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Alleged leak of iWatch component drawings & specs surface ahead of tomorrow’s unveiling

A set of images have appeared online today (via Reddit) allegedly showing CAD drawings for various components of Apple’s yet to be announced wearable product. The images, which include a watermark from one of Apple’s longtime manufacturing partners Quanta, show various mic and speaker components that look to be right for a watch-like device, but the poster adds more details in a description of the photos. According to the leak, Apple’s wearable will have a mic, speaker, Siri, and a “flexible, multi-touch screen will add a new dimension to the UI.” It’s also worth noting that Quanta was one of Apple’s partners that was reportedly already beginning trial production and expected to be a main supplier of iWatch.

The source of the images adds that the device will be waterproof to approximately 20 meters, have battery life that lasts a day, and won’t include any Lightning connector or “ports”, which is yet another hint at a wireless charging solution that has been rumored before. In addition, the leakster claims the device will come in 8 models made up of 4 colors and two size options. Several models of the device lines up with previous chatter, and the various sizing could make recent reports of 1.3 and 1.5-inch models make a little more sense. 

The round hole is for the sensor plate that will be in contact with the skin. The chunk thats missing on the side is where the watch’s crown goes.

While we can’t vouch for how legit these images are, we’ll have to wait until the first official teardown of the device to find out for sure. Apple is expected to unveil the new wearable during its press event tomorrow, but recent reports claimed the product might not launch until next year

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Comments

  1. Omar Sharif - 10 years ago

    My little heart can’t handle that 💔

    • lellis2k - 10 years ago

      Waterproof to 20 metres is excellent, the housing looks pretty thick though I was hoping for something thin for my tiny wrists but hey ho.

      NFC payment on it would be nice but I can’t see it happening unless they get a fingerprint sensor on it, which I doubt.

      • Arnoud van Houwelingen - 10 years ago

        you don’t know how thick it is .. there is no measurement next to it .. i still think it will be very small

      • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

        There will definitely be a fingerprint sensor for Touch ID on it. Not even a question.

      • dero2k - 10 years ago

        there will definitely be NO fingerprint sensor
        the “watch” will know when its on its owners wrist via the various health sensors so there is no need for touch id.
        that will be the beauty about the mobile payment you just have to hold your watch on the rfid reader and the payment is complete no pin or anything it just works

      • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

        @dero2k Yeah you don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s a secure way to recognize an individual with ECG, but that requires a person touch a metal spot on the watch with their other hand so it makes a circuit through the heart. You have to do this each time you put it back on, and THEN sensors will know that it is remaining on the wrist, and it will remain authenticated. This is already in another wrist worn device, and is likely patented, and probably is a worse option than Touch ID. You CANNOT securely know who the person is without one of these techniques, unless you mean to have people simply enter a password each time they put the watch on their wrist or make a mobile payment. I think not. It will have Touch ID.

    • Gioser (@Stryker305gi) - 10 years ago

      If you look at the diagram it looks like a sim card slot. :( :(

      • Tass Grigoriou - 10 years ago

        I see a flash card slot resembling mircoSD. This would make sense for internal memory but I don’t see a sim slot. Could you elaborate?

      • Habip Kenan Üsküdar - 10 years ago

        In terms of productivity, watching videos and playing games; a smartphone, however big its screen may be(Have been using a Note 3 since its launch) it still felt off compared to a 9-10″ tablet. Hence, the only thing I really used my phone was to read my mail, messages and do phones while switching to my tablet for other tasks all the while the device becoming a dead-weight for me when doing so.

        If it indeed is a sim-slot pointing towards a smart watch with standalone voice/data capability, this may finally be the answer to my prayers on ditching a smartphone altogether.

    • clokbox - 10 years ago

      This isn’t the iWatch. Notice how some of the slides have the header x207? x207 are test enclosures / modules apple uses internally to test button presses on the home buttons etc. They will put a button inside and load these into a machine that will do 1000+ presses to verify the button is working correctly.

      • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

        I hope you’re right, because I envision the iWatch looking a lot better.

  2. Notice that the image says Quanta which is the company Apple has supposedly hired to mass produce the iWatch… I doubt someone faking these components would take the time to add this detail so I assume these are from the production line.

  3. nenadtar - 10 years ago

    so it is round?

    • MaRico NoHands Spikes - 10 years ago

      The round pic I believe is a sensor of a sort for the bottom side or wireless charging coil. look at the pic that says 207 housing it looks almost like square iPod nano casing

  4. @benlpowell (@benlpowell) - 10 years ago

    Ikepod Solaris, anyone?

  5. lellis2k - 10 years ago

    Does anyone know what this means: “flexible, multi-touch screen will add a new dimension to the UI.” ?
    Does flexible mean ‘curved’ or that you can actually bend it in use, and how does that add to the UI?

    • luckydcxx - 10 years ago

      we will know a lot more in about 27 hours :)

    • Franklin Tabora - 10 years ago

      My hunch is the following from their awarded patent:

      “One of the best examples of the technology, outlined in the patent itself, is how a button might work. Apple envisions people bending or in some way manipulating the screen to touch a button activator below its surface. By deforming that specific portion of the display, the activity associated with the button would be created. In another example, the flexibility of the display would create a porous layer that would allow for sound waves to pass through. Therefore, speakers and microphones and other components could sit under a screen and work as they do now.” – via CNET ( http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-awarded-patent-on-new-and-improved-flexible-display-tech/)

      This could also explain why it’s so thick.

      • lellis2k - 10 years ago

        Ha that would be awesome, the first real ‘innovation’ in a long time, sounds too good be true though

      • herb02135go - 10 years ago

        I’ve seen these flex – type switches before, such as in audio gear.

      • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

        Like I said before, I bet the power and home button are below the display. I envision the device differently though.

      • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

        @freediverx I believe Apple has patents to chemically make sapphire superior. Most likely in a number of ways, including flexibility.

      • Ryan Campbell - 9 years ago

        Unsure how they are going to procure Sapphire glass.
        They drove their last Sapphire glass company (at least the highest technology plant in the USA) out of business…that’s why the iPhone6 & iPhone6+ don’t have Sapphire glass front panels.

      • Ryan Campbell - 9 years ago

        A chunk of the thickness is probably taken up by separating the Bluetooth antenna from the recharging induction coil.
        Makes it a tiny bit thicker, but alleviates any pesky charge ports (lightning plug would make it “not so waterproof”)

    • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 10 years ago

      Re: “Flexible” screen. The screen art is just the actual screen. For instance the new Galaxy monstrosity with the weird bent edge screen, is a “flexible” screen, that has been put under a curved (but *not* flexible) glass cover. This is likely what the (poorly worded) line refers to. The screen is flexible only in order to give it a certain shape, but not flexible in use.

      If this design is real, the only “extra dimension” of functionality it could provide is probably along the lines of the patent mentioned by Franklin Tabora below. In other words, the entire screen might be a button kind of like the old “Pop-omatic Trouble” game, or like the first generation Blackberry response to the iPhone, the Storm.

      • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 10 years ago

        … screen *part*

      • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

        Yeah I had this thought a while back that the home button and power button would be built into the display, or rather, under the display, akin to the trackpad button. Here’s my crazy prediction:

        • Display pivots in center and can be subtly physically depressed at the top, to act as the on/off button, and bottom, to act as the Home button
        • Always-on display shows a clock (digital or analog), and a tap on the screen dissolves it into the home screen
        • After a set period of inactivity on the home screen, it dissolves back to the lower powered, clock-display state (akin to the iPhone display going to sleep)
        • A press of the on/off button takes you back to the clock display, a ~1 second hold shuts the display completely off (for sleeping), a ~3 second hold requests confirmation to shut the device completely off

