We first told you about What? Watch back in November as it released a new take on smartphone-connected timepieces. Now, four months later, What? has jumped on Kickstarter with its Calendar Watch in hopes of raising $100,000. That goal was easily surpassed within a few days.
Why so much interest? The Calendar Watch has a built-in display behind the face that visually blocks out busy sections of your day. For example, have a business lunch at noon? That piece of the pie on your display will be color coordinated to reflect your unavailability. Add an event later this evening? It will update automatically and show those changes. On top of it all, it’s a pretty good looking watch…
Smartwatches present an interesting dichotomy between technical specifications and visual beauty. It has proven to be a struggle for many brands to bridge the gap of technology and traditional timepieces. The Calendar Watch by What? attempts to answer this question by backing off features like fitness tracking and third-party complications. Instead focusing on a quality design and one specific area of smartphone connectivity.
Calendar Watch skips all of the auxiliary inputs and solely focuses on displaying the time and your schedule. Any changes or settings adjustments are handled by your online calendar or the accompanying iOS or Android app. As new events are added to your schedule, the watch automatically syncs any changes every 15 minutes.
The watch face offers two different modes for displaying your availability. Flexible shows the next 12 hours of your day and constantly updates as time moves on. Fixed always shows a set 12-hour period of your choosing (i.e. 8am to 8pm). While the e-ink display behind the watch face is digital, the hands are analog like traditional timepieces.
The Calendar Watch is available in Polar White, Aqua Blue, and Special Edition Black. Battery life is slated to last somewhere around three weeks and charging is handled by an included power source. After a few days on Kickstarter, What? Watch has raised over $110,000. With 22 days remaining, a pledge of $265 will deliver a watch in September.
In the meantime, you’ll want to check out What? Watch’s current lineup of timepiece. If you’re not in need of a smartwatch, we recommend these highly-rated options from Casio that start at just $8.49 Prime shipped.
More New Toy of the Day:
- DJI’s Phantom 4 drone is coming later this month with a new obstacle avoidance system
- Raspberry Pi 3 hits with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth after four long years
- Victronix teases its new Cyber Tool fitness tracker for the popular INOX watch
- Marshall’s first Bluetooth headphones tout impressive battery life alongside a retro design
- Mighty is the Spotify-compatible iPod Shuffle we’ve been waiting for
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