Don’t want to pay $250+ on a smartwatch? You shouldn’t, especially when you have a perfectly good “dumb” watch sitting on your wrist.
With the help of this Kickstarter project, you will be able to get the smartwatch experience on your normal watch. Well, sort of. Just add this intelligent buckle and you’ll be good to go. The Smart Buckle uses miniaturized technology embedded in its compact wearable clasp to do things most smartwatches do like tracking your activity, steps, distance, pace and sleep patterns, as well as counting calories.
The Smart Buckle is water and dust resistant and compatible with Apple Health & Google Fit. It also connects to an iOS or Android device through an companion app which displays your stats. The buckle comes with a charger you can connect to an outlet or USB port with a micro USB cable.
The Smart Buckle is made of High-Grade Stainless Steel and brushed metal finish, so it will be able to match with most watch models. It’s actually compatible with the majority of designs available on the market including luxury models launched by household names such as Patek Phillipe, Tag Heuer, Rolex, Omega or IWC.
To be frank, the Smart Buckle will turn your watch into something more akin to an activity tracker than a smartwatch. Adding the buckle doesn’t mean the watch face will suddenly gain magical touch screen properties. You won’t be able to download apps on it (you can do that with an Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch) or receive notifications from your smartphone.
Nevertheless, given that the Smart Buckle costs only $39 it’s certainly worth a try for those who wish to add more functionalities to their watch. For this amount of money, customers will receive a Smart Buckle (22mm strap size) + spring bar pin & installation tool + charging dock + USB cable + free USA shipping.
Smart Buckle is currently still gathering funds on Kickstarter and with 29 days to go, there’s a good chance it’s going to be successful. The estimated shipping date has been set for August 2017.