  6. RP - 10 years ago

    Aww, and I was hoping there wouldn’t be any leaks of the wearable so Apple could have at least one surprise

    • lellis2k - 10 years ago

      It’s not exactly a full leak and barely tells us anything we didn’t already know

    • Arnoud van Houwelingen - 10 years ago

      Well RP you could have opted not to open this article :)

    • Ryan Campbell - 9 years ago

      Anybody heard what proc is supposed to drive this baby?
      And what connection chipset?
      My guess is that it only need be a BT4.0 LE chipset using negligible power to stay synced, so all the juice can run the 2-way speaker, screen, touch panel, etc.

  7. Dan Exby (@dan_exby) - 10 years ago

    If the body of the watch is square then it’s a big mistake in my opinion.

    • lellis2k - 10 years ago

      Agreed, though it’s a big mistake that I’ll still happily throw £300 at, remember when the iPad came out and everyone was like “it’s just a big iPod touch who’s gonna buy that?”

    • Franklin Tabora - 10 years ago

      A lot of watches have square faces… a lot! I had the same thoughts, but then remembered how many watches I’ve owned that have been square and I never really noticed.

    • jrox16 - 10 years ago

      While a round face/body would look better, fact is a round screen is the least efficient way to display graphics and information. There are very attractive Swiss made “square” watches, so I wouldn’t judge that part too harshly, lets just see what it is and how it works.

    • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

      I envisioned it have flat top and bottom and subtly curved sides. Not square, rectangular, or circular. Granted, it would be hard to make the UI work maybe, but it would look way way better. If you’re gonna do rectangular or square, I think it should look highly futuristic.

  8. goodenglishgrammar - 10 years ago

    I don’t understand why people care whether it’s round, rectangle, or square. What matters is whether it’s useful and improves our lives. Yes, it has to look good, but it doesn’t have to be round to look good. The thing I’m most worried about is wearing something expensive on my wrist in the Chicago subway every day.

    As for looks, the reason they bought Beats is because their headphones come in every style, every color, for everyone, from hip hop fans to punk rock fans, and Apple will tap into that know-how for the watch. Apple wants this wristband/watch to look good on everyone’s wrist, regardless of style, so you’re going to see classic Apple white, Mac Pro silver, and everything up to crazy leopard print styles probably. The question for me is, will Apple supply the wristbands and casings, or will it be third-party suppliers? Judging on the Beats purchase and these fashion-industry hires, it seems to me Apple will be supplying the different styles as well.

    • aediaz10 - 10 years ago

      You just burn someone’s life xD

    • aediaz10 - 10 years ago

      Ignore my post, wrong comment.

    • As far as the wristwatch on the subways of Chicago… Take a look around sometime. Notice all those Citizen watches? The occasional Rolex? etc.?

      Chances are, a LOT of the watches you see on the subway are pretty pricey, not just because they’re smart watches. Having a watch that pairs with a phone (location data), knows it’s owner based on biometrics, is serialized, and links to your iCloud account (all safe assumptions I’d say) makes it EXTREMELY undesirable to steal, and useless to anyone who does if it can be remotely disabled (which should be trivial to implement).

  9. herb02135go - 10 years ago

    So Apple is going with a larger display to keep up with Samsung, but announcing a wearable with a barely readable screen?

    Fail

    • Dave Huntley - 10 years ago

      Your trolling is at least amusing.

      Samsung didn’t invent smartphones, big screens nor watches.

      The comment about the switches from the screen you miss entirely – there is no physical switch under the screen.

      If you don’t come up with something that adds to the conversation you’re looking pretty stupid. all you say is negative crap that is nearly always wrong. Perhaps that’s what you intend to share with the world, but frankly being silent would make you look one hell of a lot more intelligent.

      We know what you think already, don’t really care, so why bother? If anyone is going to get the label ‘fail’ it’s you, as member of the human race – I guess that’s what makes it amusing.

