WORK
A Sleek, Seamless Apple Watch Camera Band
A six-week design sprint for a startup results in a market-ready wearable
The Challenge
Help Glide, a software startup, rapidly design a watch band that enables seamless photo and video capture at the wrist.
The OUTCOME
The industrial design and mechanical engineering for CMRA, the first Apple Watch camera band, and its charger, as well as a considered product experience that links the digital and physical design.
Glide, a video communication software startup, came to IDEO to collaborate on the design of its first hardware product. With current Apple Watch models not including cameras, Glide sought to design a compatible band that would empower users to capture and share photos and videos directly from their wrist.
Faced with this challenge, IDEO designers embarked on a six week-long design sprint, involving users in the research to understand how they might use the band for interactions such as taking reminder snapshots and intuitively sharing photo and video messages with friends. The team then brought these ideas to life through a comprehensive industrial design and engineering process, working to meet a range of technical and performance requirements along the way.
IDEO’s final band design elegantly integrates two cameras—one nestled in a wave-shaped notch above the watch face, and the other on the band’s outward-facing surface. Together, the cameras ensure that, between recording themselves and the vibrant world around them, users never miss capturing a moment worth sharing.
IDEO also designed a compatible, on-the-go charging dock that conveniently refuels both the watch and band with a single plug-in, completing an effortless user experience.
Evolving sketches into physical prototypes, IDEO further defined the wave-like shape and structure of the band strap and its many components.
IDEO developed a series of sketches to explore how form could follow function for the watch band.
2016