Apple patent application hints at Apple Watch ‘smartbands’

Apple patent application illustration (source: USPTO)
Dennis Sellers for Apple World Today:

Future Apple Watch bands may have additional features and do more than simply keep the smart watch on your wrist. Apple has applied for a patent (number 20190187808) for a “wrist-worn electronic device and methods thereof.”
What sort of additional functionality? One would be extra battery life. Another would be, per the patent filing, a FM receiver. Still another would be additional health monitoring features.

MacDailyNews Take: Apple Smartbands.
• Whoever comes up with an accurate Apple Watch smartband that acts as a non-invasive blood glucose monitor (reverse iontophoresis) is going to make a mint. — MacDailyNews, August 24, 2015
• Oh yes, let there be add-on GPS, battery extenders, and more! The thought of wearing our Apple Watch Sports but also having to lug around our iPhones on runs just for the GPS is unpalatable. — MacDailyNews, March 5, 2015
• We can’t wait to see where the future leads for Apple Watch especially in the areas of speed (apps need to respond faster) and independence (less reliance on iPhone, perhaps via Apple “smartbands” that deliver things like GPS tracking for runners, extended battery life, etc.) — MacDailyNews, December 17, 2015
• We would love to see Apple launch Apple Smartbands that add sensor and other functionality to Apple Watch. An Apple GPS Smartband and an Apple Battery Smartband, right now, would sell like wildfire. It’s a missed opportunity for the original Apple Watch’s first Christmas, but we hope to see such items in 2016. — MacDailyNews, December 11, 2015
• If Apple were to release a range of “Apple Smartbands” for the existing Apple Watch, starting with the “Apple Smartband GPS,” they would sell millions more Apple Watch units with this move alone. — MacDailyNews, February 19, 2016
• Since Apple Watch Series 2 gave us GPS and freed us from having to schlep along our iPhones on runs, we can’t count the times we’ve wished we had a camera on our Apple Watches. Look at that sunset! Look at that ocean! Look at that three-legged one-eyed dog!
• Things like that, not so much the Dick Tracy FaceTime stuff (but that would be cool, too), are why we’re so interested in things like the CMRA Dual-Camera Band for Apple Watch… Dare we dream? – cameras, possibly via an Apple Smartband? — MacDailyNews, October 12, 2017