Oh no, you're thinking, yet another cookie pop-up. Well, sorry, it's the law. We measure how many people read us, and ensure you see relevant ads, by storing cookies on your device. If you're cool with that, hit “Accept all Cookies”. For more info and to customize your settings, hit “Customize Settings”.

Review and manage your consent

Here's an overview of our use of cookies, similar technologies and how to manage them. You can also change your choices at any time, by hitting the “Your Consent Options” link on the site's footer.

Manage Cookie Preferences
  • These cookies are strictly necessary so that you can navigate the site as normal and use all features. Without these cookies we cannot provide you with the service that you expect.

  • These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.

  • These cookies collect information in aggregate form to help us understand how our websites are being used. They allow us to count visits and traffic sources so that we can measure and improve the performance of our sites. If people say no to these cookies, we do not know how many people have visited and we cannot monitor performance.

See also our Cookie policy and Privacy policy.

This article is more than 1 year old

Chumps stump up $1 MEELLLION for watch that doesn't exist

By the way, I have a really nice bridge you might like...

An Indiegogo project to build a watch that projects its display onto your hand has blown the doors off its target by raising a million dollars in funding – even though no functional device has yet been built.

The Ritot watch uses a DLP matrix in a wristband to project an image on to the back of the wearer's hand. In addition to the time, the watch can show caller ID, texts, Facebook statuses and tweets.

It’s a compelling device. Having raised 2,482 per cent of its target funding of $50,000, the company has added multiple colours of bracelets and a fitness tracker. However, it eventually gave up trying to work out what to do with the extra money and asked for contributor suggestions.

Unfortunately, there is a problem. It’s hinted at in the Indiegogo pitch, where – in between saying that by funding the project you are to become a piece of history, a compelling video and the projected February 2015 shipping date – there is a rather troubling line: “Currently we don’t have a fully working prototype, the photos in campaign [sic] are computer renderings of what we envision the device to look like.”

I predict a Ritot

Hands up who wants their money back?

It’s telling that Kickstarter would not have accepted a project at this stage. Indiegogo is more liberal. The renderings show the time displayed with the wearer's hand at all kinds of different angles, yet in the description of the components there is nothing on the optics which might track the position of the hand it’s projecting the display onto.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the contributors' comments section has descended into a set of uncouth squabbles among some of the 6,910 people who put money into the endeavour. The technology has also been comprehensively debunked by the Dropkicker website.

If you want to fund something that has a much higher likelihood of getting off the ground you’d do much better to visit the Kickstarter page for Project LOHAN. Who knows, with $1.2m we might even put Lester himself into space. ®

Ritot pitch video. Nice production, shame about the lack of working prototype.

Similar topics

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like