• by James , November 21, 2010

BUT THIS IS SO COOL!!!

The day Steve Jobs unveiled the new Nano, he mentioned in passing that one of his board members was planning to wear it as a watch. If you’re like me, you probably thought, “Cool. Let’s move onto something more interesting.” So I’m a little surprised to experience this “Whoah!” shockwave. Weeks later, Jobs’ small mention of it has revamped my Christmas list—and might even help to revolutionize the watch industry.

Hyperbole? Maybe. But I’m excited! Check it out—

The iPod Nano comes with an analog clock app. You could clip it to just about any regular watchband or bracelet and it could replace your watch. But it’s more than just a watch, it’s still your iPod—so you’ll have your music, a pedometer, an FM radio, and the Nike+ feature (if you have that thing in your shoe and the adapter plugged into the iPod). Now that the iPod is on your wrist and not strapped to your arm, you’ll be able to SEE your progress.

You’re convinced to wear it on your wrist, yeah? Great. You’ll need a nice strap for it.

You could go with a plain band by Fossil. Countycomm makes a nylon strap. The problem with both of those is that they're not as wide as the Nano, so you’ll have unsightly overhang...and it doesn’t seem that the iPod is kept from sliding up and down the band. A couple companies are making rubbery watchstraps that actually encase the iPod…which are cool, but if I’m paying $150 for an iPod to stick on my wrist, I want it to look like the fancy piece of technology it is. No rubbery stuff for me. iWant metal.

Helloooooo Scott Wilson! This guy is the brains behind MINIMAL, a design firm out of Chicago. Those folks have put together a couple of concepts that (thanks to Kickstarter) will be in full production by Christmas. I’ll let you check them out for yourself, but I wanted to be sure you know about them.

The TikTok and LunaTik are both great designs. I love love love that the LunaTik exposes the back clip of the Nano so that the back of the watch is a solid piece, showcasing the Apple logo (see below). I also like that the face of the iPod is encased by a silver metal. No matter what color Nano you get, this watch could still look somewhat professional. (Okay, it's not going to look like your Rolex...but can your Rolex do anything cool? Didn't think so.)

The TikTok (below) isn't a bad design. It has a lower profile than the LunaTik (both pictures above), but I'm less attracted to it because I feel snapping my iPod in and out of that watch might wear the paint off the metal. I also wonder if the iPod would slide left-to-right in that strap. However, if you're one who won't always wear the iPod on your wrist, the TikTok may be the solution for you. At $35, it's the cheaper of the two designs, and that seems like a fairly standard Apple accessory price.

The LunaTik will lock your iPod into a watch, as the pins that go through the bands also lock the frame pieces together. That one will retail for $70 (yikes!). The good news is that if you get in on the ground floor (listen to me sounding like a pyramid schemer), the TikTok is only $25 and the LunaTik is only $50. To get that price, you'll have to jump on board at Kickstart before Dec. 16. These are bound to be a big hit this year, so watch (pun!) for them online. I bet the Apple store picks them up pretty quickly.