Above: The 0.8mm thin CST-01 with Charging Base (source: Kickstarter)
While we’re fresh on the topic of crowdfunding (did you see our report on DuBois et fils and their 1.5 million effort?), let’s take a look at an interesting project that is heating up on the site that made crowdfunding famous, Kickstarter. Central Standard Timing of Chicago Illinois is seeking funds to advance its working prototype of the CST-01, dubbed “The World’s Thinnest Watch” to production.
As thin as a credit card (0.8mm), the CST-01 has an e-ink display which charges in 10 minutes and runs for a month. The CST-01 sits and charges on an equally well designed base charging station. The CST-01 is powered by a THINERGY® Micro-Energy Cell (MEC), a revolutionary, solid-state, rechargeable, thin-film micro-energy source from Infinite Power Solutions, Inc. Damn impressive if you ask me, and I hope they can make a smooth transition from prototype to production. They will certainly have the necessary capital — at present, the project has raised $295,500, exceeding its $200,000 funding hurdle….and they’ve only been live a few days (41 days to go)!
You can check out all the tech and spec details on the Kickstarter project page, here.
On a related note, it has been quite interesting following the decent number of wristwatch projects that have come through Kickstarter. The Pebble e-ink watch is the one that really became an overnight sensation — Pebble crowdfunded a cool $10.3 million from $70,000 people (here’s to hoping they can deliver). Most of the Kickstarter watch projects I have seen are more “high-tech” in nature than “high-mech” (mechanical), and as you can see with both Pebble and now the CST-01, there are some great ideas out there in high-tech watch concepts.
And of course the rumor mill is full of talk about Apple and the iWatch…but that’s a story for another day.
If you’d like to get in on the CST-01 funding, it’s not too late — check it out at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1655017763/cst-01-the-worlds-thinnest-watch
Oh — and also be sure to check the live looks of the CST-01 proto over from Sarah Silber at Engadget.
