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The Bradley Tactile Watch

Posted: July 15, 2013
$285 - $395
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Although I'm largely an insensitive bastard, even I was puzzled to hear that visually impaired people currently have only 2 types of watches available to them: those that talk, and those with removable covers that allow for touching the hands of the clock face. Both have major drawbacks, such as an inability to hear them in noisy places, or damaging/breaking the delicate analog hands during use.

The Bradley, a tactile watch for the blind as well as the sighted, cleverly circumvents these issues with raised hash marks encircling its body, and a pair of ball bearings that rotate to designate hours and minutes. It allows one and all--whether they have permanent loss of vision, want to check the time in a dark room or theater without blaring a watch or cell phone backlight, or are in painfully boring company and don't want the poor saps to see them counting down the minutes to a planned escape--to determine how many of today's 24 hours have gone by using no more than a finger.

Those with functional sight may also approve of the Bradley's simple, elegant design. A brushed titanium body pairs with the buyer's choice of a stainless steel mesh or leather & fabric band in yellow, olive green, or silver blue.

A precise Swiss Quartz movement controls Bradley functionality, which features the aforementioned ball bearings connected by magnets to a watch movement beneath the face. The top ball bearing indicates minutes, and the one on the side hours. The magnets serve to maintain accurate time--if fingers move the ball bearings while checking them, a gentle shake of the wrist will allow the magnetic force to draw them back to their appropriate place.

The Bradley blows it up on Kickstarter through August 15, 2013.

November 2013 Update: The Bradley exceeded its crowdfunding goal and is now available for direct purchase--follow the link above.

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