It’s the time! We are live on IndieGoGo again. Check out our new campaign!

Let’s face it, cables, old development platform, expensive sensors, a breadboard, a power source, more cables… this just doesn’t fit with the new generation of developers. We want to change this! We have two main ideas behind the watchX:

1- Use what you make!
2- Learn Industrial design!
3- Be the next Elon MUSK (just kidding, remember I said two).

watchX is delivered to the customers all around the world!

What is watchX?

watchX is an Arduino/Scratch compatible wearable development board that will extend your imagination because you wear it! You can use watchX as a regular watch when you don’t use it for development purposes. It has a freaking cool design and mind blowing watch firmware that is packed into a cool design.

OK! It’s time to move on from the desk to the wrist. We are so excited for what you can do with watchX!

* The referance 3D model for 3D Printing will be published.

* Educational video about how to design your own case is coming soon.

* The watchX that you see in the pictures are prototypes.
Final watchX will be the same as 360 3D model.

It’s Arduino compatible!

We all love Arduino, it’s simple, there is a lot of documentation available, it’s just amazing. watchX without Arduino is unthinkable. watchX is Arduino compatible, this means; when you plug the watchX to your computer all you need to do is to open up your favorite Arduino IDE and start programming.

It’s Scratch compatible!

We all love our kids, we care them a lot. We want them to eat the healthiest food and we wish the best for their future. Actually, there is more you can do than just wishing the best! watchX is Scratch compatible so that kids can get their hands on watchX easily. watchX engages kids a lot; because, they use what they make! This drives them to develop next day and increase their excitement!

Result: happy young developers.

Advanced users:

watchX is a development platform for all, we did not limited watchX to Arduino and Scratch. You can compile your code using Atmel Studio and program the watchX. All the low-level code and libraries will be provided so that you can focus on your idea. There are lots of things we can do together!

Grand Vision

watchX and its current state is just the tip of the iceberg. Only a huge community of developers and makers can unlock the true potential of watchX. This is exactly what we dream of, a huge community of developers exchanging information, developing cool apps and games. There are cool features waiting to be developed such as a mobile app that will allow watchX to be used as a smartwatch. Remember great things in life never done by a single person, they are done by a team of people.

Do what you can’t!

We tend to believe that great stuff will come up from extraordinary people, this is not true!! With the right tools and gadgets, anyone can accomplish great things. It’s just a matter of taking the first step!

We believe that watchX will serve for anyone to accomplish, next big thing in wearables, electronics or industrial design! The true potential of watchX is within you! Here is just a few example of what you could build:

Specifications

Programming the Watch

watchX is a development board for users from a variety of age. We can simply divide users into two categories. Advanced users and beginner users.

Beginner Users:

watchX is Arduino compatible. It will be loaded with Arduino Uno Bootloader for beginners. To program the watch, just download the Arduino IDE and plug the watchX to the USB port. USB drivers will automatically be installed. Then you should choose Arduino Uno from tools/boards/arduino uno, then you can write your own code or simply download a sample sketch from our web site and program the watch.

watchX is scratch compatible. You just download the Scratch and install the firmware required to be installed to watchX in order for the watch to communicate with Scratch. You can choose “pre-load Scratch firmware” option while you are purchasing watchX or you can install it by yourself, it’s easy. Just copy provided code, paste it to Arduino IDE and send the code to watch, you are all set.

Advanced Users:

watchX has ISP programming capability. You can develop your code through atmel studio and program the IC through ISP. Remember that you need an ISP programmer for doing this, any Arduino can be used as ISP programmer as well. We will provide you a detailed explanation about how to develop your code at Atmel studio and program the IC using ISP. You can simply burn the IC with arduino uno bootloader and use it as arduino uno as well.

Software

watchX firmware you saw on video:
watchX has an excellent firmware thanks to ZAK, almost everything is animated nice and beautiful . 
watchX firmware has apps like:

Alarms: You can set-up up to 10 alarms, each alarm has the hour, minute and which the days of the week it should be active on.

