Behold, Our Favorite New High-Tech Bracelet
Wearable wearables, wherefore art thou, wearable wearables? Thankfully — fiiiiinally — after a helluva lot of searching and a ton of pieces that plunk into the “don’t” category during our dream shopping sprees the answer is: “almost here.” Earlier this month we were celebrating the release of Ringly and hoping it would be the key to unlocking an entire Zale’s store worth of actually wearable tech for women. It looks like we might have another piece to add to our jewelry box: Beacon & Lively’s futuristic, superpowered cuff.
At very first glance the bangle looks a little “dystopian future fashion” — maybe even something more like Cinna, The Hunger Games’ high fashion, haute-ie Tim Gunn would wear as opposed to what frilly, girly, color-loving Effie Trinket would sport. But after watching B&L’s video of the bracelet in action on a girl whose life we kinda want but whose boyfriend we don’t want at all (Red, way to show up mid-song during her set, you jerk — Cute Hipster Songstress, you’re probably way too good for this dude), we want.
The sleek, swirled cuff (which is even prettier in gold) wraps around your wrist and notifies you of incoming messages with vibrations and ambient colors. Similar to Ringly, you can tailor these to buzz and flash differently based on what type of notification (phone calls, emails, texts) or who specifically is contacting you.
The team behind Beacon & Lively focused on nailing the design first and fit their tech into it — are we seeing a trend here? They started creating their prototypes using 3D printers. Today’s B&L Cuff is cast in bronze, then plated in gold, silver or shiny black ruthenium with a satin finish and an LED lens that illuminates when that guy you’re waiting on finally texts.
It’s rare that you make it to an enviable Kickstarter while Early Early Bird pledges are still available but this one still has a few spots left at $145. Once those are gone, regular Early Bird pricing is $165 and all the cuffs you can string on your wrist can be snatched up for a $185 pledge expected to ship around January 2015. Next year seems far away, but by then your wearables — you know, the rings that bling when your mom calls, nail art that gets you to stop smoking, a bracelet that buzzes when your Tinder crush texts — probably won’t be so lonely in their re-chargeable jewelry boxes.
What do you think of the Beacon & Lively cuff? Would you wear it? What wearable are you most dying to wear?