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How the Apple Watch would look with a round face

South Korean designer Oh NamKyung, otherwise known as Alcion, has reimagined Apple's smartwatch as a circular gadget. Maybe Apple Watch 2.0?

Nick Statt Former Staff Reporter / News
Nick Statt was a staff reporter for CNET News covering Microsoft, gaming, and technology you sometimes wear. He previously wrote for ReadWrite, was a news associate at the social-news app Flipboard, and his work has appeared in Popular Science and Newsweek. When not complaining about Bay Area bagel quality, he can be found spending a questionable amount of time contemplating his relationship with video games.
Nick Statt
2 min read

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A UX/UI designer has given Apple's smartwatch the round treatment, envisioning how a circular wearable from the iPhone maker might look down the line. Alcion

For Apple, time is not a flat circle, but a pudgy square.

When Apple unveiled its long-rumored wearable device on Tuesday, a square-faced smartwatch simply called Apple Watch , crowds were divided. According to social media analytic firm Synthesio, prior to the Apple Watch reveal, more than 40 percent of all online chatter surrounding the wearable was about its potential design, a figure that rose to nearly 50 percent after we got your glimpse of the final product.

Some believe round rather than square is central to the smartwatch market's eventual mainstream adoption, as design that looks natural and appealing is paramount to getting everyday people strapping technology to their bodies. Now, South Korean user interface and user experience designer Oh NamyKung, who goes by the name Alcion, has offered up a convincing alternative: a circular Apple Watch concept that sheds light on what Cupertino-made wearable might look like if it were designed more like Motorola's competing Moto 360 smartwatch.

The results are quite stunning, showing what a wearable that looks as close as possible to a standard time piece might look like. However, the device is just a concept -- designed using 3D modeling software and Adobe's Photoshop editing tool -- and looks thinner than current engineering and battery limitations may allow in the real world. Yet it's also a very high possibility that Apple will in the future take the round route or offer both circular and square-faced Apple watch as it iterates on the design of its wearable.

Check out more of Alcion's concepts here.

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Alcion

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Alcion

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Alcion

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Alcion

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