Gallery: How WIRED Designed the Ultimate Smartwatch
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WIRED hired Branch to design a smartwatch for our January 2014 cover. The watch is meant to have apps on it that scroll up and down, like the wheel from *<strike>Wheel of Fortune</strike>* *Price is Right*. *Photo: Todd Tankersley*
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The goal was to create a device gorgeous enough that it would become a fashion statement—rather than a simple piece of technology. *Photo: Todd Tankersley.*
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Nick Cronan and Josh Morenstein, the founders of Branch. *Photo: Todd Tankersley*
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One critical decision involved getting the dimensions right, so that the width of the band was neither too feminine nor too masculine. Likewise, the display itself had to be large enough for up-and-down and side-to-side swipes. *Photo: Branch*
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A sample of the various materials that Branch tried out. *Photo: Branch*
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The challenge of design a band was tough. Branch eventually proposed that the band attach to the back of the screen, via a screw-on plate that would allow you to replace the band and let the screen "float" a bit. *Photo: Todd Tankersley*
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One big idea was to have the glasses work in concert with the watch. *Photo: Todd Tankersley*
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But unlike Google Glass, the display is meant to simply be a notification layer which only surfaces pertinent or pressing information. *Photo: Todd Tankersley*
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Sketches of the watch during development. Here, you can see an early attempt at figuring out how the band would link up with the watch. That turned out to be a difficult task, since any band linkages would impinge on the screen. *Photo: Branch*
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*Photo: Branch*
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*Photo: Branch*
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One detail that you can't see in the actual product renderings: The idea was to make the display look as if it's receding into the space of the screen, thus emphasizing the imaginary wheel that the apps revolve around. *Photo: Branch*
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*Photo: Todd Tankersley*
