Apple’s Working on a New Apple Watch Band Packed with Batteries
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Apple continues to make improvements in its Apple Watch with every new iteration. The latest Apple Watch Series 6 moves the platform forward with a new oxygen sensor, a faster processor, and sleep tracking. Despite its many advancements, the Apple Watch still has a somewhat limited battery life that requires users to charge every day or two. Apple realizes this limitation and may be working on an innovative solution detailed in a recent patent reported by Patently Apple.
Granted last week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, patent 10,849,392 describes a future Apple Watch band that would include batteries to provide extra power to the smartwatch.
The watchband would provide additional power to the Apple Watch without increasing the size of the watch body. The band then would connect to the watch body and transfer its power to the watch when needed.
The band would include a series of batteries with connectors that transfer the power between each battery. These batteries and their connectors would be housed inside an internal or external frame that protects the inner circuity from damage by bending or flexing.
This configuration would allow the band to bend around a wearer’s wrist without damaging the internal battery connectors.
The watchband also would be sealed to protect the sensitive electronics from water and other environmental factors.
As with most patents, this technology is a concept and may or may not come to fruition. It is encouraging to know that Apple is aware of its battery limitations and is looking at ways to increase the battery life in future Apple Watch models.
Apple isn’t the first company to develop a way of powering the Apple Watch using its band, though. Third-party accessory makers, like Battfree, have sold a wearable charging band using an integrated wireless charger that charges an Apple Watch as you wear it.
Even Apple itself has pursued the idea since at least 2017, where it filed a patent for a battery band with a built-in inductive charger.
