One of the top features of the Apple Watch is the support for interchangeable bands, which has created a completely new business around the device, giving users an infinite number of ways to personalize it.
And while it just looks like the Apple Watch makes sense with interchangeable bands, an Apple engineer has revealed that there were internal discussions on a different approach that could have made the device look a little bit more like the Microsoft Band.
Former Apple employee Bob Messerschmidt has revealed in an interview with Fast Company that one of his proposals when working on the Apple Watch was to put the sensors on the band in order to benefit from more accurate readings, but his idea was quickly rejected by Apple’s Industrial Design Group.
“Not a design trend”
The reason was a simple as it could be: Apple’s design experts believed that putting sensors on the band “is not a design trend” and would have prevented the company from offering interchangeable bands in the first place.
“One great example is [when] I went to a meeting and said I’m going to put sensors in the watch but I’m going to put them down here (he points to the underside of the Apple Watch band he’s wearing) because I can get a more accurate reading on the bottom of the wrist than I can get on the top of the wrist. They (the Industrial Design group) said very quickly that ‘that’s not the design trend; that’s not the fashion trend. We want to have interchangeable bands so we don’t want to have any sensors in the band,’” the engineer explains.
On the other hand, Microsoft didn’t seem to agree with this, although Redmond’s plans might have changed in the meantime. While the original Band came with two batteries placed on either side of the band, the second generation introduced a new design that had sensors integrated into the band, as well as a charging port right in the clasp.
The third-generation Microsoft Band, on the other hand, is believed to adopt a design that brings it closer to Apple’s Watch, with the company reportedly planning to offer interchangeable bands too. As a result, all sensors might be moved on the device itself, so expect a bigger overhaul of the Band when it sees daylight this year in October.
