Wristcam is an ambitious $ 300 Apple Watch bracelet with two cameras

Everything on the $ 300 Wristcam for Apple Watch looks ridiculous on his face. There is the price, which is more than the entry level Apple Watch SE. There’s the fact that it requires a separate inductive charger, although it can charge at the same time as your Apple Watch. There is the product itself, which is water resistant watch band with two integrated cameras: an 8 megapixel lens facing outwards and a 2 MP selfie lens. I imagine anyone who uses it will look like a really silly spy.

And yet I find myself intrigued. I often use the Apple Watch as a remote control for my iPhone’s camera – usually when shooting videos of myself for work – so the idea of ​​using the watch itself as a camera is appealing. Apple has come a long way in making the Apple Watch a device capable of operating independently of a phone, with cellular connectivity and a native App Store, so I can appreciate an accessory that goes further.

So let me paint a picture of Wristcam, how it works and why it might be useful or dare I say cool, and you can let me know if I’ve lost my mind.

Wristcam as a concept is not new. He debuted under another name, CMRA, back in 2016. But this iteration of the group wasn’t a real product – it was a Kickstarter campaign that never materialized, and no units were ever sold, a company spokesperson told me. Wristcam, as the product is now called, is a working device with new features and is available for purchase starting today from the Wristcam website.

So why, exactly, would a person want not one, but two cameras on their wrist? Well, there are times when we find ourselves without a phone immediately at hand – during family gatherings or extreme sports. It’s hard to predict when these moments will happen, but when they do, the founders of Wristcam believe their watch bands will be the perfect tool to capture them.

In fact, using the group’s cameras seems as easy as it gets (although we haven’t tried it yet). There is a physical button that acts as a trigger; a quick press lets you take a photo, a long press lets you shoot a video, and a double click switches between rear facing and rear facing cameras. Wristcam says he has created a complication for the Apple Watch face, so you can tap it to immediately open the camera and see what it sees. A double tap on the screen toggles between the two cameras. The bracelet’s exterior LED lights activate when you take a photo or video, so people know exactly what you are doing. This minimizes the creep factor, but also good luck trying to subtly lift your wrist to capture a selfie or video without anyone noticing. It is not a product designed to be surreptitious.

The coolest part, for me, is the fact that the band is designed to complement the watch, not to suck life out of it. Wristcam charges separately from the watch as it has its own built-in battery, which lasts about an hour in continuous use or two days in heavy use. If you do not use it constantly, the bracelet will go into standby mode to save battery power, which will extend the life up to a week. Wristcam also has 8GB of on-board storage that can store up to an hour of HD video (both cameras shoot at 1080p, which is more than I would expect from a watchband, to be honest) . The group also integrates wifi and Bluetooth 5 connectivity, which allows it to connect directly to your phone to synchronize photos or connect to a wifi network alone. When you charge the bracelet, it should sync everything you captured with the Wristcam app on your iPhone and with your phone’s camera roll, then clear the built-in storage. That’s pretty smart crap.

But what do the photos actually do look like, you ask? Wristcam sent me samples, so check them out below.

As you can see, they are not of stunning quality, but they are also great!

The group can also shoot live video, allowing you to use your Apple Watch as a walkie talkie using the Wristcam app to communicate with a friend using their own Wristcam or iPhone. You can already do something similar with Apple’s native Walkie-Talkie app, but it’s only audio and, frankly, a bit of a mess to use in practice. I can’t imagine how the functionality of Wristcam would be better or more useful than just using your phone for FaceTime, but everyone has their own.

Considering the saturation of the hardware, the band itself is a bit gigantic, although it only weighs 35 grams, roughly the same weight as an Apple Watch aluminum case itself. And as for the price, well, Apple sells its own fabric watch bands without any smart features for $ 100, so there’s clearly no rhyme or reason for the price of the Apple Watch band. (Wristcam has the Made for Apple Watch designation, which means it meets Apple’s specifications for watch bands.)

I’ll be honest: I don’t see myself wearing this stuff all the time, if ever. But I also like it. After all, the best camera is the one you have with you, and if that camera is tucked into an Apple Watch band, well, of course. Why not? This weird little gadget is at least fun and ambitious, and I don’t hate it, which is more than I can say for anything else about 2020.

Wristcam is available to order today on the Wristcam website in five shades: black, white, gray, a rose pink, and a sage green. The current lineup is made from a sporty plastic material, but the company is working on more options to launch next year.