    • And how did you determine the screen is “barely readable”?

  10. Paulo (@paulo_pt) - 10 years ago

    My thoughts:

    1. xCode 6 has a compact square design in the new universal Storyboards concept. http://i.imgur.com/uZzZOUF.png (notice the first square top left)

    2. The resolution may be the 640x640px

    3. most of the apps will run on iWatch

    4.the app design will be elastic and universal

  11. Shawn McBee (@jedibugs) - 10 years ago

    I’m really hoping for a round watch, like the Moto 360. Being Android-based, it’s useless to me, but it’s beautiful. A round smart-watch just seems more high-tech to me somehow. Probably because you don’t see a lot of round LCDs.

    • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

      The Moto 360 is hideous. The LG watch is the only remotely decent looking one.

    • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 10 years ago

      I agree. For starters, half the world is female and a large proportion of men also care about how they look nowadays. A big, chunky, square watch like this is just a non-starter for anyone who doesn’t still live in their Mum’s basement eating string cheese and watching Big Bang Theory.

      This appears to be (like most of the others), a big “geek watch” for propeller-heads only.

      • giskardian - 10 years ago

        You mean like the sort of engineers and scientists who made a device like the iPhone possible?

  12. Alex (@Metascover) - 10 years ago

    I was certain that we were going to have something right before the unveiling, maybe even more tomorrow.

    I’d like not to see anything to keep the surprise ! But I can’t resist DAMN YOU !

  13. Paulo (@paulo_pt) - 10 years ago

    Another thing, by analyzing the body of this drawings, it seems there will be some type of interchangeable wrist wraps bands, like magnetic snapping into place

    • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

      Wouldn’t be magnetic, that’s way too likely to fall off. No ones going to buy something extremely expensive that might fall off their wrist.

    • Jonny - 10 years ago

      “That’s where the band detaches from the watch face and allows you to slide it into a dock/lightning cable,” says a guy who knows nothing and likes to make crazy predictions because who cares if they’re wrong.

      • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

        Are you quoting yourself? I don’t see anyone saying that

      • Jonny - 10 years ago

        Yeah, writing in third person, quoting myself in a sarcastic way. Sorry, doesn’t translate well when written.

      • Paulo (@paulo_pt) - 10 years ago

        or maybe it slides in the wrist wrap secure by magnets, why not?

    • acslater017 - 10 years ago

      That’s one thing I’m curious about. I feel like other manufacturers are missing the boat by making the bands just dumb straps, and cramming the brains/batteryinto a one inch square.

      Apple has some patents for packing battery cells into flexible links. I’d be surprised if the band doesn’t also contain battery cells, sensors, or processors.

      • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

        Yep I thought the same thing. It’s a serious loss if you don’t use the band itself to house some of it.

      • Habip Kenan Üsküdar - 10 years ago

        I fully agree on this.

        If they have the possibility of offering me a device that I can replace my phone with, I’m up for it. I don’t want various devices on me for different purposes to end-up as a cyborg look alike.

        While at it, why not go the route of distributing hardware of the device all over its geometry to utilise its full volume so that you could actually make a wearable that is as capable as a smartphone.

        Although that would rather make it a bracer than a watch all the while kicking all the terrible smart watches and their manufacturers in the face.

        Wasn’t the iPhone revolutionary because it put the media(video/music/books/newspaper), camera, communication and web-browsing all into a device that could fit into your pocket?

        Wouldn’t having your smartphone, wallet, tickets, health-monitor and keys (for those that have the benefit of digital key identification in their homes and cars) strapped to your wrist, be the equivalently revolutionary (next-big) thing?

  14. If it only lasts a DAY on a charge, it’ll be a huge DISAPPOINTMENT. Even two or four days.

    We’ve sort of (grudgingly) accepted charging our phones on a regular basis. With the 5S it has come down to a disappointing “a little over a day”. That’s not really mobile, especially when our dual/quad core phones are burning cycles mostly for FB and other social media-related activities. I’m not sure if all that processing power and big screens are making our daily lives actually any better.

