Basic notifications, fitness tracking, and convenient control of a smartphone from your wrist are among the most highly-touted benefits of a smartwatch. But what if you can get all of those while wearing the same Rolex Submariner you’ve loved all these years? That’s the promise behind the Chronos, a thin disc that attaches to the back of any watch and turns it into a smart device.
Measuring just 3mm thick and 33mm in diameter, it should fit around 80 percent of existing watches in the market, so you can wear it with most any timepiece in your collection. From your favorite rugged G-shocks to your fancy B&R X1 to the LEGO watch you can’t believe you actually enjoy wearing, just stick this in the back side of the watch case and you’re set.
Using an accompanying app, the Chronos can be programmed to vibrate and light up in order to alert you of specific notifications (it allows 56 distinct light and vibration patterns), so you can easily trim it down to important events (like an SMS from your wife), instead of getting five alerts per minute about someone liking your rant on Facebook. It also comes with basic fitness tracking (all data is logged in the app), along with gesture controls that trigger different actions on your phone. That way, you can tap your analog watch to skip a music track, start a phone call, or put your phone on silent without having to pull it out.
Features include a stainless steel enclosure, water-resistant construction, wireless charging, and a 36-hour battery life. Oh yeah, it uses a micro-suction adhesive backing, so you can easily move it from one watch to another without leaving any residue.
Now available for preorder, the Chronos is priced at $99.