
Nano Watch Kit Near $1M on Kickstarter - gursikh
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/16/ipod-nano-watch-million/
======
chaosmachine
Back in June, Jason L. Baptiste wrote an article for HN called "How to become
a millionaire in three years"[1]. Here's a quote:

 _"Look for the accessory ecosystem- iPod/iPhone/iPad case manufacturers are
making a fortune."_

[1] [http://jasonlbaptiste.com/startups/how-to-become-a-
millionai...](http://jasonlbaptiste.com/startups/how-to-become-a-millionaire-
in-three-years/)

------
trotsky
I think the kickstarter over-subscription thing is kind of out of hand.
Diaspora asked for 10 and got 200, but it is highly unlikely the result will
be 20x better. I wonder how the 128 people who just donated money to the
project feel now that it's clear he had no need of donations. Also, not
everything can scale well. What if he had a great tooling line already picked
out, but now that he needs to do 100x the volume he'll have to find a worse
one.

You should have to set a maximum as well as a minimum on a kickstarter
project. The first time one of these massively over subscribed offers turns
out to be a total scam, or just fails there's going to be a lot of unhappy
people.

I think pre-sales projects like this are really interesting, but it doesn't
really match the donation model. At a minimum, kickstarter should escrow the
money and release it in $xx,000 chunks or something, and ensure people are
getting what they ordered. Even better would be to not have people paying
until they were reasonably close to an actual delivery date. It's one thing if
you're waiting for upfront R&D, but it's another thing if you're simply on the
ass end of a one year waiting list.

~~~
JCThoughtscream
If people want to make donations in support of a fun (or at least funky) idea,
I /don't/ think they should be barred from doing so. Discouraging goodwill
isn't exactly a great stance to assert. As it is, though, the bulk of the
money's coming from people who are requesting the product itself - it won't be
20x better, but there'll be 20x more of it, and hopefully sufficient profit
that an enhanced tooling line can be made to meet demand.

Which is not to say that your concerns don't have merit, but do note that the
success of Diaspora and the ipod wristwatch projects seem very much to be
outliers. Kickstarter claims that a little under half of all total projects
/approved/ actually meet their funding goals, and from a glance of the site,
it seems as if most successes are rather /modest/ successes - we really only
notice the outliers.

The site also does warn project organizers that failing to deliver could
potentially leave them legally vulnerable. Given the relatively low success
rate, the human curating and the necessity of maintaining a public and
accessible persona to drive up donations, I wouldn't call it a great platform
to scam with.

Of course, given my limited experience with scams, I could be totally naive
about this.

------
leftnode
What's funny is there are already a ton of these on the market:
[http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-
alias%3Dap...](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-
alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ipod+nano+watch&x=0&y=0)

He just has a sexy video and Kickstarter page.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Even stranger is that it doesn't seem like a very good product (in general,
not just the Kickstarter ones). Not a good watch, not a good running aid (even
with the ugly dongle that's required), not a good iPod.

I realise that watches are almost totally (and iPods and phones are partly)
fashion accessories, but it's still strange to see something so functionally
awkward associated with the Apple brand.

(As a fan of factory films though, his latest update was hypnotic in the best
tradition of such videos. Made the whole project worthwhile as far as I'm
concerned).

------
gursikh
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-
lunati...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-lunatik-
multi-touch-watch-kits/posts/44218)

Here's Scott Wilson's update form China in which he walks through the process
of getting the watches manufactured.

Integration with nike+ and perhaps a good set of bluetooth headphones make
this the ideal running "watch".

~~~
stcredzero
If Nanos had the right bluetooth and WiFi integration, you could have "Star
Trek: The Next Generation" style communicator badges!

~~~
Andrenid
He has already sent out an update saying they're considering making a
bluetooth adapter that suits the style of the watch. I hope they do, i'm one
of the people eagerly awaiting my LunaTik and bluetooth would top it off
perfectly.

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-
lunati...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-lunatik-
multi-touch-watch-kits/posts/43261)

------
nhangen
I simply cannot believe this. I love the idea, and I love the execution, but
then I realized that I'd look like an idiot wearing headphones on my watch.

As someone with a recently approved kickstarter, I'm enthusiastic about the
attention that this device is bringing to the model.

------
sliverstorm
What are they even going to do with all that funding? It really doesn't seem
like the product is very complicated or expensive. (no offense or anything)

~~~
anthonycerra
I thought the same thing when I started my startup (we make physical stuff
too). Then I started learning about injection molding, tooling, materials,
minimum order quantities, packaging, etc.

It turns out that very simple things are very expensive to start with because
of the low quantities. I thought an order for 30,000 was massive, but some
companies we worked with flat out laughed in my face.

So even though he raised a million bones, he's "only" making < 13,000 watches.
That'll still be pretty expensive for him.

~~~
davi
That's interesting. At what quantity do they stop laughing?

~~~
anthonycerra
It really depends on the manufacturer. Some don't want to deal with you unless
you're in the 100s of thousands. We were very lucky to find a company that
will make a quantity as low as 300, but there would be no reasonable price we
could charge for the product without losing tons of money. A quantity of 3,000
would basically be a wash, and 30,000 would give us a decent margin.

Another point I forgot to mention above is assembly cost. I was surprised to
learn that automating tasks isn't cost effective even when production is in
the tens of thousands (depending on the task of course).

------
callmeed
What happens when the nano gets an updated design? Wouldn't even a slight
change in dimensions require expensive production/design changes?

~~~
JCThoughtscream
That's about when you release a new model and reduce the price on the old
design.

------
codex
I'm glad someone is stepping into this opportunity, but it's plain to me that
Apple had originally intended to release the iPod Nano as a watch. Look at the
default clock and the square dimensions. Perhaps this developer will
eventually discover the reason for Apple's trepidation--or perhaps this is a
rare Apple misstep.

------
juiceandjuice
Some of those designs will probably mess with the touchscreen sensitivity of
the Nano. My last company had some custom made touchscreen devices where the
paint on the plastic bezels was messing stuff up with sensitivity.

------
nodata
I'm not sure I want a watch I have to charge several times a week.

~~~
Andrenid
I see it as an easier way to carry around and access an object I already have
to charge a couple of times a week (and it just looks cool).

------
Groxx
Nice design. Now Apple just needs to open up an SDK for them; they could be
_much_ more than they are.

~~~
darren_
Yes, this is the only reason I'd ever consider this (though it does look okay,
the idea of an iPod on your wrist is _unbelievably_ dorky).

On the other hand with an SDK for it I'd consider buying one, never using
headphones with it and just reimplementing (that is, stealing) designs from
tokyo flash (<http://www.tokyoflash.com/jp/watches/1/>). Customisable sleek
designery-watch is cool, iPod on your wrist is not. Bearing in mind that the
time-telling aspect of the watch is basically completely superfluous nowadays.

I guess it's not really apple's thing but I'd rather this design, slightly
slimmer and without the audio guts of the ipod.

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wooter
this one is actually cooler! less production quality in the video though;
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1550909969/the-
ultimate-...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1550909969/the-ultimate-one-
quad-mountain-ipod-nano-wristband?ref=discover_pop)

------
KC8ZKF
iPods can be very sensitive to moisture. I'd be wary of wearing one on my
wrist.

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iphoneedbot
So, is this a good example of using KickStarter for gauging interest and some
"funding" to get over the horse-cart paradox many skittish entrepreneurs
experience?

------
stcredzero
Somehow, I'm reminded of something Douglas Adams wrote awhile ago...

