UPDATED 08:00 EDT / DECEMBER 29 2014

NEWS

Kairos T-band is a smart watch band that allows you to retrofit your existing watch

tbandThere was a rush of smart watches released in 2014, but what if you’re not quite ready to give up your existing watch? Meet the Kairos T-band.

The Kairos T-band from Korean company Kairso Industries Co. Ltd. is a smart watch band that allows you to retrofit most any watch into a smart watch.

The company offers three different models which vary in price and feature sets.

The T-Band ND model has no display, but instead provides basic notifications via vibration or LED indicator, and activity & health data monitoring. With no display, the ND model is said to deliver seven days of use without a charge.

For the middle of the range, the T-Band HD offers a “hidden display” that visually blends into the band when it’s not being used.  The LED panel is said to be good for two-to-three days of battery life, but is limited to English alphanumeric text and numbers only.

tband3T-BAND OD is the Rolls Royce of the range and sports a 11mmx25mm (0.43″x0.98″) curved PMOLED display capable of 170dpi resolution, touch sensor, and hardened mineral glass with special anti-scratch coating. The unit is powered by ARM Cortex-M4 processor with dual mode bluetooth.  The band is also equipped with an on board microphone for speech to text capabilities.

Notably the company doesn’t mention the battery time for the OD model, but if it’s similar to smart watches it will likely offer at least a days worth of use.

The band has raised $102,000 on Kickstarter Inc. at the time of writing, after initially seeking an investment of $50,000.

The down side: it isn’t cheap

The T-Band with no display comes in at $199, the hidden display at $499 and the OLED model at $508….but these are early bird prices on Kickstarter; they could be priced several hundreds of dollars more when they go on retail sale. If your tastes run to gold or black for your watch band, Kairos will happily take another $150 from you.

With such high prices, it’s easy to dismiss the idea behind Kairos, as the initial reaction might be that if you wanted a smart watch, why not just buy a smart watch? But people can be attached to their watches, particularly watches from companies such as Omega SA and Rolex SA, and if you can afford a Rolex, dropping $500 on a watch band isn’t going to be an issue.

Shipping is currently scheduled for April 2015.


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