Blocks Wearables, a UK-based startup that’s been working on a modular smartwatch since early 2014, announced its plan Tuesday to release its first product through a crowdfunding campaign set to launch this summer.
The company earned a finalist spot in Intel’s Make it Wearable contest in late 2014, and the experience seems to have given it the jumpstart it needed.
The Blocks smartwatch embraces the idea of modularity at a time when consumers are growing sick of needing to upgrade smartphones every year—and could put both Android Wear and the Apple Watch to shame.
Building Blocks
As the name suggests, a Blocks smartwatch will be built out of modules. The smartwatch’s “core module” will have Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, motion sensors, and a microphone built in, putting it on par with many wearables on the market already.
The module will also boast a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, which offers support for GPS location, SMS messaging, and NFC payments. Those features won’t be in the core module, but other connected modules could contain GPS sensors or SIM cards to expand its bag of tricks.
It’s a concept very similar to Pebble’s new smartstraps, which promise to add hardware features to the new Pebble Time smartwatches without requiring a replacement.
Blocks will run Android—but not Android Wear. The core module will have an optimized version of Android Lollipop installed. That’s a strategy that early smartwatches adopted, like the Sony SmartWatch 2 or Samsung’s first Gear smartwatch (before Samsung replaced the operating system with Tizen).
The company explains that skipping Android Wear will allow the device to offer compatibility with both iOS and Android smartphones, as well as the all-important ability to “hot-swap modules” without powering the watch down.
The big tradeoff is that developers will have to write and test apps specifically for the device, and can’t rely on the tools Google is offering to simplify development across Android Wear devices and Android smartphones and tablets.
However, going with Android Wear probably wouldn’t have worked too well; Google won’t allow device makers to alter its wearable operating system’s form and function.
As such, going with a modified version of Android proper gives Blocks Wearables the flexibility to potentially make good on its promise of modular wearables.
According to Blocks Wearables cofounder Serge Vasylechko, the core module will be priced between $150 and $200, while each additional module will cost between $20 and $40 apiece. The company plans on selling Blocks bundles, too, which will offer different features and functions through the inclusion of different blocks.
To start, Vasylechko says Blocks will offer at least five different modules of its own making, which the company will announce “very soon.” Meanwhile, he adds that third-party companies should start coming up with their own modules once the crowdfunding campaign has wrapped.
The announcement does say that Taiwan’s Compal Electronics has entered into an agreement to manufacture Blocks. That’s a reassuring detail, considering how may crowdfunded hardware projects stumble at the assembly line. But having a manufacturer lined up is no guarantee of success, either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1dB4LzIVSU
Another Piece Of The Puzzle
We ought to know more about the device by the time the campaign launches this summer. In the meantime, it seems that Blocks is in good company as far as a new wave of modular gadgets is concerned. At I/O, Google’s ATAP group took to the stage to show off the stunning progress of its modular smartphone, Project Ara.
Meanwhile, the Pebble Time will make its way to wrists all over the world very soon, along with its own take on modular wearables, the smartstrap.
It’s possible that Blocks is the latest example of a modular revolution hitting the electronics industry. We have nothing to lose but our replacement cycles.
Update, June 5, 10:55am PT: Blocks Wearables co-founder Serge Vasylechko provided more information about pricing and module availability, and his comments have been added to the article above.
Images courtesy of Blocks Wearables
