Will Apple Watch Charging Bands Burn Your Wrist?
Apple doesn’t want your skin to burn off
Simple science: Chargers — and their respective devices — get hot as they charge. If Apple were to allow third-party manufacturers to make bands with integrated chargers or battery packs, not only would it make your Watch overly bulky, but you’d likely suffer some mild to moderate burning on your wrist whenever it turned on. Given that the company has no desire to get a reputation for products that might burn its customers, I’m 100 percent not surprised that Apple has put the kibosh on magnetic-charging watches through the bands.
As applied here, Caldwell’s “simple science” is junk science. It’s not as bad as this fear-mongering drivel, as her intentions aren’t to discredit Apple or Apple Watch (though that distinction might not matter to the many potential accessory makers she so casually throws under the bus), but it’s still irrational and irresponsible. That boldface bit is especially bald-faced.
And while it’s heartwarming that some folks think the largest company in the world cares one whit about every customer’s (or, for that matter, any customer’s) well-being, it’s also pretty naive. Apple cares about your ability to spend. Period. They didn’t build HealthKit because they want you to be healthy. They built it because you want you to be healthy, and they know you’ll pay good money for all the help you can get.
So consider: Giving the Apple seal of approval to charging bands might hamper the bottom line, as it would be a tacit admission of a hugely hyped (and hugerly overblown) device shortcoming. But that’s still not Apple’s motivation here.
The real “simple science” of Apple’s Made For Apple Watch program is that it’s built around keeping the user experience in line with the device’s core functionality. It is based on Apple’s desire for Apple Watch to work as advertised in order that people don’t return units or — even worse — pass on buying them in the first place. Anyone even remotely familiar with the wearable probably understands Cupertino’s rationale here, but at least one such critic somewhat missed the point, relegating it to tertiary consideration in a largely off-the-mark essay. So I’ll spell it out. But first, a hint.
Get it now?
Yep, the only explanation for why Apple doesn’t want vendors pushing bands that “integrate magnetic chargers” is this: Apple Watch won’t work as advertised if the heart rate monitor — which is also the biometric security mechanism that handles device unlocking and Apple Pay — is broken by the gap between sensor and wrist that a band with a such an interface would obviously create. Plus, users would have to completely forget about using the subtle Taptic Engine for notifications and Digital Touch, thereby negating a rather enormous part of Apple Watch’s “new communication” allure.
It really is this simple: Apple Watch won’t work right if you wear a magnetic charging band, just like it doesn’t work right for users with dark wrist tattoos or very dark skin. Apple can’t control the latter contingencies, but they certainly aren’t going to give their blessing to purveyors of the former.
Still, even those purveyors know that gimping so many foundational Apple Watch features is likely to be a commercial nonstarter. That’s the real reason the makers of the Reserve Strap abandoned their original idea (in response to which I brought up these exact issues), and it’s why you should probably forget about magnetic charging bands altogether.
But if you don’t?
Well, they certainly shouldn’t burn you, but you’re still going to get hosed.