Hong Kong-based startup Aricon has announced that its first product, an air-conditioning watch “Aircon”, has hit its funding goal on Kickstarter with 19 days of campaign left to go. The company claims this is the world’s first personal a/c watch that is supposedly able to cool off or warm up the wearer in the matter of minutes. Aircon watch is advertised as both a practical and medical devices, for example in recovering from sports injuries, and its temperature can go as low as 12 degrees Celsius (53 Fahrenheit) and has a maximal working temperature of 40 degrees Celsius or 104 F. So far, the project was backed by over 1,400 backers amassing nearly $125,000, over 20 times of the campaign goal.
The technology behind this watch is something Aircon likes to call ClimaCon and, basically, the device works by sending a controlled influx of heat or cold into the wearer’s wrist, creating the sensation of chosen climate. Small plate on the wrist strap is what sends the impulses, tricking the nervous system that the outer temperature is harsher than it really is which then manifests in the wearer’s body adjusting to these impulses. The watch itself is built of aluminium alloy, has an always-on OLED screen and three buttons for powering up/down the device and switching between cooling and heating modes. Integrated Li-on battery is certified at 400 mAh and can provide 4 hours of cooling, or 8 hours of heating, while the device in standby mode can last up to 48 hours on a single charge. Of course, besides providing a portable A/C system, Aircon functions as a regular watch, too, but doesn’t offer any features present in modern smartwatches.
Aircon plans to deliver the first batch of its air-conditioning watches to its backers in just a couple of months. If the production of the devices doesn’t hit any problems along its path, the backers can expect their watches to arrive as early as December 2017. During the Kickstarter campaign, Aircon watch can be pre-purchased for $79.99, which makes it $50 cheaper than the announced retail price and the customers can choose between black and white variants of the wrist strap.
