The design of the Apple Watch hasn’t changed much since the first model, but a future version might look very different, and could include a flexible screen and a digitally-customizable band.
That idea comes from a patent that Apple filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in late 2019, and that was recently published, as spotted by MacRumors.
The patent details an Apple Watch with a flexible screen that can bend to wrap around a wearer’s wrist. This display is also shown as being much more rounded than current Apple Watch models.
According to the patent, this design could allow for little to no bezel, and would also enable digitally-customizable bands that users could change the appearance of with the touch of a button (or the tap of a screen), rather than having to physically swap to a different band for a new look.
This all sounds very ambitious, so we wouldn’t expect to see this design on the Apple Watch 7, but somewhere down the line it’s possible that the Apple Watch will get a flexible makeover. Certainly, we wouldn’t expect the current look to be retained forever – after all, the iPhone has evolved substantially over the years.
That said, there are all sorts of patents floating around (we’ve also seen one for a battery embedded into an Apple Watch strap for example) and they very often don’t come to anything, so while big changes are likely to happen sooner or later, there’s no guarantee they’ll take this form.
Still, we already have foldable phones, and their popularity and polish only seems to be growing, and that tech could be just as beneficial to wearables.
Via Tom’s Guide