Why buy a new smartwatch when you can just turn your old watch smart? That’s the question Gooseberry answers with its Smart Buckle, a little device that goes a long way with your existing accessories. It’s heralded as the first device that “intelligently upgrades classic timepieces with advanced step, calorie, activity, and sleep monitoring capabilities.” So if you don’t want to give up the feel of your familiar watch but want some innovative technology, this could be the solution for you.
“Many of us have worn our watches for years, sometimes as a tradition and other times as a personal fashion choice,” said Alexei Levene, co-founder of Gooseberry. “We wanted to create a product that allows people to wear their favorite timepieces while also being able to have access to smartwatch capabilities, such as fitness tracking, making use of current technology trends.”
All you have to do to breathe new life into your existing watch is replace the buckle — from there, you can track how many calories you’ve burned, the distance you’ve traveled, your pace, as well as your sleep habits. In short, anything a traditional fitness tracker can do, the Smart Buckle can help your existing watch do as well. (Will it make our last is the best fitness trackers?)
As co-founder Shripal Gandhi noted, “We want to restore the use of traditional and classic watches without the need of silicon and rubber wearables which can become obsolete.”
Smart Buckle will relay all your data to a companion app, available on both Android and iOS, which stores your data in the cloud. You can also sync this data to Apple Health and/or Google Fit, and check out activity trends, sleep patterns and daily, weekly and monthly reports effortlessly.
The buckle is also water resistant and dustproof, so you can wear it in a variety of environments. And perhaps most importantly, the battery of the Smart Buckle promises to last up to one week, with daily use of up to 10 hours. When the buckle does run out of juice, it can be recharged in an hour, or up to 10 hours a day.
You can pre-order the Smart Buckle from Kickstarter for the early-bird price of $39, with delivery slated for August.
