Motorola’s new USPTO patent outlines a wearable smartphone-watch with a flexible, rollable display that wraps on the wrist and unfurls into a compact phone.
© XpertPick
Motorola is circling back to a long-held ambition: a smartphone you can wear like a bracelet or a watch. A new patent filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) shows the company hasn’t let go of the hybrid phone–watch concept and is still looking for a way to make it real.
According to schematic drawings in the filing, the device relies on a flexible, rollable display that can sit on the wrist and, when needed, unfurl into a full-fledged smartphone. Worn, it resembles a smartwatch; unrolled, it becomes a compact phone with a rectangular screen. The patent suggests a roller mechanism that lets the display extend and retract smoothly, along with built-in sensors that would automatically adjust the interface to the device’s current shape.
This isn’t new territory for Motorola. Two years ago, the company showed a prototype of a flexible phone that wrapped around the wrist, though it never reached mass production. The new document makes it clear the idea hasn’t been shelved, and the company is still exploring how to blend smartphone mobility with the ease of a wearable.
A patent, of course, isn’t a product roadmap, but it does signal intent. In a market where slab phones often blur together, a serious attempt to rethink the form factor feels refreshing. And if this project does move beyond the lab, it could bring not just another gadget, but an entirely new category that folds a phone, a watch, and a bracelet into one device.