The Apple Watch is a smartwatch that was announced by Apple on September 9, 2014, with first deliveries in April 2015. Its third-party API, WatchKit, was released in November 2014. Use this tag for questions relating to Apple Watch hardware. For software questions, use the [watchkit] tag.
The Apple Watch is a smartwatch that designed to work with iPhones running iOS 8 or later (except for the iPhone 4s – iPhone 5 and later only). It features a "Digital Crown" as a novel input mechanism and comes in aluminum, stainless steel, and 18-karat gold variations.
The watch uses the WatchKit framework for development and presumably runs on an iOS variant.
Apps are meant to be lightweight and companions to their iPhone app counterparts, rather than replacements. They can be either Glances (obsolete since watchOS 3), which offer up timely information in a readable format, or full-fledged Watch Apps.
Watch Apps can be either hierarchical or page-based, and use a grid-based layout system as opposed to iOS's standard Auto Layout system.
Apple is focusing on these key areas:
Resources:
- Apple's WatchKit Video
- Apple's Watch Human Interface Guideline
- Apple's WatchKit Programming Guide
- Apple's WatchKit Framework Reference
Samples:
- https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/WatchKitAudioRecorder/
- https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/ActivityRings/
- https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/WKInterfaceCatalog/
- https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/SwingWatch/
- https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/PotLoc/
- https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/QuickSwitch/
- https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/SpeedySloth/
- https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/HelloGameKit/
- https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/WatchPuzzle/
- https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/SimpleWatchConnectivity/