Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/03/an-apple-watch-without-a-crown.html
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Much love to the author but I prefer my “smart” watch.
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That is my Dads watch, in silver.
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The crown on Apple watches was always a mistake. People might abstractly like it but they don’t use it, largely because Apple themselves have never decided what it’s actually for, because it is redundant on a device with a touch screen. It’s part of the marketing, not the actual product.
Of the different things they’ve experimented with making it do, I did like when you could spin the crown to move forward through time, and see what the weather / calendar etc. would show ten hours from now. They seem to have phased that out (? – not going to bother to investigate), but if that had always been all it did then I could maybe see the case for it.
There is a digital camera with a (non-functioning) film winder - the Leica M10-D
https://us.leica-camera.com/Photography/Leica-M/Leica-M10-D
The whole world thinks it’s ridiculous, but I actually like the idea
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This is the right take. 95% of what I use the crown for is to click it as a home button and rarely ever use it to scroll. That said it might be fun to play pong with.
Also not that anyone asked me but I think the current iteration with an always-on screen is worth the upgrade. Anything that doesn’t function as a watch (i.e. tell me the time/date) without an exaggerated wrist gesture does not belong on my wrist.
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Yes, that was a big deal in…um…maybe WatchOS 3 (? - not going to bother to investigate), but has been dropped like a hot rock. A few watch faces (for example the “solar dial”) still do it to some extent, but do not display all the “complications”. So any complication that manages to properly implement the kind of complicated future/past appearance API has absolutely no way to actually show it anymore (and worse yet Apple has not depreciated it, and no useful way remains to test it).
Like you I kind of miss it.
I like my crown, but I have an analog timex with day/date. Sounds like an easy way to trim the size/cost on a smart watch.
I use the Digital Crown a few times a day to quickly scroll through apps and content, and to control the audio level of nearby devices. I know the same thing could be handled by a touch-based interface on screen, but I love having a physical control for those things, especially with the haptic feedback.
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Haven’t looked at an Apple Watch since they were first introduced, but it was my impression that it was more precise than using a flesh stylus.
Maybe you’re right though, and this was a marketing scheme to accompany the misguided Apple Watch Edition.
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It is. On a watch sized screen your thumb/finger also blocks nearly the entire display, so you can’t “skim” anything while scrolling with a finger. You can when using the wheel. Once in a while I also use it to activate Siri (pressing the wheel in activates it). So I would miss it.
On the other hand my wife more frequently accidentally activates Siri via the wheel while trying to do something else with her hands, so she would prefer to get rid of it.
So like any feature of a product that a diverse set of people use it is both beloved and reviled.
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