A newly launched Kickstarter campaign features an Apple Watch mount that looks really strange but might actually solve some problems.
The imaginatively named “It” comes from Wear Differently, and it boldly suggests that the top of your wrist is not the best place to wear your smartwatch. Instead, designer Bridger Bell says, you should be carrying it in a small nook between the base of your thumb and radius bone.
You can see It in action in the proof of concept video below.
https://youtu.be/XrmtFnUcyTc
“When you wear it differently, you’ll find that you don’t have to strap the band down to your wrist and fight gravity,” Bell says in the video. “The watch face will be positioned in a place that it’s naturally suited. It really hardly needs to be held on there at all; it balances nicely and is supported by the base of your thumb.”
The idea is that when you wear the Apple Watch in this spot, you can see the screen without having to turn your arm. It will also let you use your wearable and iPhone simultaneously for all the times you’ve wished that were possible.
Obviously, you can’t walk around all day balancing the device on your hand, and you might want to use that arm for something, so that’s where Bell’s Apple Watch mount comes in. It’s currently seeking $250,000 on Kickstarter to move from a plastic prototype to a final, metal model.
Bell says that It works with existing bands, and his demonstration uses the Milanese Loop strap. Since you just slot your band into the mount like you would into the watch face itself, we assume it will work with all types.
If you need a longer explanation of how It works, here’s an 11-minute video of Bell providing all of the background you need:
https://youtu.be/x52d30n8GSo
Mostly, though, It looks weird. And while we wouldn’t necessarily go all day with our Apple Watches in this position, the mount does have some pretty good uses. We could see it coming in pretty handy when we’re following driving directions; sometimes it feels a little dicy to take our hands off the wheel to check what our next turn is. But we also use our Apple Watches for heart-rate data, and some of the pictures don’t quite look like It is keeping the sensors on the back of the device against the skin like the wrist-mounted position does.
Still, if It sounds like a good deal and Bell reaches his funding goal, you’ll be able to score a final version from the Kickstarter campaign with an $88 pledge. And if that sounds a bit steep, you can also join the beta program for $48 and try out a plastic edition that you can keep afterward.
