Aluminum, stainless steel, titanium, ceramic, 18-carat gold... Apple has tested many materials for the chassis of its smartwatches. There's another one that seems to interest the manufacturer: glass. It's understood that the screen of the Apple Watch is made of glass, of different types (synthetic sapphire or Ion-X), but here we're talking about the entire of the chassis!
A glass Apple Watch, is that really reasonable?
The leaker Instant Digital, who sometimes has good sources, claimed on Weibo that Apple is working on an Apple Watch with a glass chassis, thus replacing the current aluminum or titanium. Physical buttons, such as the digital crown, the side button, or the action button, would be replaced by tactile interactions.
However, we can assume that this rumor is nothing other than the resumption of a patent revealed the same day by the site Patently Apple. The Apple company rightly describes a "portable electronic device with a glass shell," the walls serving as touch zones to interact with the screen: directional arrows, start/stop button, music controls... Apple could even transform the edges of the watch into a scalable interface depending on the applications currently running (music, sports, etc.).
After all, why not. Former Apple chief designer Jony Ive had dreamed of an all-glass iPhone that might eventually arrive. However, there are concerns about the durability and robustness of this kind of all-glass design. Apple uses reinforced glass or synthetic sapphire to protect its screens, but it is a material that remains vulnerable to violent impacts, as can be seen on the front or back of an iPhone after a fall.
In the patent, the manufacturer indicates that a glass design improves the strength of the assembly, but in practice the transition zones between the glass and the rest of the case could be weak points. And the sealing must be impeccable, which is difficult with more remote and less accessible joints. Apple is no doubt considering these issues, but we probably won't see a glass chassis on the Apple Watch for a few generations.
Source: Patently Apple
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