Motorola was working on a square smartwatch before they discovered circles

Surprise, surprise: Motorola’s early smartwatch prototypes looked nothing like their first ever Android Wear watch. They were toying around with a square model at first, something that LG and Samsung launched in very quick fashion.

The Moto 360 was, without a doubt, the best looking of the initial bunch, but we had to wait a good deal longer to be able to buy it than the others. Motorola could have easily doled out their square model to get in on the early rush of buyers, but they waited (though there wasn’t much of a rush to begin with because the smartwatch market was just getting started).

Which one do you like the most?

Good on Motorola for waiting, because they ended up setting the trend which led to circular smartwatches being the preferred form factor going forward. They were the first company to show that Android Wear devices don’t have to look like geeky gadgets and can instead be worn as fashion. The men who made those decisions — product manager Eric Berdinis and designer Rick Hoobler — should be kept on someone’s payroll, for sure.

[via Gizmo China]