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Will first-gen straps work with second-gen Apple Watches?
- Thread starter ipaine
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I think they willespecially for refurbs. I think my upgrade strategy with Apple Watch is to upgrade every 3-4 years to then current generation refurb. So like wait 4-6 months after launch that year and pickup a refurb SS 42mm without band for like $499 or something.
Debating if I should buy some new bands or just stick with my WSB. But if I can possible use my new band next time around...it might be ok
Yes they will be. No way will apple make them incompatible. That would piss off millions of people, and possibly hurt sales. I may eat my words when gen 2 is announced though!
TL;DR
I can almost guarantee that gen 2 is compatible. From the way they are marketing these and the number of options they have, it would seem counter-intuitive to do change it. The real reasoning however is that with the current form factor, which is great, meaningful changes can and should be made to the interior as opposed to the exterior. The exterior form factor is fantastic from a technical and fashion perspective. As internal components shrink and improve, more interior room can be made for changes like increased battery life, more memory, faster processors, better and possibly newer wireless chipsets, as well as additional health related sensors. Changes to the outside may come as a detriment to improving internals and while the outside is pretty great from a watch perspective, the areas of opportunity are inside.
This is also a verrrrrry different product category from something like iPhone and iPad. Don't expect them to adopt the same philosophies from those product lines.
What this amounts to, hopefully, is that while the exterior form factor may change slightly in gen 2 (I doubt it), the biggest improvements will certainly be internal and as a result, make it incredibly unlikely that exterior form factor changes so much that it is no longer compatible with previous gen bands.
Cliffs:
-Yes
I can almost guarantee that gen 2 is compatible. From the way they are marketing these and the number of options they have, it would seem counter-intuitive to do change it. The real reasoning however is that with the current form factor, which is great, meaningful changes can and should be made to the interior as opposed to the exterior. The exterior form factor is fantastic from a technical and fashion perspective. As internal components shrink and improve, more interior room can be made for changes like increased battery life, more memory, faster processors, better and possibly newer wireless chipsets, as well as additional health related sensors. Changes to the outside may come as a detriment to improving internals and while the outside is pretty great from a watch perspective, the areas of opportunity are inside.
This is also a verrrrrry different product category from something like iPhone and iPad. Don't expect them to adopt the same philosophies from those product lines.
What this amounts to, hopefully, is that while the exterior form factor may change slightly in gen 2 (I doubt it), the biggest improvements will certainly be internal and as a result, make it incredibly unlikely that exterior form factor changes so much that it is no longer compatible with previous gen bands.
Cliffs:
-Yes
I think they will be. Even if they make the actual watch "thinner" (Here's hoping), the bands are pretty thin, so I think they could easily work with the 2nd generation. I have bought a few, so I really hope so!!
Well, I think the current design is based off watch and strap designs that have already been around awhile. They were designed by Marc Newson. If you do a search of his name and watch bands you will see bands that look a lot like the sport band and the Milanese loop. So it's a more time-tested design aesthetic than most of us would have realized.
And we keep talking about how the watch will be made thinner, but if you look at popular watch designs, particularly those by Newson, they are chunky. There might not be the drive to make this watch razor thin the way they have been going with the IPhone. And given that Newson is involved, he might put the brakes on that tendency with Ive.
So my guess is that these straps are going to be viable at least through the next generation. They also want to put in more sensors and more features and to drive that without reducing the battery capacity means keeping the form factor as thick as it is now even if they end up being able to shrink a lot of interior components.
And we keep talking about how the watch will be made thinner, but if you look at popular watch designs, particularly those by Newson, they are chunky. There might not be the drive to make this watch razor thin the way they have been going with the IPhone. And given that Newson is involved, he might put the brakes on that tendency with Ive.
So my guess is that these straps are going to be viable at least through the next generation. They also want to put in more sensors and more features and to drive that without reducing the battery capacity means keeping the form factor as thick as it is now even if they end up being able to shrink a lot of interior components.
Prepare to chew! I would give it a 50-50 chance they will fit the new watch.
Well if they didn't fit because the new watch was thinner I'd be out anyway. This isn't a device they should look at make thinner. They should be adding more guts to it in the current form factor.
GrindedDown's post makes a lot of sense, especially for the first few generations, and I hope bands are forward-compatible, but I think the screen needs to get bigger and soon. In a few years, we are going to look back and think "I can't believe how small the Watch used to be!" Can you believe how tiny the touch targets are on the 38mm?
I wonder if the Apple Watch will evolve into a cuff-shaped wrist computer, or if Apple will come out with a separate product so people can choose between the smaller and larger wearable, just like Apple offers four different size tablets which are pretty much identical other than the larger ones can't make cellular voice calls.
The larger Samsung watches are already pretty much wrist cuffs, the screen is big enough for a keyboard. I wonder if Samsung will pressure Apple into making a larger wearable, just like with Samsung's large phones pressured Apple into increasing the size of the iPhone.
we'll see next year
Not likely. They can't fulfill their US orders and haven't even launched in the second round of countries. Plus, the only other iOS watch, Pebble, is no competition.
The Jony Ive Rules of Design:
1. Make it thinner
2. See #1.
3. See #1.
4. No, it's still not thin enough. See #1.
5. Seriously, if you can't fold the thing in half it's not thin enough. Stop asking and see #1.
I saw someone with the Samsung watch... I'm sorry, he was very proud of it and showing off all it could do, but that curved surface was HUGE! I have enough trouble keeping my Sport Watch out of trouble, I can't imagine keeping that thing ding free. IMO it was hideous. it looked like Smartwatch... I like that my AW blends in with my wrist. Most people don't even notice it.
Back on topic... I'm betting it stays the same for a few generations with the same bands. I'm up to 3 bands, so it better. LOL
Pretty much all of the android watches look giant and geeky, which is all good it that's what you're going for, but I prefer to only fly my geek flag when I'm in the mood for it. The AW let's me be geeky without having to look geeky all the time.
I've no idea if Apple will keep the bands compatible on next year's watch, or if there will even be a "next year's watch" at all - this version may be the one for a while. Either way, I don't see me updating on an annual basis, so I'm not too worried about the money I spend on the bands. Heck, depending on the how often Apple updates the watch hardware, and how big those updates are, it could be quite a while before I replace mine.