This may not be the subject of much contention nowadays, but back when the smartwatch market was just getting started, everyone seemed to have a strong opinion on how the perfect wearable device should look.
While the OG Moto 360 was widely considered the most stylish of all the first-gen Android Wear gadgets released in 2014 thanks to its round shape, the rectangular Apple Watch took the fledgling industry by storm the next year, proving that the software and user experience were far more important than the external appearance of a smartwatch.
For the longest time, Apple was rumored to be exploring an eventual change to a circular design, but at the same time, more and more companies went the rectangular or square-shaped route to try to replicate a small part of Cupertino's success in this fast-growing market. Nowadays, there's pretty much no reason to expect a round-shaped Apple Watch anymore, but OnePlus might join the rectangular-snubbing club soon enough.
Despite our initial assumption that the company's long overdue rookie smartwatch effort will look a lot like the Oppo Watch, a relatively well-known and reliable Twitter tipster appears to suggest otherwise today. While Max J.'s "wotch" tweet is essentially as cryptic as these things come, the rising leaker's track record strongly suggests the OnePlus Watch is indeed the subject of this rumor.
Original sketches of an unnamed circular OnePlus smartwatch scrapped in 2016
As clarified by the rumormonger himself, this is not a reference to a notched smartwatch of some sort, but a mysterious "Watch" with a circular body instead. Unfortunately, that's basically all we know about the long-awaited OnePlus Watch, which may or may not end up being branded that way and may or may not be announced alongside the high-end OnePlus 8T 5G handset this fall.
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In case you're wondering, Samsung, Huawei, Garmin, and Fossil are a few of the top proponents of the circular smartwatch design today, with everyone from Fitbit to Xiaomi and Oppo sitting in Apple's corner. Obviously, OnePlus had a hard choice to make, but regardless of our personal shape preferences, it's certainly nice to hear about the company's intentions of doing its own thing rather than copying its sister brand's Oppo Watch, which in turn has been universally criticized for imitating the Apple Watch family.
Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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