Future Apple Watches Might Offer Continuous Flexible Displays

This article by Bryan Wolfe originally appeared on AppAdvice.

Flexible displays could be in Apple’s future.

A newly published patent suggests future Apple Watches might ditch traditional bands. Instead, they could use a single continuous flexible display covering both the face and the band, according to Patently Apple.

The unnamed patent application covers “exemplary system applications including wearable, rollable, and foldable displays.”

Besides the Apple Watch face and band, the flexible display could also include the clasp. In doing so, the bezel width surrounding the display panels could be incredibly small “for example below 4-5 mm or even less than 1 mm, less than 0.5 mm, or eliminated.”

Another possibility: The new design could include a communication module, allowing it to “communicate with a wide area network including a cellular data network.”

In recent weeks, we’ve heard that future Apple Watches may feature interchangeable smart bands that offer additional functionality to the watch. For example, a glucose monitor built into the band.

After smart bands, it does make sense that Apple might eventually release an all-in-one watch with a flexible display like the one mentioned here. That model, however, is almost certainly years, perhaps a decade away.

Back in March, I suggested that future Apple Watch should ship without a watch band. The newest Apple patent application suggests Cupertino could be moving in this direction, although certainly not in the way I had envisioned.