Being able to track a morning jog and listen to some tunes without carrying a phone around is surely one of the key selling points of modern-day smartwatches – so why not combine the smartwatch and a pair of wireless earbuds in one compact form?
That's the thinking behind the Wristbuds, currently seeking funding on Kickstarter. Flick back the face of the smartwatch, and you've got a couple of AirPods-style earbuds ready to beam tunes direct to your ears via the magic of Bluetooth.
The gadget has already blazed past its US$5,000 funding goal: you can back the project for $99 and get a Wristbuds smartwatch delivered to you around April, but the usual Kickstarter caveats apply – projects don't always lead to fully developed hardware.
You'll also need to pay another $30 to unlock the watch's ability to store MP3 files on its own internal storage, so you can go phone-free. The Wristbuds watch is able to hold around 1,000 tracks on the go, according to its maker.
Not only does the smartwatch keep the earbuds safe and accessible, it also charges them up, too, so there's no need for a separate charging case. The battery life of the earbuds isn't listed, which seems an odd omission, but apparently the wearable can go for up to four days between recharges, which is impressive.
That four-day battery life suggests the smartwatch isn't going to be one of the most advanced on the market, though it can do the basics of activity tracking and showing phone alerts (it's compatible with both Android and iOS).
The team behind Wristbuds is promising superior audio quality from the earbuds, with noise cancellation built in, and graphene-coated drivers which apparently improve fidelity. They're being advertised as being able to stay securely in place during workouts and other activities as well.
Of course, it's difficult to be sure about these claims without actually testing the Wristbuds smartwatch and earbuds, but that's the same of just about anything on Kickstarter. If you'd rather bide your time until production is fully up and running, the gadget will eventually go on sale for a retail price of $149 if all runs to plan.
It's clear that other hardware makers are keen to get some of the Apple AirPods market, and the Wristbuds wearable is one of the more imaginative takes on the truly wireless earbuds design that we've seen so far.
Product page: Wristbuds