Flashlight: It is crazy, we recommend you to use it at a party, it’s cool.

Stopwatch: You can start and stop stopwatch, it can also run in the background.

Games: We have two fun games that you saw on video, it’s amusing what this little puppy can do isn’t it:)

Settings: Settings have four sub-categories. You can increase or decrease display brightness. You have volume control in UI, alarms and hour beep. You can set display sleep time-out to increase battery life. And you can invert the screen also you can turn on/off animations.

An app that you can run your own code: This app will run your own code. There is a section in the software where you can write your own code. Once you write your code and send it to the watch, you can navigate to the app from menu to run your code. You can also add other apps to menu.

We designed watchX, software in mind. We tried to use ICs that are popular in Arduino/maker community for sample code availability and IC familiarity. For instance, we used MPU 6050 as accelerometer/gyroscope.

If you are not satisfied with our sample code, you can reach lot’s of sample code sources online like Adafruit or Sparkfun.

Charging/Battery Life:

watchX equipped with intelligent charging circuitry. When you connect the watch to a USB port or another power source, charging circuitry disconnects the battery from an electrical load of watchX and starts to charge it. Required power of watchX during charging is supplied from the power source. This way, the battery does not discharge while charging. When battery is fully charged, charging IC stops charging.

This gives you the advantage of using your watchX for different applications where you need long constant power at remote locations. You can use watchX without worrying about battery overcharge! In case of electrical black out the watchX battery will kick in.

While the watch is running, microcontroller tries to go to sleep as much as possible. In sleep mode, power consumption can be around 0,8 mA - 2 mA. In sleep mode microcontroller turns the OLED display off and goes into power down sleep mode where it is only woken by either a button press, an RTC alarm or USB being plugged in. In this state, microcontroller draws around 100nA. In sleep mode overall current draw is around 6uA. In normal usage current draw is around 10mA this can increase up to 70mA.

        - During sleep mode(6uA): ~2.8 years
        - Typical usage (10mA): ~15 hours
        - High (65mA): ~ 2 hours.

*If the watch is used in active mode for 1 minute a day and volume channels set to minimum, watch battery should last around 1 year and 3 months.

Hardware

Let’s start with MCU, we used atmega328p to cover all users from a variety of age. We are aware of the atmega328p is a little underpowered for advanced users however; it will still do the trick;)

We have 1.3 128x64 SSD1306 OLED Display on board. The way we connect the display to the board is unique. Usually, OLED displays are soldered on PCB, there is nothing wrong about this, however; OLED displays can be very fragile if you don’t protect them. Once you break the display unsolder-solder process is very painful. We used flat flex connector(FFC) type OLED display. If you broke the display you can simply pop up the connector hand and change the OLED. Another advantage of FFC connector type OLED is you can take off the display and use the board for applications that don’t require a display in a harsh environment.

The battery does not require soldering! We used a very slim connector to connect the battery to the board, this will allow you to change the battery once your battery dies or when you want to use a higher capacity battery. When you are not using the watch you can also disconnect the battery to store the watch safely.

We have 3 tactile switches. You can use these switches for navigating at watch menu. Switches will be handy on your own development as well.

We have two general purpose green LEDs under the display.

watchX packed with many features and sensors. It’s really very hard to describe every feature of it. It’s totally different to experience watchX in real life instead of reading the specs. We hope you will love it.

Housing

watchX does not include any housing because:

It’s freaking cool to have a PCB in watch style.

