A new set of photos (more below) purporting to show Apple’s first Apple Watch charging dock has surfaced, indicating that the company may be preparing to launch such a product soon.
Update: Clearer photos of the packaging and the dock itself have been published by grobgebloggt.de. They are included below with a revised description.
The dock is circular with built-in magnetic charging puck. A Lightning cable connects to the side of the dock to provide power. The charging puck in the center of the dock allows the watch to be charged flat on its back, or it can be flipped up to a vertical position to allow charging in “nightstand mode.”
When Apple might release the magnetic charging dock is currently unknown. According to a sticker on the box, as seen in a separate photo, and assuming these images are real, it will retail for somewhere in the ballpark of $100.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
actually the photo looks like the dock will just take a lightning connector instead of pulling through a magnetic charger
Yes, this was a hastily written article, I don’t think the writer looked carefully at the pictures
Seems like the writer subsequently revised a few errors
The post has been updated with new/better photos and a revised description.
It somehow looks fake. The way the top cover doesn’t perfectly aligned with the bottom cover with the shrink wrap pressing it and leaving gaps doesn’t feel “Apple” to me. I also don’t get why it would be so wide when the watch only need a small footprint.
For the benefit of the doubt, My iPhone 4s Box was like that.
The price in the image is 89.00 Euro not $89.99
Which according to google is close to $94.
Nah
٠ Θk ٠ , nvrmnd , this dock looks pretty nice, too speedy for me though
http://www.grobgebloggt.de/2015/11/17/apples-watch-dock/
Spendy*
Too spendy. NTY!
I agree, the quality of the products is shady.
Ugly?
I like the Nomad pod pro , it is a charger and battery also so you can take it with you and it can charge the iphone and watch twice, thats great :-)
$100 for this thing is absolutely insane…
Not sure if I think this is real? The only think I would mention is that if the padded area is made out of the same leather that their display mats in the store are made from… that might be pretty cool! It seems like pretty plush stuff. They would also need to make one of these in black as well as white. Perhaps with a black lightning cable as well.
I don’t like the outter groove or the black ring.
This product doesn’t look like something Apple would do. It’s big, clunky and serves no purpose other than providing a way for the watch to charge upright. …that just seems “off”.
That giant hemorrhoid pillow will look real classy on peoples night stands.
It looks quite ugly to me. The Watch should be charged with a beautiful piece of metal, wood, or at least some elegant plastic. This just looks like something from the early 2000s.
This is stupid. Wireless charging is stupid. The thing is still plugged into SOMETHING! “Wireless charging” only matters if it pulls the power from God’s breath through thin air/the ether/SPAAAACE!!
(At least that is the position of others who have commented before on 9to5Mac about wireless charging. In fact, it was the very position of Phil Schiller, Apple’s VP of Marketing. So can’t IMAGINE how this product—such a bad idea in his mind—got made.)
((I’m a fan of wireless charging, both for opportunistic charging and for convenience. This is an odd turn for Apple following Schiller’s ridiculous public comments on wireless charging; but he’s obviously an idiot if he truly believes what he said. The design is brain-numbingly terrible, and the price is…well Apple pricing. But Apple moving towards wireless charging is good. We can only hope to see wireless charging in the iPhone 7.))
The stupidity is palpable.
Wireless charging is currently, technically wireless. It will always have wires to the power supply. One day it will just be able to charge things across distances of more than millimeters to inches. One day it will charge things throughout a house. However, that is far off, and even further off for tiny mobile devices.
Apple has intelligent people working for them. Intelligent people that know that inductive charging for a watch makes perfect sense. It’s really really really sad that morons don’t understand why it makes sense for a watch and not a phone or tablet. Again though, this is just one of the hundreds of things people complain about that are ignorant as to the actual thought processes and feasibility which only the lead engineers know.
Why is it good for the watch? Less internal space, and more water resistance, and most importantly, because NO ONE USES A WATCH WHEN ITS CHARGING. People need to wipe the drool from their mouths and think about things for more than 2 seconds. Everyone uses a smartphone or tablet at times, while it is charging, ergo inductive charging would be a poor idea for them.
Drawbacks to wireless charging in a phone/tablet: can’t transfer data, makes the device thicker and heavier, slower charging, and most importantly, you cannot use the device while it’s charging. If you added wireless charging and kept the lightning port then you’d be wasting even more internal space, it’s a horrible idea.
