What’s been good enough for mechanical wristwatch makers for 700 years may soon be adopted by wonks at Apple’s smartwatch laboratory.
The act of winding a watch to give it power was first done in the early 15th century, and Apple may be giving the technique a new twist if a patent filed with he United States Patent Office bears fruit.
The patent aims to protect: “A method and apparatus for charging an electronic device include rotating a magnetically attractable element, or element, within the electronic device. Rotating a magnet external to the electronic device simultaneously rotates the element. Rotating the element causes an electrically generating device, such as a generator, to create an electric charge in the electronic device. The electric charge may be used to power the electrically generating device, or the electric charge may be transmitted to an internal power supply in order to charge another component or components. In another embodiment, the external magnet may wind a spring inside a device.”
That’s geek speak for converting a circular winding motion into battery power that could then prolong the life of a smartwatch.
The patent was filed in November last year by Apple in November last year with a diagram of how the technology might work.
