Wish your smartwatch came with more or different functions? Is there just that one thing missing that would make it exactly what you want? Blocks might have be able to make your day fairly soon.
The Blocks modular watch has taken some two years of development just to get to Kickstarter. Their original goal was to raise $250,000; to date, they have raised more than $1 million, with almost a month to go. The basic module, the Core, is the watch face itself and a band, with basic smartphone functionality. The modules snap into the Core each other and onto the band, something like Christmas tree lights.
The Core will run around $275, putting it in the hunt with the Pebble Round and the Apple Watch. And that’s before adding the modules; no word yet on their cost.
To justify a basic cost at the high end of the smartwatch market, the Blocks watch had better have some outstanding modules and module technology. Snap-on modules sound great, but they need a high level of robustness before people are going to get excited. Snap-on, snap-off sounds like it could be a recipe for disaster. Modular hardware at this level has a lot more against it than modular software; users can be rough.
To warrant the extra cost, the modules better be something exceptional. Somehow, “Extra Battery,” although practical, doesn’t exactly resonate with the pocketbook. And where’s the lure for users who already have a watch with, say, sports tracking to move to Blocks, where all that comes as an extra module?
And here’s a thing. Suppose you want all or even most of the modules. How big a wrist (or, possibly, how small a waist) would you need?
Despite its Kickstart success this far, the Blocks watch is definitely still a wait and see.