Pocuter Inc, renowned for the success of Pocuter One — a coin-sized microcomputer, today launches a Kickstarter campaign for their newest innovation - the Pocuter Spectra smartwatch.
The watch aims to elevate the maker smartwatch market with a product that appeals not only to hardware-oriented hackers who support open source hardware and the creation, tinkering, and modification of devices but also to consumers who would buy a high-end smartwatch.
I spoke to Gürkan Dogan, CEO at Pocuter, to learn more.
A community-powered smartwatch
For the first time, users have access to endless possibilities of hacking and user-repairability, which go hand in hand with the superior build and feature-rich environment of high-end consumer smartwatches.
According to Dogan,
"This is a smartwatch driven by the community. There is literally no limit to the projects you can create."
He cites the example of his Pocuter One, where "people used it for cases that we didn't even think would make sense. For example, there was a professional magician. He used to hide it in his hands while doing magic tricks."
This can do more than a conventional smartwatch.
"You could use motion sensors to control a drone or the Wi-Fi chip as a bridge for connectivity when you're in the garden."
Hardware is hard, especially mechanics
"Hardware is hard" is more than a statement, especially for crowdfunding startups, which often fail due to the challenges with materials and manufacturing.
"Our main goal is to deliver a premium user experience to the maker and hacker community."
For Dogan, the biggest challenge, surprisingly, was mechanical.
"Overall, usually, such a watch is made with millions in development budgets with large teams within big companies. We have a team of 7 people, with three, including myself, mainly working on the watch."
The Spectra smartwatch takes its cues from the right-to-repair movement and circular economy and is designed for easy self-repair, and built using sustainable and recyclable material.
Pocuter's commitment to repairability caused challenges because "it's extremely complicated to make something really easy to repair. In most cases to open up a watch, you usually would have to perform dangerous tasks like heating it up. Our case can be opened by unscrewing just four screws."
The firm also offers reasonably priced spare parts, reaffirming its dedication to a user-centric approach.
The smartwatch includes Espressif's flagship ESP32-S3, maxed out with 8MB RAM and 32MB executable flash memory.
The Spectra also breaks new ground with its ability to launch apps from the executable flash memory instantly. It also boasts features synonymous with high-end smartwatches, like a 368x448 AMOLED display, digital crown, aluminium housing, and a full suite of sensors for fitness activity tracking and environmental condition monitoring.
Spectra also comes with onboard speech recognition capability, courtesy of the AI functionalities of the ESP32-S3.
The cherry on top is the inclusion of a Micro SD card slot, offering users the freedom to expand storage up to 512GB.
Why crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is not as prevalent in popular tech culture as it used to be.
62 per cent of Kickstarter projects fail to reach their public funding goal. Of those that do get funding, 10 per cent fail to deliver a final product — the number used to be lower but campaigns are increasingly making (but not launching) their actual product prior to their campaign.
From crowdfunding physical products, we've seen the growth of crowd investing platforms like CrowdCube, where investors don't fund an end product but rather invest in shares of a company, effectively an equity stake.
Monzo Bank raised £1 million in a record-breaking 96 seconds in 2016 and £20 million in just a few days in 2018. In 2019, coffee chain Grind raised £3.4 million.
But according to Dogan, crowdfunding is the best way to get market market validation.
"To design the Spectra, we asked our previous customers, 'What would you want from the ultimate maker device?' They asked for a lot of things, a bigger display, faster processor, but most requested more software features as well, because usually, maker products don't come with much software.
Usually, you can't unbox a maker watch and use it immediately, you first have to code something."
The company is modest about its previous success. Pocuter previously launched five successful Kickstarter campaigns including PocketStar, a pocket-size retro gaming console and PocketScreen, the smallest Arduino-compatible multitool.
Dogan asserts:
"If your device is unique enough, and in demand enough, then you will find traction. The news will spread by itself. For example, we didn't spend one cent on marketing with the Pocketer One, which crowdfunded €130,000.
It should be something that people couldn't buy anywhere else."
Picking up the torch from legacy smartwatch Pebble
The Spectra smartwatch has also gained traction from legacy makers, including the makers of the Pebble Time Smartwatch, the biggest hardware funded product to date.
The project reached its Kickstarter funding goal of $500,000 in 17 minutes It then took 49 minutes to reach $1 million, raising $10.3 million in 48 hours. At the end of the funding, March 27, 2015, Pebble Time received pledges of $20,338,986 from 78,471 backers.
The company raised another $12.8 million in May 2016 for its second smartwatch version.
However, Pebble closed its doors in December 2016, and Fitbit acquired some of its assets, including key personnel, for a disclosed amount between 23 million and 40 million.
Fitbit ended its support for Pebble watches in 2018, but a vibrant volunteer developer community is keeping the project alive. Pocuter is working with the founder of rebble.io, David Groom, and his enthusiastic community of Pebble-enthusiasts.
After certification of the prototype, the Spectra immediately goes into production. As Dogan shared:
"Unlike many Kickstarter or crowdfunding campaigns, which just come with the idea, which is also nice, we want to make sure that what we are delivering or promising will be delivered."
The Spectra smartwatch will be available for early buyers at a discounted price of €199.
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