The battle for the wrist heats up

Interactive watches, smart-rings and now the full-tablet form factor hits the wrist. Will it be a hit or will it all be the next 3D-television hype that never took off seriously?

Hardware manufacturers are beginning to explore the wrist to the fullest. With Microsoft kicking off in the early years of this century, it's now Apple that tries to rule the wrist with their Apple Watch, leaving early innovators like Pebble and HotWatch behind.

I've got an Apple watch myself. I like it but it's not something that I really need. Still after 3 months of use, I'm surprised the fact that Apple is capable of selling these watches ;-). It has very little functionality, is often slow and basically the iPhone rules above the watch. Why look at a small screen when you can look at the big one?

I've spotted the Rufus Cuff early last year and now they're running into the production phase. The Cuff is basically a small tablet computer with a wristband. The original design study looked promising, but the production model is somewhat "cheap". If you cough up $249 or more you've got a tablet on your wrist complete with GPS, Wifi and all the other connectivity you need for modern times. You will still need to connect to a phone in other to make phone calls though. 
By the size of the thing, it's clearly designed for Californians who tend not to wear shirts, only T-shirts.
Are you going to waste you money on a Cuff?

One can wonder if the battle for the wrist will ever end. Personally I like my wrist to be silent, smooth and functional. I really like the Dutch watchmaker Christiaan van der Klaauw. These amazing astronomical mechanical watches will survive "empty" batteries a long time and will be a good investment too. Superb craftsmanship to tell time, tides and moon phases, what else does a man need?

Christiaan van der Klaauw, Real Moon Tides