Kickstarter is this amazingly innovative funding platform for creative projects. Simple people like you and I the world over can pledge money to any particular project they are interested in. No money changes hands until the project's funding goal has been reached but the project creators maintain ownership over their work no matter what.
One of these Kickstarter projects has lately made more noise than usual, bringing the Kickstart funding system to more people's attention. I am somewhat of a watch freak. I am also quite the tech nerd. So when these two worlds meet and they are fueled by something as cool as the Kickstarter project, my antennae perk up.
The idea came from design firm Minimal Inc. who are famous for, among other things, the design of the XBOX360. After hearing Steve Jobs mention that the new iPod nano would make a cool wristwatch, they decided to come up with something unique. Others had also been inspired by those few words (see picture), but the guys at Minimal took it one step further.
They decided to use the Kickstarter platform to raise the $15,000 they would need to get their nano watch off the ground. They came up with two models: TikTok and LunaTik. For a $25 pledge the participant would essentially be pre-ordering a TikTok watch kit (no nano included). For a $50 pledge they would get the LunaTik watch kit once it was produced. The actual retail cost of these items will be $34.95 and $69.95 respectively once they are made available to the public at large so getting in early as a Kickstarter participant saves early adopters some "dosh".
They produced a little video to explain the concept better and sat back to see how the Kickstarter participants would react. Little did they know that they would become the single most successful Kickstarter project ever. As of this writing they have raised $699,247 and chances are funds will continue to come in until the project gets funded precisely at 11:02 PM EST on my birthday, December 16.
If you are into small, thin, almost fragile timepieces, don't bother watching the video. You won't like what you see. If however you don't mind wearing something a little bigger than average on your wrist, and on top of that the marriage of form and function gets your adrenaline pumping, you might really enjoy what these little gems look like. If you're not sure what you think of this, don't worry: time will tell. Literally.