The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent for a future Apple Watch band with embedded batteries.
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The new patent is named Battery Watch Band. It describes how the Apple Watch could get more battery capacity without having to increase the size of the Watch casing or find a more efficient power cell. The battery cells are sealed with the strap in order to prevent them from coming into contact with the metal casing of the watch.
“Apple’s invention covers a watch band for a future Apple Watch that houses a series of embedded batteries in order to provide additional battery life. This can provide an additional power source for Apple Watch without increasing the size of the Apple Watch body,” reports PatentlyApple.
The watch band will be connected to the watch via pins. The watch will get recharged wirelessly through induction coils, wrapped around one of the battery elements.
Apple Watches have fairly short battery life. For example, Apple Watch Series 6 is rated for 18 hours of use, while the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 gets a rating for 2 days of battery life. The battery on the Fitbit Sense can last up to six days.
The future Apple Watches need longer battery life as they will be loaded with health features. The updated watchOS 7.2 will bring a new cardio fitness score that uses your VO2 max to measure your cardiorespiratory health or aerobic endurance.
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It may take a while for Apple to turn this new patent into reality, but some major changes on the Apple Watch 7 are on the card. It should also be noted that Apple has previously played with the idea for the band, suggesting that various sensors and batteries could be put inside each element in its Link band but Apple didn’t show us a final product.