The Apple Watch is a great bit of kit, but when it comes to battery life it leaves a lot to be desired.
Although the Apple Watch Series 2 essentially doubled the gadget's staying power, letting you easily cruise through two full days on a single charge, we still want more, and it looks like the upcoming Apple Watch 3 could be set to deliver.
According to latest reports and newly emerged Apple patents, the upcoming wearable's battery might never run out of charge.
While this might sound like futuristic witchcraft, the tech behind it is actually a whole lot more simple and old fashioned than you might expect.
Detailing a new "connector-free magnetic charger/winder", the patent, published by the US Patent and Trademark Office, details a system that would allow users to turn the watch's Digital Crown in order to generate battery charge.
Echoing mechanical watches of yesteryear, the new system could utilise a rotational magnetic field to move a compact electric generator to produce power that can then be used to boost the watch's internal battery.
Alternatively, Apple could kick things truly old school, using the Digital Crown to wind a coil to transfer energy to a set of gears.
With the Apple Watch currently using its rotatable Digital Crown as a means of navigate the on-board menus, it's unclear how much you'd need to rotate the dial in order to generate a decent amount of charge.
While producing a full charge would likely require some heavy twisting, the ability to simply produce enough power to get you back home without running dry would sure to go down well with many.
Although the twist-to-generate power harvesting technology has been around for decades, this would mark the first time it crossed over into the realms of smart watches.
While the patent is no guarantee that the tech will actually make it to market - plenty of patents amount to nothing - Apple has also detailed how the idea could be used to boost the power reserves of iPhone and iPad devices too.
According to the patent, however, the company notes that it would need to adapt the "angular velocity" between devices to generate enough energy to be of use.
The Apple Watch 3 has been tipped to launch this September alongside the iPhone 8.
Power-boosting smarts aside, it's been suggested that the third-generation wearable could drop with an integrated camera and, potentially, that circular display you've all coveted since day one.
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