from Hacker News

Nano Watch Kit Near $1M on Kickstarter

by gursikh on 12/17/10, 3:46 AM with 32 comments

• by chaosmachine on 12/17/10, 4:20 AM

  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...

• by trotsky on 12/17/10, 7:13 AM

  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.

• by leftnode on 12/17/10, 10:20 AM

  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...

  He just has a sexy video and Kickstarter page.

• by gursikh on 12/17/10, 4:00 AM

  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-lunati...

  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".

• by nhangen on 12/17/10, 3:59 AM

  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.

• by sliverstorm on 12/17/10, 4:14 AM

  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)

• by callmeed on 12/17/10, 5:24 AM

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

• by codex on 12/17/10, 6:07 PM

  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.

• by juiceandjuice on 12/17/10, 7:07 AM

  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.

• by nodata on 12/17/10, 8:42 AM

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

• by Groxx on 12/17/10, 4:42 AM

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

• by wooter on 12/17/10, 6:59 AM

  this one is actually cooler! less production quality in the video though; http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1550909969/the-ultimate-...

• by KC8ZKF on 12/17/10, 6:40 AM

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

• by iphoneedbot on 12/17/10, 6:24 AM

  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?

• by stcredzero on 12/17/10, 5:21 AM

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