At present, traditional watch manufacturers do not have it easy at all, they are competed by technology companies, which will provide you with not only a time indicator on your wrist, but also a bunch of other functions for which you would otherwise have to reach into your smartphone pocket. The Czech watch manufacturer Leitners did not allow himself to get used to this trend and introduced the Ad Maiora hybrid watch, with which it is trying to conquer KickStarter. And so far he is doing more than well.
The company reached its original target of 30,000 euros in 24 minutes and in the first 24 hours they managed to raise 100,000 euros. To date, they have more than 355 customers and the total support has exceeded 160,000 euros. Thanks to this, the project is one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns in the Czech Republic.
Leitners Ad Maiora: an elegant yet smart watch
At first glance, the Ad Maiora watch is an elegant device to which you would not even attribute clever functions. The body is made of stainless steel, the glass is sapphire, the straps can be attached with metal, leather or rubber. You can choose the strap directly from Leitners, or attach your own, the spindle is 22 millimeters wide. The diameter of the watch is 42 millimeters, the depth is 12.6 mm, the manufacturer promises water resistance up to 100 meters.
–
The watch is controlled by a pair of buttons and a rotating crown on the right side, as well as a rotating bezel surrounding the dial. You can choose this directly in two versions (smooth, knurled), as well as you can choose whether you want a bezel and a watch body in black or silver. You can also choose the color of the dial.
They keep showing time
Compared to the recently reviewed Withings ScanWatch, Leitners watches choose a slightly different path – they do not have as many health features, but they boast essentially endless endurance. The time is not controlled digitally, but by the Miyota 9039 watch movement, which is stretched with simple hand movements. In idle mode, the watch lasts to show the exact time up to 42 hours.
Now let’s take a look at the additional features that a large e-ink display fills the entire space under the hands. Its advantage is that it consumes energy only when redrawing the contents, but probably due to the low capacity of the battery, the endurance of smart functions is only 1 week. Charging is ensured by a charger terminated with a USB-C connector.
By default, you can see the digital time and date on the display, and you can also view the stopwatch, countdown timer, world clock, and alarms. Among the clever functions, let’s name:
- phone notifications and message previews
- tracking sports activities, including altitude indicator and accurate tracking with the help of GPS
- sleep monitoring
- indicator of fulfillment of daily goals
- heart rate monitoring and blood oxygenation
- control the music player and camera on your smartphone
Price and availability
It can be assumed that the watch will go into mass production, while the first lucky ones should reach the middle of next year. The manufacturer expects a selling price of 1,100 EUR (about 29,200 crowns), however as part of the KickStarter campaign you can get them for as little as 469 EUR (about 12,500 crowns).
–
