any possible pattern. This is done by using a force sensitive touchscreen, which is a method of navigating along with the scrolling dial. This allows for subtle communication that doesn't rely on obvious sound or gestures. It's also possible to send taps based upon pulse/heart beat.
There are IR lights and sapphire lenses on the back of the watch for heart rate and serves as a magnetic alignment wireless charging system. The accuracy of the watch is no more than 50 milliseconds off at any time.
In order to support this watch, Apple has also designed a custom SoC called S1, likely for battery life and sensor integration and reduction of board area.
There are six different straps that are easily exchanged. The sport band has multiple colors and is some kind of rubber. There's a leather sports strap which has multiple magnets to ensure that the fit works correctly. There's also a traditional leather strap and a stainless steel link bracelet. There's also a stainless steel mesh band that is infinitely adjustable. There are also two versions of each watch edition, one larger and one smaller.
The Apple Watch also has NFC and will work with Apple Pay.
There are actually three variants though, which include the standard Apple Watch, Watch Sport, and the Watch Edition which has 18 karat gold for the casing. The sport edition has a anodized aluminum casing.
Furthermore the watch will also come in two different case sizes to account for different wrist sizes (essentially his & her watch sizes). These sizes are 38mm and 42mm tall respectively.
The Apple Watch must be paired with an iPhone to work properly. It starts at $349 USD and will go on sale early 2015.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
122 Comments
View All Comments
fteoath64 - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
Are you saying Ivy has been living in Dark Matter since the demise of Jobs ?.IF Ivy were to design a new car for Tesla, the Model Z for example. We will see one door only and that door would be complete perspex (see through!). Heck, 95% of the time there is only one driver and he/she needs to look good so we let everyone else see the driver in their full glory. The welcome voice would be " You good gloriously SMASHING today, how about a Conan joke ? ".
"In the know" - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
This is for For all the ios and droid geeks ,nerds or intellectuals who think they are in the know.. on whats beautiful in watch design. Who thinks a timex, Armitron or Casio calculator watch strapped with a leather band is high fashion.As a avid watch collector Apple watch is a timeless elegant precision design with physical digital crown and force touch screen gives this device a very graceful feel of form and function. Not to mention a unmatched array of sizes, materials and bands that will suit the needs of almost anyone. If still in doubt ask the kool guy or girl next to you for advice and follow their lead.
jabber - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
And will be worth how much to anyone in say 3 years time?A quality watch will always have some value even after 10 years. This and any other smartwatch...junk.
geekystreeta - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
here i read some good stuff on apple :)gadgetsalert
tecsi - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
The screen images of the phone looked spectacular. Can we get guesstimated resolution by the Anandtech folks that were able to see the watch up close?tecsi - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
Typo in first post. Should read:The screen images of AppleWatch looked spectacular. Can we get guesstimated resolution from Anandtech folks who saw it up up close?
crazyboy1 - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
Isheep will buy it anyway, and it will probably sell decent as a resultFx1 - Sunday, September 14, 2014 - link
Ill stick with my Rolex.and my HTC one!
flyingpants1 - Thursday, September 18, 2014 - link
Haha, you picked the one thing that's more of a waste of money than an iPhone.markhenrydelatorre - Monday, September 15, 2014 - link
A watch should be an investment. Not a device that will be useless after a year or two.