Remember Blocks? Back in October, the folks from Blocks Wearables announced plans for a modular smartwatch called Blocks that’d let you swap build exactly the smartwatch that you want. Well today Blocks is back in the news with some early modular smartwatch prototypes.
Blocks was present at Intel’s booth at CES showing off early prototype versions of its modular smartwatches, giving us a preview of what the custom wearables will actually look like. As you can see above, you’ve got the face of the watch that acts as the brains and contains its hardware, along with links that you can connect to add other features like GPS, an extra battery, a SIM card slot, and more.
It’s expected that Blocks will hit Kickstarter in June 2015. The main watch face will be priced at $150, and you’ll be able to pick up modules to add to the wearable for anywhere between $20 and $40 each. At launch, the Blocks folks expect their smartwatch to receive notifications from a paired smartphone, control audio, and do motion tracking.
Just like Project Ara and its modular smartphones, Blocks looks like an interesting concept because it’ll allow users to make to make the device on their wrist fit their needs. Some folks would want a smartwatch that has a super beefy battery, some would want a sqaure face, others would want a round face, and so on. Obviously we’ll have to wait to see just how well Blocks smartwatches perform, but the idea of getting a wearable that you can make your own is pretty exciting.
What features would you include in your modular smartwatch?
