Want An iPod Nano Watch? So Does Everyone. New Kickstarter King

http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/24/ipod-nano-watch/

by rblion • 16 years ago

44 38 16 years ago

baddox2• 16 years ago

I would be interested to know how many of you even wear a watch at all. I haven't since the very early 2000s.

delackner• 16 years ago

I absolutely love watches, but I can't stand having anything on my wrist for more than a few minutes. Must be over-sensitized from typing all day for my entire adult life.

alex_c• 16 years ago

I do. Between my cellphone, and being in front of my computer all the time, it's about 99% ornamental, but I still like wearing it every day - it's effectively a nice-looking bracelet.

chime• 16 years ago

My watch has a heart-rate monitor and it's pretty accurate. It's great for running, exercising, and monitoring my stress levels.

ugh• 16 years ago

I don’t because I don’t own a nice watch. I would like to wear one purely for fashion reasons but since I don’t need one I’m never really motivated to buy one.

Andrenid• 16 years ago

I wear a watch daily, and own a fair few. For me they're about 50% fashion and 50% function (as I don't carry my mobile phone when not on-call for work, to get away from it all).

I was also an early backer for this iPod watch band. It's something i've wanted since the Nano first came out, and none of the available bands are of the quality/style I like. I preordered the LunaTik because it's the only band i've seen that doesn't make me feel like the Nano will fall out, and it just looks awesome too :)

rimantas• 16 years ago

I do. I went for a few years without a watch, but then digging out for my phone just to know the time felt stupid, so I got one nice piece. I must admit, there are not of places you'd need one: if I am in front of a computer I have a clock available, same if I am in a car or at home. Still having a watch comes handy often enough to miss if if I forget to put it on when leaving.

wazoox• 16 years ago

I'd say that all people over 30 I know (me included) wear one. Most people in their teens and 20s don't. I suppose they won't wear cheap plastic watches, but they'll buy nice timepieces at some point anyway.

leegee• 16 years ago

I've not worn one since 1995, when the cheap Swatch a girlfriend bought me broke. Am 39 now.

wyclif• 16 years ago

I've not worn one since the 80's when I was in my late teens. Part of it is because I don't like jewelry and only wear a wedding band. When mobile phones became ubiquitous, it was another reason not to wear them. Ironically, my wife enjoys wearing a watch.

die_sekte• 16 years ago

I have no smartphone and my mobile phone isn't continouusly on; I still use one. It's a Casio F94-W, which is sort of but not fully like the F91-W; obviously I'm an evil terrorist.

edanm• 16 years ago

I don't. Realized it was useless a few years ago, and it annoyed me to have something on my wrist all day. Also, I like being less able to see what time it is so easily, checking my watch used to be a nervous habit. I can always find the time now (there are clocks everywhere), but I don't constantly check the time like I used to.

I'm 25 by the way. My guess is that more than half of my friends still wear watches, but people younger than me tend to not wear them any more. They're usually worn as more of a fashion statement than anything, but that will probably change.

geedee77• 16 years ago

I'm in my 30's and wear a watch all the time (apart from in bed). I did go for a period (about two years) of not wearing one but it always didn't feel right. The reason for not wearing one then was because my previous one broke and I convinced myself I didn't need it due to the phone in my pocket.

I'm currently wearing the one my girlfriend got me for Christmas and, not only does it make my wrist feel better, it reminds me of her all the time which makes me feel closer to her (sorry for the sloppiness!).

InclinedPlane2• 16 years ago

I used to be a habitual watch wearer (since middle school at least) but I've always had a habit of taking off my watch when at home or when using a computer. At some point after having a cell phone for several years I made the decision to stop wearing a watch, I haven't regretted it yet.

Now the only time I wear a watch is when I go hiking or camping and truly need one.

dagw• 16 years ago

I do. Fishing my phone out of my pocket and waking it up every time I want to see what time it is gets really annoying really fast. Also I think (nice) watches look good and adds to ones overall appearance.

Erwin• 16 years ago

I have a semi-expensive Swiss automatic (i.e. fully mechanical, no quartz/electronic stuff, recharged by moving your hand around). I bought it with unexpectedly large proceeds from a side consulting job later turned into full time. It has a glass back, so you can take it off and see the gears moving.

Given my work is all so ethereal, moving electrons around and sometimes turning them into photons, it's nice to have something mechanical, hand-crafted nearby.

It also has some permanence -- all the electronic gadgets, where I live, whom I live with, what I wear etc. has been switched out over the last decade, but not this watch.

baddox2• 16 years ago

No quartz? How does it keep time?

DarthShrine• 16 years ago

I used to wear a watch all the time, until the strap broke. Ever since, I've found myself wanting a watch in situations when I don't have easy access to a phone. I would gladly wear a watch again.

bergie• 16 years ago

I sometimes wear a pocket watch. Bought a nice antique 30s piece from a bazaar in Istanbul.

I'd be more interested in something like the iPod Nano that could be used as a pocket watch. But that means it ought to be rounder.

patio11• 16 years ago

Twice a year. A club I was in in university pooled their allowances to buy me a watch as a going away present (this is when we all assumed I would leave Japan permanently, like most study abroad students). We have two reunions a year.

brk• 16 years ago

I wear a watch everyday. Mostly a gold watch that my wife bought for me ~13 years ago, or on the weekends in the summer a cheap waterproof Relic that is rugged and can get knocked around on the boat or whatever.