    Watches, we’re used to changing their batteries once a year at worst. OK, realistically we can’t expect such battery life from the iWatch, but anything less than a week will become too tiring too soon for most people, I expect.

    I guess this is a lesson Apple will have to learn, if they haven’t already. We’ll know soon enough in any case…

    • lellis2k - 10 years ago

      It’s a shame we’ve seen nothing about wireless charging in the iPhone 6, I’d be happy to have a big charging pad and just leave my phone and watch on it overnight.

      • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

        Useless for a phone in my opinion. Needs at least a distance of a meter to be useful in a phone.

      • giskardian - 10 years ago

        @smoothies: A meter? All you do is set the phone on a charging pad. You already set it on a table or desk while it’s charging, don’t you?

      • freediverx - 10 years ago

        “All you do is set the phone on a charging pad. You already set it on a table or desk while it’s charging, don’t you?”

        A charging pad is ugly, hogs space on a desk or table even when not in use, and is only good for charging a single device. Benefits? It saves you the herculean effort of plugging a cable into your phone.

        NFMR will allow ACTUAL wireless charging. The device will not have to be in contact with the power source. it will allow charging of multiple devices within a certain range and the power source will be completely invisible and out of the way.

    • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

      It is what it is dude, it’s not feasible to do in 2014. Maybe in a few years you’ll be able to get a week, but battery tech and chip efficiency simply can’t do it yet. So if you want to argue that the world should have held off for several more years, that’s fine.

  15. Gioser (@Stryker305gi) - 10 years ago

    I hope it has Bluetooth proximity with the iPhone so you never leave behind neither. And NFC for payment that work with iPhone 4 and up. If it has Bluetooth and NFC built in the iPhone dose not need to have NFC.

  16. Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 10 years ago

    I still think square and bulky is a mistake, but maybe the technology just isn’t there yet for anything more sophisticated or smaller than this hunk of junk.

  17. Gioser (@Stryker305gi) - 10 years ago

    I hope it has Bluetooth proximity with the iPhone so you never leave behind either of the devices . And NFC for payment that work with iPhone 4 and up. If it has Bluetooth and NFC built in the iPhone dose not need to have NFC.

  18. Gioser (@Stryker305gi) - 10 years ago

    Okay I see it could be a ribbon connector

  19. Jared Jones - 10 years ago

    I for one am glad that it’s square. I hate circle watches, they are so “normal” and boring.

  20. acslater017 - 10 years ago

    I knew it was suspicious when the wrist-borne iPod Nano was discontinued! They stumbled onto something! I wonder if they’ll reference it during tomorrow’s keynote :)

  21. I hope Santa come this year..

  22. Eli Matar - 10 years ago

    Common Tuesday. Cant take it anymore.

  23. gkanu7 - 10 years ago

    Reads the post.. goes into hibernation for 24 hours…. Cant handle any more leaks.. NOT NOW!

  24. Paulo (@paulo_pt) - 10 years ago

    Ok guys, false alarm. Some guy said that is just enclosures to test buttons and mechanical hardware, x207 is the testing machine. Got it?

  25. Gioser (@Stryker305gi) - 10 years ago

    The watch will know the person Waring it by there vital signs. your vitals are unique to you.

  26. Joshua Hayden - 10 years ago

    Am I the only one who thinks the “iwatch” will in fact be the new generation “iPod”. The iPod makes up 1 percent of their revenue. What will they do when it drops below 1 percent in a few years? Kill off the iPod line? They have to evolve that product line some how. Turn it in to a wearable. I think this is the answer. iPod. iPhone. iPad. No more, no less. No fourth category of device.

    • freediverx - 10 years ago

      This possibility has already been suggested

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.