In case you haven’t heard of it, Blocks is a U.K. company aiming to build modular smartwatches that can better suit the needs of wearable buyers looking to modify their gadgets to best suit their needs. And now the company has already demoed an early prototype of its Blocks modular smartwatch at a Bluetooth Special Interest Group event in London, Engadget reports.
While the device is far from a sleek-looking smartwatch and is more of a functional concept of what Blocks intends to do, the team ultimately wants to be able to offer users devices as good-looking as the Moto 360, as seen in the image above. Blocks wants to support various types of displays, both when it comes to shape but also to their technology (OLED or e-ink) and it wants to make sure its smartwatches are compatible with any smartphone operating system.
Blocks is apparently working on its own platform, but it’s also experimenting with Android Wear, although it hasn’t decided on a final OS yet for its modular device.
The company wants to start a crowd-funding campaign this fall, with shipments projected well into the following year. A basic package could cost from $200 to $250, while a premium Blocks smartwatch that will come with additional swappable modules will cost from $300 to $350 – these price tiers aren’t set in stone though.
The main block of a Blocks smartwatch consists of the display module, which also packs the processor, the Bluetooth chip and a primary battery. Thus, the primary module will be more expensive than other modules, which will house either additional batteries, or other sensors such as accelerometer, gyroscope, NFC, RFID, SIM-card slots, cameras, microphones and others.
An image showing the current bulky, but working, prototype follows below.
