If you are a tech geek with a love of the ’80s and an obsession with your cellphone, you’ll go cuckoo for the Cookoo watch and free app. Note: The app only works in conjunction with the watch.
So why are we crowing about it? Well, even if you are not a fanatical iPhone user, you’re bound to think this gadget is pretty neat.
This unisex watch was recently unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show after a successful Kickstarter campaign. It’s a product that seems a bit too good to be true.
Starting at $129.99 at dailygrommet.com, the watch (available in black, pink, white and blue) acts like the home screen of your phone.
It alerts you to emails, texts, calls, calendar appointments, Facebook and Twitter messages, among other things. So you no longer have to compulsively check your phone, or better, you can put it on silent and just respond to the vibrations on your wrist.
So you’d think this device would be a clunky, utilitarian-looking monstrosity, but it’s a rather stylish, casual time piece. And despite all its high-tech goodness, they chose to start with an analog model — nice irony.
The watch is substantial enough to look great on guys and the right kind of clunky that won’t look ridiculous on a woman who’s not afraid to go big.
But I will tell you the No. 1 selling point for me personally: It alerts you if you are leaving the building without your phone (no more would I be reduced to uncontrolled bursts of cursing loudly in my car and stamping all the way back to the office or home to retrieve my beloved smartphone).
And let’s say you get back to the office or home to begin your frantic search. Well, the watch will send out an alert to help you find it. Awesome, right?
Did I mention that it also syncs to your camera device so that you can take photos with a tap of the wrist?
And just in case you need more reason to consider it, the creators, Peter Hauser and Henri-Nicolas Olivier, even maximized the packaging. Each watch comes in its own birdhouse-style packaging that can actually be placed outside as a functioning birdhouse. It’s an homage to the gadget’s inspiration, the age-old cuckoo clock that chimes from afar announcing the hour.
