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Posted on March 26th, 2009 by Jon Honeyball
Meet the, um, clockwork smartphone
Fish and chips. Steak and ale pie. Rolls and Royce. Some things were always meant to be together. Now take a Swiss watch, with a mechanical winding rotor, and merge it into a… cellphone.
Nope, it’s not working for me either.
Use the rotor winder to charge the phone battery. Nope, it’s still not doing it for me.
Maybe the quiet, understated look of the device will convince you that this is a sensible coming-together of two worlds…
To see the Ulysse Nardin Chairman in all its 3D glory, head to www.uncells.com
4 Responses to “ Meet the, um, clockwork smartphone ”
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March 26th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
I was convinced the phone was an April Fool when I first saw it. But if it is, various media outlets seem to have swallowed it hook line and sinker.
Maybe it started off as a gag, but then when people started taking it seriously they thought “Shite, we’d better actually build one of these”.
The main thing that makes me suspicious is that Kinetic rotors work in watches because a) wrists move around a fair amount, and b) it only takes a teensy weensy little charge to power a watch. I really can’t see it providing enough power to have a significant impact on a phone’s battery life.
So, I think I’m going to go on record as saying I still think it’s a wind-up (if you’ll forgive the pun). But as I’m the only person saying it I feel a bit like the boy in the Emperor’s New Clothes.
March 27th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
I suspect that the kind of people who buy these toys are already in the habit of shaking vigorously, any piece of technology that fails to do as they require. I bet when it runs low on power it starts flashing up a message – “give me to a member of your entourage”
March 27th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
About as convincing as reports of Microsoft merging with Dell…
March 30th, 2009 at 10:59 am
The website says the rotor delivers ‘SUPPLEMENTAL’ power to the device. In other words, it tops up a battery. A very elegant get-out.