The next Galaxy Watch could go squarely back to its roots

If you are an Android user, then Samsung’s Galaxy Watches are some of your best options for a smartwatch. Samsung has been very committed to the smartwatch ecosystem, being one of the first players in this segment with devices like the Galaxy Gear that ran on Android/Tizen. The Galaxy Gear was eventually succeeded by the Galaxy Watches we see today, but it seems Samsung is enthusiastically exploring returning to its Galaxy Gear roots.

According to a report from Sammobile, Samsung is looking to bring back the squarish design for its smartwatches. This upcoming smartwatch would resemble legacy smartwatches like the Galaxy Gear, Galaxy Gear 2, and Galaxy Gear Live. However, it’s unclear whether the forthcoming Galaxy Watch 7 series will be sporting a square design or if Samsung is planning it for smartwatches further down the line. But the idea itself is “enthusiastically being considered internally,” and it is “very much on the cards that the switch is going to happen.”

The first Galaxy Gear sported a 1.6-inch Super AMOLED display but in a square shape, a shape closer to the current Apple Watch than to the current Galaxy Watch 6. Samsung switched to a circular design with the Samsung Gear S2, and ever since then, the company has stuck to the circular design, even when it transitioned to the Galaxy Watch branding and eventually shifted to Wear OS.

Samsung’s shifting to a square design will invite a lot of mixed opinions. On one end, the Galaxy Watch series has become more successful than any of Samsung’s square smartwatches before it, and the circular appearance (often along the physical rotating bezel on some models) is part of the product identity. On the other end, the squarish shape is popular with the Apple Watch, and Samsung moving towards this shape (that it had long abandoned for its smartwatches) will make it appear like a copycat, even though the company has its own roots with the shape.