What do I think Apple should and will do? I think the iPhone 7 loses the headphone jack and lightning port, and gains the Smart Connector for power and data transfer. I looked at the teardown of the iPad Pro, and the Smart Connector takes virtually no internal space, it is a godsend for iPhones which don’t require very fast power or data transfer speeds, whereas the iPad’s can continue on with the lightning port which is being upgraded to USB 3 speeds, as higher speeds for those make sense. While internal space and water resistance for an iPhone is for more important than data transfer speed and the batteries are smaller and thus require lower power transfer speeds as well. The iPhone is absolutely DYING for more internal space to become better, and I think this is the way to do it. It’s a matter of making the magnet strong enough to hold the connection when using it when it’s charging (knocking it off could be easy).
Admittedly my Smart Connector theory is based on nearly complete ignorance as to the capabilities of the connector, since no one decides to test it haha.
I don’t think Apple will replace the lighting port. I think Apple should use it for headphones and ditch the 19th century 3.5 jack. I really surprised we have t seen lightning headphones or USB-c headphones.
I wish we had more info on the Smart Connector. Curious how fast in transfers datw and charging speed.
@taoprophet420 Like I said I don’t think the lightning port is going anywhere in iPads or the other devices Apple needs to charge anytime soon, because they really aren’t starving for more internal space. Not like the iPhone is. In order to continue innovation of the iPhone, they need more internal space, it’s the most important thing. If you go look at the ifixit teardown a of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, you’ll see that removing just the headphone jack would gain them next to nothing (because the battery couldn’t fill that empty space, it would be stopped by the hardly shorter lightning port), but removing both the headphone jack and the lightning port would gain them a significant amount of internal space.
They could easily use the Smart Connector for headphones I think, but again, it would have to be a very strong magnetic connection so it wouldn’t be knocked off easily. Obviously biggest concern being when it’s in your pocket and you’re listening. The fact is though, Bluetooth headphones need to take off at this point.
The Smart Connector is capable of two-way power and data transfer. I envision AirPods which can be connected to it for charging/power when away from a power source and the AirPods are dead. Similar to how iPad Pro gives 30min of charge to Apple Pencil in 15 seconds, maybe you could get 30min-1hr of charge (typical maximum someone listens to music at a given time) for the AirPods from plugging them into the phone for a minute or so.
@taoprophet420
There are lightning headphones:
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-M2L-27-Headphones-Lightning/dp/B00V4X6QGY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447824426&sr=8-1&keywords=lightning+headphones
I like it, but I really want 1 dock that can charge my Watch and iPhone at the same time to reduce clutter. This puck looks large enough that they could have added an iPhone dock to it, too.
That’s one overpriced charger.
I vote for the 9to5 solution for a dock.
https://youtu.be/mtBxSYOYiUw
Seriously why wouldn’t Apple just sell a case like what comes with Apple Watch Edition. Anyone paying $89-$99 for this dock should be shot or give me their money.
The $49 for the iPhone 6/6s dock is already pricey, $99 for this Watch dock is insane.
And how exactly are you seeing the time in nightstand mode with that big lip in the way
What a cash grab.
This dock should have doubled as an alarm clock/stereo by having bigger speakers than the watch (of course), with Bluetooth in the puck, and touch based snooze/off by tapping once/twice respectively, anywhere on the surface. Then the price would be justifiable.
Very ugly an overpriced. A better solution is the Nudock if you can get your hands on one.
Ugh. What is with the streetlight on top??
Fake. Everything about the packaging is amateurish and although the dock makes slightly more sense, it still doesn’t look like something Apple would turn out, especially at that price point. Apple charges a premium for premium products. This thing, as depicted, is nothing more than a more obtrusive Bluelounge Kosta for $85 more than the Bluelounge Kosta. It just doesn’t match anyone’s decor.
This reminds me of something… Still ugly.
http://www.powerbookmedic.com/xcart1/images/D/g4yoyo1.jpg
You may wish to first read the news before posting:
http://9to5mac.com/2015/11/18/apple-watch-magnetic-charging-dock-now-available-to-buy-in-some-apple-stores-watch-a-full-hands-on-video/