Consumer IoT Startup Witworks Launches Wrist Wearable Device Blink

Bengaluru-based consumer IoT startup Witworks has launched a smart wearable device, Blink.

Blink runs on Witworks’ own voice-based operating system, Marvin OS (built on top of Android); and provides a reimagined interaction (UX/Input) designed specifically for a smaller 1.4-inch screen.

Talking about the product Ankit DP, co-founder & CPO of Witworks, said, “Not being a mobile OEM gives us the liberty to start from the ground-up instead of replicating the features and UX of a mobile phone on the wrist. Marvin, being a watch-first OS, has a completely reimagined interaction and features for a small 1.4 inch display screen. ”

The Team

Founded by a team of IIT Kharagpur alumni Somnath Meher, Ankit DP, & Chandrashekhar Iyer, Witworks started in 2014.

It is currently working with a team of 20 and is operating across India, Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

The team recently raised a round of investment from Fireside Ventures, Investopad, and P39 Capital. The round also saw participation from Anupam Mittal (Shaadi.com founder); Pranay Jivrajka (COO, Ola Cabs); Maninder Gulati (Chief Strategy Officer, Oyo Rooms); Abhinav Sinha (COO, Oyo Rooms); and top executives from ITC.

About Marvin OS

Marvin has the capability to integrate various native and third-party applications. This allows Blink to run several stand-alone functions ranging from playing music, tracking user activity, and user authentication without any dependency on the phone.

Apart from native features like notifications, timeline (synced calendar, reminders, to-dos), fitness tracking, in-built music; Blink also has the capability to run other key third- party services such as payments, commuting, navigation, local discovery.

With its speech-to-text conversion, Marvin allows Blink to complete the end-to-end transaction. The OS comes with plenty of watch faces to choose from. It has been built to be cross-platform, i.e it supports both iOS 8+ and Android 4.3+ devices.

Key Features

Music: With an 8GB internal storage, Blink allows users to store over 1,000 songs. They can be played using the watch’s inbuilt speaker. Blink can also play songs by connecting to the Bluetooth.

Timeline: The Timeline app for Blink has been designed to sync user calendar, to-dos, reminders, alarms on a single screen.

Fitness: Blink has a nine-axis motion sensor that allows it to let the user track all fitness activity.

Notifications: Blink shows notifications and lets the user read and reply to them.

Authentication: The device generates an offline ‘time-based’ OTP valid for 60 seconds; allowing users to authenticate themselves across varied services without any dependency on the internet or cellular connectivity.

Apart from this, Blink will also have native apps to access information on stocks, weather, and news.

Specifications And Hardware

Blink comes with a full circular 1.39″, 400 x 400 AMOLED display with 16.5 Million colors and a 1.2 Ghz processor. It is powered by a 300 mAh battery, and claims to run for up to two days in one charge. Apart from this, Blink comes with 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage. It has Bluetooth 4.0 with BLE for connectivity, is built with the highest quality anti-corrosive stainless steel 316L, and has a scratch-resistant, 1.5mm thick, Gorilla Glass 3 top.

Availability

Starting at a price of 12,999, Blink comes in two colours, stainless steel black and stainless steel silver each available in three variants.

At the initial phase, Blink will be available for pre-order starting September 30, 2016 and will be shipped in November to the user.