Asus’ ZenWatch lineup is well-loved as a fairly low-cost alternative to other smartwatches, with classical styling. The specs are fairly middle-of-the-road, and the price, while reasonable, isn’t ultra-budget. In many ways, they’re similar to most other options out there, just a bit cheaper and more conservatively styled. The ZenWatch lineup, however, does sport a key standout feature that differentiates it from most smartwatches and more traditional timepieces, and that is a square screen. Allowing the watches to use the full square interface of apps, and avoid the dreaded “flat tire” found on watches like the Moto 360, while still having room for a sizeable enough bezel to hide the various bits and bobs away while keeping the watch fairly thin. That famous square screen, however, seems to be vanishing with the ZenWatch 3.
According to a couple of images found with the official FCC filing for the ZenWatch 3, the watch will be round. While a square screen on a round body is certainly possible, it’s highly unlikely; the most probable scenario here is that the ZenWatch 3 will be a round watch and feature a circular display. This break from tradition will leave Sony’s lineup, if it will continue after the Sony SmartWatch 3, as the only mainstream square smartwatch left on the scene. The label and label location pictures from the FCC filing, showing where the mandatory FCC labeling will go on the device, give away the form factor. This should still be taken with a grain of salt, however; the watch could simply have a round backplate on a square body, making it just like the ZenWatch and ZenWatch 2 before it.
Aside from this filing, not much is known about the ZenWatch 3. It’s assumed that the styling will be similar to the ZenWatch 2 and the specs will see some sort of bump, and that the price will hover around the $150 to $250 mark, but leaks and rumors have thus far been incredibly sparse. With the official FCC filings for the watch on the books, US customers may be seeing the ZenWatch 3 make a surprise appearance on their local store shelves in the near future, or the filing could be purely preemptive in nature, meaning the watch may show up at a trade show or hide in the shadows for several more months. With IFA in Berlin coming up in September, there’s a decent chance that the ZenWatch 3 may show up, but nothing is set in stone right now.