Smartwatches like the Apple Watch and Google Pixel Watch are great, but what if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t want a smartwatch that looks just like everyone else’s?
Maybe you don’t like the idea of being tempted to upgrade to the latest model every year. Well, the Spectra smartwatch could be the answer.
Pocuter, a startup that has run successful crowdfunding campaigns for a coin-sized microcomputer and an open-source keychain gaming console, has now set its sights on creating a smartwatch. The Spectra is billed in the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign as a “hackable smartwatch,” made from high-quality materials, that’s easy to repair, can run apps, and gives you more room to stack more apps on top.
The first big promise made is that getting to the essential parts to fix it will be a piece of cake. That’s something you can’t say about most mainstream smartwatches.
Everything is held together by just seven screws, and it takes a single screwdriver to get to those parts. You can also buy spare parts to make those repairs, and the parts will apparently be reasonably priced.
“Our main goal is to provide a premium user experience to the maker and hacker community,” said Gürkan Dogan, Chief Executive Office at Pocuter.
As for spare parts, there will be some well-known smartwatch parts available. There’s a rotating crown that supports scrolling and zooming through everything displayed on a pretty solid-sounding AMOLED screen with a resolution of 368 x 488 pixels.
There’s an accelerometer and gyroscope motion sensors to open the door to smart fitness tracking or even gaming. You also get a speaker and microphone, a PPG optical sensor and it’s all in a rectangular aluminum housing that certainly gives it the look of the CMF Watch Pro by Nothing.
Unlike most smartwatches, there will be a microSD card slot to increase storage to 512GB and performance will be powered by semiconductor company Espressif and one of its dual-core ESP32-S3 SoCs. That is accompanied by 8 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage.
On the software front, it runs on SpectraOS, a proprietary operating system that aims to support the ability to run apps. This will be complemented by a live app development platform that interested developers can tap into and show them the results of their smartwatch app coding in real time.
This is not the first hackable smartwatch in recent years. In 2021 there was the Watchy, a £50/$45 open-source smartwatch that included an eInk display, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and a vibration motor for those intrigued to play with it.
Go back even further and there was Blocks, one of the largest funded campaigns on Kickstarter that raised over £1 million/$1 million for a smartwatch that allows you to easily upgrade it by cutting new modules into it to add features like GPS, a heart rate sensor or a new battery. The startup behind it eventually ran out of money and liquidated its assets in 2019, leaving many disgruntled lenders and investors behind.
Mike Sawh
Mike Sawh
Mike Sawh
The Spectra feels more Watchy than Blocks, although it’s clear Pocuter wants to make sure its smartwatch still has the feel of a modern smartwatch, especially with the addition of that AMOLED screen and aluminum body. Money aside, the Spectra should really evoke the same kind of community spirit and developer buzz that the Pebble smartwatch did many years ago, before it was picked up by Fitbit.
As with all crowdfunding campaigns, you always run the risk that the device will be delayed or, worse, never ship at all. Looking at Pocuter’s previous campaigns, the small PocketStar gaming console has met its crowdfunding goal on Kickstarter, although a similar campaign on Indiegogo was suspended and marked as ‘currently under review’.
I reached out to see what had happened and Pocuter had chosen to use Kickstarter while not charging backers on Indiegogo. It was expected to be delivered in April 2023 and has since been shipped. The coin-sized Pocuter One microcomputer also surpassed its funding goal on Kickstarter and has also shipped. Delivery was originally scheduled to take place in 2021.
Based on the previous campaigns, there is likely a good chance that Spectra will reach its target goal of $30,000. You’ll need to part with €199 (about £166/$217) to get one at the early bird price. The expected delivery time is May 2025, which isn’t that far away.
According to Pocuter’s campaign page, this is the largest and most complex project to date. Now that Pebble is long gone, swallowed up by Fitbit, which now seems to be going through something similar at Google, there seems to be room for a new smartwatch for the creative hacker community.
Will the Spectra be the one to do it? I’m certainly curious if that’s possible.
