Detail from the patent application showing a hinged Apple Watch screen — image Credit: Apple
Imagine being able to flip open the display on your Apple Watch, use it like an iPhone, and make video calls on it. That’s what Apple’s has been researching.
Back in the very earliest days of the Apple Watch, there was a manufacturing fault that meant the whole front display would come loose around three sides. It would then flap open along that last side, like a hinge.
Picture that happening again, but this time deliberately — and with at least one extra screen underneath the display. That’s what is shown in a recently revealed Apple patent application called just “Wearable Electronic Device.”
“[A] wearable electronic device, such as a smartwatch, can include a display with an extendable screen size,” says Apple in the patent application. ” In particular, the display can be folded to be compact, and the display can be extended when increased screen size is desired.”
The text of the patent application refers to alternative options such as sliding the display to increase its size, but most of the illustrations show a hinged mechanism. One shows an Apple Watch display that can slide to a new angle, and also features a hinged second screen.
“A user may want the display to be extended when using certain applications, making phone/ video calls, playing games, browsing the web, etc,” says Apple. “On the other hand, the user may want the display to be folded for convenience and portability, such as when the user is going about their day-to-day activities, outdoor activities, etc.”
The proposal, filed in 2023, continues Apple’s slow move to make the Apple Watch entirely independent of the iPhone. Initially, the Apple Watch was solely an adjunct to the iPhone, and it didn’t even have a cellular edition until the Apple Watch Series 3 in 2018.
Then in 2019, Apple gave the device its own App Store. Anecdotally, that doesn’t seem to have become much of a success, or encourage many app developers to return to watchOS.
But still the clear trajectory for the Apple Watch is for it to become a standalone device, and this patent application is a future step toward that.
“[It] allows users the flexibility to substitute the wearable electronic device for a smartphone for extended periods of time or for use in more routine activities typically performed with a smartphone,” continues Apple. “For example, the wearable electronic device of the present disclosure can provide intuitive access and enhanced usability of features for convenient video calling, camera usage, web browsing, messaging, and interfacing social media.”
Notice the video calling and camera usage part. Right now Apple Watch can be used as a viewfinder for the camera on the iPhone, but this patent application proposes putting an actual camera into the Apple Watch.
Or rather, putting two cameras into it. There could be “an exterior camera,” which the patent says could be used both when the Apple Watch is folded open or closed.
One other possible option is this combination of one sliding and one folding screen — image Credit: Apple
Plus an “interior camera can allow the user to use the wearable electronic device for various applications such as video or conference calling.”
Given the size of an Apple Watch, and its position on a user’s wrist instead of being held in their hand, there is an issue of durability. While the patent application does not address this, it’s easy to imagine such a folded open screen as being potentially flimsy.
It is one of the most appealing Apple patent applications so far this year, but that doesn’t mean we will ever get to see a folding Apple Watch come to market. There is some evidence that Apple has been considering a foldable Apple Watch for several years before the filing of this application, but the most that can be said is that the company is persisting in its research.
Apple applies for many hundreds of patents each year, and even when they are granted, it is not a guarantee that a product will follow.
Whereas it is pretty much a guarantee that should a folding version be launched, it could be a much more costly Apple Watch. Or at least, that seems likely given how the expected iPhone Fold is predicted to cost more than a Mac Studio.