It will force you to learn 3D design. Remember as humans we only learn something if we need it! You will need a housing for watchX sooner or later. Then you will download the 3D design, you will be amused that 3D design includes everything that exists on the real product. Then you will go to the good old friend GOOGLE and type 3D design, for finishing out how to import a STEP file, how to draw something on 3D model etc. Then you will get familiar with the industrial design.

watchX can be used as something else other than watch. You can set an alarm ( or trigger) to water the plants on certain days of the week. Or you can use it as an outdoor weather station. All these applications require different housing designs. We will give you the 3D model of watchX. There will be everything on the 3D model that you will see on watchX itself(including resistors and capacitors). You won’t need any measurement to draw the case you need for your application. We will also provide you different housing designs ready to download. Then you can print these housings with a 3D printer.

Options of watchX

*Regardless of which one you pick, you can use the one you like after purchase.

If I back, what do I get?

Stretch Goals

Why we are in INDIEGOGO

We are a group of engineers who left their job and put their time and money to develop watchX. We are covering all the expenses of watchX from our savings. We believe that we did well till this point. To move forward we need more money than we can cover. This is where we need you and IndieGoGo. If we can receive enough money from our campaign, we will cover expenses like:

- Component sourcing
- Printed Circuit Board(PCB) Manufacturing
- PCB Assembly
- Boxing of watchX
- Certification and Licensing

Also, we need a certain number of orders because some components we use require a minimum order quantity limit. We hope you back us on overcoming these problems.

Our Road Map After Funding

*Manuf. = Manufacturing

Your contribution is very important for the success of our campaign.

About the Team

We are a team of engineers, designers and creative people who enjoy to design and develop hardware that touches people’s lives. Before we started developing watchX, me (Mustafa), Enes and Omer, were working at a medical R&D company that manufactures fully implantable medical pacemakers. I (Mustafa) was Lead Engineer who was in charge of managing the operation from concept to manufacturing. Enes was design engineer who had to overcome delicate topics like waterproofness and body compatible industrial design and Omer was responsible for the manufacturing of PCBs without any problem.  We gained most of our expertise in electronics, industrial design and PCB manufacturing during 2 years of hard work and study. Our team got even powerful with Gokhan and Harun who are very talented engineers as well.

Mustafa TULU

Co-founder of argeX, Embedded system designer of watchX. Worked for confidential military projects, research facilities and PCB manufacturing related projects. Enjoys fitness, aviation and nature.

Expecting a baby in three months:)

Enes CALDIR

Co-founder of argeX, He is responsible for all design related topics of watchX, he prepared very cool reference housing designs for watchX. Stay tuned! He loves bikes and cats. He currently drives MT-07. His cat’s name is Merlion. We named her after our visit to Singapore :)

Zak Kemble

Zak is a highly talented embedded software engineer. He is the developer of piece of art watchX watch UI firmware. He enjoys DIY electronics projects and exploring outdoors.

Omer OZLU

Responsible for problem free manufacturing of watchX, has excellent social relations. Passionate about mountain climbing, He climbed Mountain Kazbek, Suphan, Erciyes, Demirkazik. His next destination is Elbrus Russia.

Gokhan SELAMET

Software guy, he is responsible for future improvements of watchX firmware. Loves music, he is a skilled drum player. He is planning to invent his own electronic drum one day.

Harun BASKAYA

Harun is responsible for all the media related things of watchX, he is passionate about photography. We are thrilled to have him on board.

Risks and Challenges

There are always challenges in mass production. We have to make sure our products will be secure and reliable and they can be manufactured efficiently at large volumes.

Thankfully, we have strong experience in PCB design and manufacturing process from our ex-work. We still keep in touch with people whom we supplied electronic components and bare PCBs. We also established very good relations with manufacturers in Shenzhen/China. Moreover, watchX does not require the same tooling cost and manufacturing risks as products with injection molded plastic require.

Of course, there are risks involved with the manufacturing of watchX. Unexpected changes in component lead times or availability are examples of factors that can affect delivery time line. We are doing our best to minimize these risks and deliver watchX right on time.

The other risk with our product or any other product is shipping. There are a number of unforeseen incidents that can cause problems during shipping of watchX. We plan to work with proven companies that will carry watchX safe and sound to your doorstep.