While Keeping a Watch on Apple

We have been keeping a watch on Apple for a while regarding its wristwatch designs. On July 17, 2015, Apple filed a patent application for a ‘chargeable apparatus’ for ‘[a]wearable electronic device.’ Their design includes:

a wearable device having one or more conductors, and one or more batteries connected to the conductor …
and / or an inductive coil that attaches to the wearable electronic device to inductively transmit power …
from the battery to the wearable electronic device, such as while using the wearable electronic device …

We have been keeping a careful watch on Apple ever since then. Many of its third-party suppliers have failed to deliver. We wondered whether Apple would prove the exception, which now seems likely to be the case.

What We Have Learned by Keeping a Watch on Apple

Apple followed up on February 2, 2017 with a further patent application. This confirms the use of inductive power, or alternatively a hard-wired source such as a plug-in or USB connector.

Most of the technology is heavily copyrighted and embargoed. But by keeping a watch on Apple, we can confirm that flexible batteries will likely embed in the watchband. Or they will at least partly conceal in it, without obstructing the availability of existing biometric data through apertures.

The design regulates the flow of electricity since the device rests on the user’s skin. Excessive energy could cause heat that disturbs sensitive wearers. Moreover limiting it will also lower the risk of damaging heat-sensitive components. Apple has however provided for boosted charging when the watch is not on a user’s wrist.