For whatever the reason, despite cell phones and computers and everything else, I haven't really felt that my watch was deprecated.

listic• 16 years ago

I don't wear a watch more or less since I got a cellphone. But maybe I'll start wearing watch again when I get something like Suunto t6d (http://www.suunto.com/en/Products/Heart-Rate-Monitors/Suunto...)

It is a sport watch that in my opinion really shines when used in conjunction with optional sensors. I'll be getting Triathlon Pack do that I will have sensors for cycling and jogging in addition to heart rate, altimeter etc. With 100m waterproof I should be able to leave them on when swimming or taking a shower. If the belt is comfortable enough, maybe I won't have to take them off when sleeping too.

jim_h• 16 years ago

I wear an automatic watch most of the time when I'm outside. I like mechanical things and I don't have to worry about the batteries or water.

It looks less rude to be checking your watch for the time than checking your phone for the time. Nobody knows if you're really checking at your email, videos or playing games, etc.

christefano• 16 years ago

The TikTok/LunaTik really caught my eye and I looked into the 6G iPod nano with every intention of getting one and preordering an accompanying LunaTik. Unfortunately, as a watch the new nano doesn't really do anything I want other than tell the time and have a voice recorder. No internal mic, no Bluetooth, no video, no 3rd party apps. I was really hoping that it had a nice catalog of apps. Oh, and you have to turn it on in order to read the time.

(Here's Ars' review of the iPod nano, in case you're interested: http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2010/09/6th-generation-...)

Then again, I haven't used Nike+ yet. There's always a chance I'll use Nike+ for something and it's nice to know that the iPod nano includes it, but I'm pretty happy right now with Garmin Connect and Garmin Training Center.

The watch I have now is a Casio Pathfinder. It's a big gadget and it is definitely got a bling factor, but I got it primarily because it's an ABC watch (altimiter, barometer, compass). The bells and whistles (sunrise/sunset times, world time, current temperature, solar battery, multiband atomic sync, etc.) are great, but I can't overstate the value of having a reliable compass on my wrist. It's also remarkably comfortable. It's the first watch I've left on overnight and not had a sore wrist the next day.

When I got the Pathfinder, I didn't have a phone with a digital compass, and even though my current phone has one the only time I use its compass app to get my bearings instead of using my watch is when I'm driving and my phone is already in the GPS mount on the dashboard.

Aside from the usual "nice to haves", the only thing I truly wish Casio put in the thing is a heartrate monitor. The watches I've seen so far that have heartrate monitors are just too dorky to wear on a regular basis (I fasten the one I use now to a belt loop). Bluetooth would be the next thing I'd ask for so that I could use its proximity to fire actions on paired devices.

rriepe• 16 years ago

What's funny about this is that you can go on Amazon right now and buy something like this.

it's not an original idea by ANY means. Pure execution. And people love it.

dpcan• 16 years ago

Not only that, but there's a nice looking MP3 playing watch with FM Radio, voice recorder, AND 1GB USB Flash Drive.

Just needs bluetooth ear buds.

modeless2• 16 years ago

I don't want one of these, but I'd buy a watch with a Mirasol display and a wireless connection to the iPhone in my pocket for push notifications and iPod control.

karanbhangui• 16 years ago

Kinda like these guys: http://www.getinpulse.com/

Except it's for blackberry.

modeless2• 16 years ago

Yeah, like that! Very cool, although their OLED screen means it's probably not on all the time, which makes it less useful as a watch. For the concept to really work it has to be effortless to check at a glance, because if you're going to be fiddling with it you might as well just take your phone out of your pocket.

proudhorn2• 16 years ago

I'd settle for an iPod nano watch if one of these strap makers incorporated a bluetooth adapter into the design. The pieces exist (nano, watch strap/case, bluetootn adapter, bluetooth headphones) but they don't fit together propery yet—and Apple will probably render it obsolete next year. All the nano watch strap designs so far are merely fashion items and actually reduce the usability of the devices.

buddydvd2• 16 years ago

Unlike regular watches, it seems like you need to press a button on the side to wake it up to see the time. If so, that's quite inconvenient.

http://vimeo.com/16647049 (jump to 2:23)

In any case, it's still a neat idea.

InclinedPlane2• 16 years ago

iPods use emissive displays (backlit LCDs) at a high refresh rate which use far more power than the low refresh rate entirely reflective displays on most watches. If the display on the iPod watch was always on it'd have unusably small battery life.

buddydvd2• 16 years ago

Right, I understand. My point is that iPod Nano just doesn't seem to work well as a watch. If Apple were to design a watch, I don't think it would require people to push a button to view the time.

philipn• 16 years ago

I wrote up an analysis that explores these sort of Kickstarter "product sales":

http://www.pbs.org/idealab/2010/11/the-pros-and-cons-of-usin...

ZeroGravitas2• 16 years ago

Should I find it unusual that an expensive, exclusive and showy gadget with very poor features and terrible usability is feted so highly by Apple fans?

I know the only difference from usual is the extreme lack of usability but wasn't that supposed to be the important bit?

proudhorn2• 16 years ago

It was linked to by Gruber who iz truly the "Oprah of Kickstarter" Apple related projects

Want An iPod Nano Watch? So Does Everyone. New Kickstarter King

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