14 DAY TRIAL // We've been publishing news about projects posted on the Kickstarter website for quite some time now, and again an interesting invention has appeared, one that has a very specific customer base in mind.
One might be tempted to think that having such a specific consumer base as target would be counterproductive for a Kickstarter project.
After all, the posts are crowd-funded, which means that any deliberate cut to the number of prospective buyers will mean one less pledge.
Fortunately, the Bradley wrist watch doesn't have to worry about that, nor does designer Hyungsoo Kim of Eone Timepieces.
After all, even though there are 34 days to go, the device has already exceeded its target. At the time of this article's writing, backers had pledged a cumulative $72,120 / €55,349, versus the required $40,000 / €30,698.
So what is the device and what does it do, you ask? The short version is that Bradley is a wrist watch that even blind people can use easily.
The long version is that Bradley uses two ball bearings to indicate the hour and the minutes. They move along channels etched into the top and the edge of the watch, respectively.
Magnets keep them connected and move them about as time passes. They can be moved when touched, but they go back to their position with just a shake of the wrist.
The raised hands on the face provide another tactile guide. While most hours are marked by thick lines, the hour 12 is a large triangle.
For those who want the story behind the name, Lt. Brad Snyder lost his vision in an IED explosion in Afghanistan. He worked as a bomb defuser and, unfortunately, had some bad luck. And yet he still won two gold medals and one silver in the 2012 London Paralympics.
Independence, or rather self-reliance, is, thus, the idea behind the watch. I imagine that anyone could get behind that.
