Photos of another prototype of the very first smart watches Apple Watch published
Today the 9to5Mac portal spoke about an unusual prototype of the very first Apple Watch. The most important difference between the device and the final version is the sensors’ design on the back of the case.
A user with the nickname Giulio Zompetti tweeted photos of an engineering prototype of the original Apple Watch. Apple made them for testing within the product team back in 2014 – a year before sales.
The first thing that catches your eye is the heart rate sensor. In the original Apple Watch, it has four cutouts for two LEDs and two photodiodes. Here on the case, there is one LED in the middle and two photodiodes on the left and right. On the side, there is only one cutout for the speaker, but the cutout for the microphone, as in the final version, is double.
Another interesting detail is the technical markings. Some of the case elements are printed in Myriad Pro, as on all old Apple technology, and some in one of the early versions of the San Francisco typeface. Probably, in this way, Apple tested how different fonts would look on the case. The upper left corner is an unknown icon – no information about it could be found on the Internet.
9to5Mac noticed a similarity in the back cover to some Apple Watch dials. It is worth saying that it is not yet the most interesting prototype of the Apple Watch, leaking into the public domain.
In December 2020, photos were published of the earliest prototype smartwatch that didn’t even have a Digital Crown and a full operating system. The device was enclosed in a fancy case, which was probably made to hide the appearance from careful eyes.
