Key Takeaways
1. Garmin is exploring digital crown technology for wearable devices, but source transparency is lacking in reports.
2. A newly discovered patent titled ‘rotatable control button assembly for a wearable device’ supports earlier claims about this technology.
3. The patent describes a control button assembly with a rotating crown and a Hall effect sensor for inertial scrolling.
4. The design of the control button assembly resembles Garmin’s current Fenix series, but patents don’t guarantee final product realization.
5. The timeline for turning this patent into a mass-produced device is uncertain, making claims of an imminent release misleading.
Yesterday, fresh details came to light about Garmin’s planned digital crown technology. According to Gadgets & Wearables, the website didn’t disclose where the information came from in their report. This lack of source transparency was also true for the earlier statements made a few weeks ago.
Patent Speculation
At first, we thought that a recent patent might be the basis for Gadgets & Wearables’ claims. Regrettably, searches on Justia and similar sites yielded no useful findings. Nevertheless, Wearable has recently found the patent that likely supports many of the earlier assertions made by Gadgets & Wearables. This patent, titled ‘rotatable control button assembly for a wearable device’ and assigned the number 20250341869, provides a description of the control button as follows:
A wearable electronic device, which consists of a body. In addition, the device contains a Hall effect sensor that is placed within the body’s interior and is either close to or in contact with an inner surface of the body.
Control Button Assembly
Moreover, the device includes a control button assembly that is attached to the body. The outer part of the body has a hollow section where at least part of the control button assembly fits. The control button assembly has a magnet at its proximal end.
At the opposite end, the control button assembly has a crown that can rotate in relation to the body, and the assembly is designed so that turning the crown results in a corresponding movement of the magnet. The body also has a sidewall that completely separates the control button assembly from the Hall effect sensor.
This patent additionally confirms that the assembly includes a sensor to facilitate inertial scrolling, similar to the existing Apple Watch Series 11 and Pixel Watch 4 (currently priced at $349 on Amazon). As mentioned before, the drawings in the patent are very similar to the design language of Garmin’s current Fenix series. It’s important to note, however, that patent submissions seldom reflect the final product.
Reality Check
In the same vein, any implication that this patent is on the verge of being realized is a bit misleading. Generally, patents may take many years to transform into mass-production devices, if they ever do. Therefore, it would be surprising if Garmin were to release this hardware ‘soon,’ as prior reports have suggested.
USPTO via Wareable
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