I took a bit of time this morning to play with the concept of a round Apple Watch. Some notes:
- Converting watchOS to work with a round display would be a massive design effort. Everything would need to be rebuilt from the ground up, since most of the platform’s UI elements are rectangular. My proposal solves… almost none of these challenges. It’s literally the easiest screen to mock up.
- I’ve moved the side button to the other side of the display, mainly for symmetry’s sake. This creates some problems, though, since I use the buttonless side of the Watch to brace against when I’m pressing the button or the crown. On the other hand, this change would make the “hold both buttons” gesture far easier.
- The bezels here are the same size as on the current watch. A bezel-less round design would look sick, though—better than on the rectangular watch, since you wouldn’t have to deal with fitting square elements into the case’s rounded corners. ■
Image credits
- Original Apple Watch vector artwork courtesy of Vincent Le Moign.
- GUI vector artwork courtesy of Vasil Enchev
Apple Watch, “Round Edition”? https://t.co/hjTDmWrC7r pic.twitter.com/RebVZWZwJE
— Matt Hauger (@matthauger) September 23, 2017
Matt Hauger 