Cobalt Watch CB-91AI

Concept and use cases

The Cobalt Watch CB-91AI is a retrofit. Rather than designing yet another smartwatch, it transforms the Casio F-91W you already wear: swap the original board, close the case, and the watch keeps its LCD, time, alarm and stopwatch. You do the swap yourself, at home, with simple tools, in five to ten minutes.

The Casio's button becomes a push-to-talk voice assistant; the other two control music and volume. The watch talks over Bluetooth Low Energy to the Cobalt Task app, which holds the necessary permissions on the Android phone: send a message, start some music, jot down an idea, record a meeting, set a reminder or an appointment, start navigation, call someone.

The appeal of a retrofit is twofold: you keep a watch whose battery life, toughness and style have already proved themselves, and you avoid adding one more screen to your day.

Progress

The hardware is finalised and the range has three variants. The Proto V1, built for developers, is already on sale on Tindie: same nRF52840 and same voice pipeline, but in a 3D-printed PLA case, with no display, a USB-C port and open-source firmware (demo video).

The CB-91AI, the board that slips into a real F-91W, is on pre-order on Kickstarter via cobalt-watch.com. Gesture recognition, step counting and the light notification are in beta testing.

Planned features

The CB-91AI-W variant adds an NFC contactless chip, programmable for ten badges: open your building's door from your Casio — a daily use that on its own justifies wearing the watch. It also brings wireless charging, so the case never has to be opened again, and lays the groundwork for sharing a business card and for payments, in beta.