Missing Pebble? This hackable smartwatch wants to fill that void

Smartwatches like the Apple Watch and Google Pixel Watch are great, but what if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t want a smartwatch that just looks like everyone else’s?

Maybe you don’t like the idea of being lured into upgrading to the latest model every year. Well, the Spectra smartwatch might be the answer.

Pocuter, a startup that’s had successful crowdfunding campaigns for a coin-sized microcomputer and a keychain open-source games console has now set its sights on making a smartwatch. The Spectra is billed on its Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign as a ‘hackable smartwatch’ made from high-end materials, that’s easy to repair, can run apps and will let you make more room to pile even more apps onto it.

The first big promise made is that getting to the vital components to repair it will be a breeze. Now, that’s something you can’t say about most mainstream smartwatches.

Everything will be held together by just seven screws and require a single screwdriver to access those parts. You’ll also be able to pick up spare parts to do those repairs and parts will apparently be reasonably priced.

“Our main goal is to deliver a premium user experience to the maker and hacker community,” says Gürkan Dogan, Chief Executive Office at Pocuter.

In terms of spare parts, there’s some familiar smartwatch pieces that will be available. There’s a rotating crown to support scrolling and zooming through whatever is shown on a pretty solid-sounding 368 x 488 pixel resolution AMOLED display.

There’s an accelerometer and gyroscope motion sensors to open the door to fitness tracking smarts or even being used for gaming. You’ll also get a speaker and microphone, a PPG optical sensor and that’s all housed inside of a rectangular aluminium case that certainly gives it the look of the CMF Watch Pro by Nothing.

Unlike most smartwatches, a microSD card slot will be in place to boost storage up to 512GB and performance will be powered by semi-conductor outfit Espressif and one of its dual-core ESP32-S3 SoCs. That’s joined by 8GB of RAM and 32GB of memory.

On the software front, it’ll run on SpectraOS, a proprietary operating system that aims to support the ability to run apps. This will be joined by a live app development platform for interested developers to make use of and let them see the results of their smartwatch app coding in real-time.

This isn’t the first hackable smartwatch to emerge in recent years. Back in 2021 there was the Watchy, a £50/$45 open-source smartwatch that featured an eInk display, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and a vibration motor among other features for those that were intrigued to play around with it.

Go further back and there was Blocks, one of the biggest-funded campaigns on Kickstarter that raised over £1 million/$1 million for a smartwatch that let you upgrade it simply by clipping in new modules to add features like GPS, a heart rate sensor or a new battery. The startup behind it eventually ran out of cash and liquidated its assets in 2019, leaving behind a lot of disgruntled backers and investors.

The Spectra feels more Watchy than Blocks, though it’s clear that Pocuter wants to make sure its smartwatch still has the feel of a modern smartwatch, particularly with the inclusion of that AMOLED screen and aluminium case. Raising the money aside, the Spectra really needs to conjure up the same sort of developer community spirit and buzz that the Pebble smartwatch once did many years ago before it got snapped up by Fitbit. 

Like all crowdfunding campaigns, you’re always taking a risk over whether the device gets delayed or worse, it never gets shipped at all. Taking a look at Pocuter’s previous campaigns, its dinky PocketStar gaming console passed its crowdfunding goal on Kickstarter, though a similar campaign on Indiegogo was suspended and is marked as being ‘currently under review’.

I reached out to see what had happened and Pocuter had opted to use Kickstarter instead while no backers on Indiegogo were charged. That was estimated to be delivered in April 2023 and has since been shipped. Its coin-sized Pocuter One microcomputer surpassed its funding goal on Kickstarter as well and has also shipped. That was originally estimated to be delivered in 2021. 

Judging by its previous campaigns, there’s probably a good chance that Spectra will hit its $30,000 target goal. You’ll need to part with €199 (roughly £166/$217) to get one at the early bird price. It has an estimated delivery of May 2025, which isn’t really that far away.

According to Pocuter’s campaign page, this is its biggest and most complex project so far. With Pebble long gone and swallowed by Fitbit which now seems to be going through something similar at Google, there does seem to be room for another smartwatch for the creative hacker community.

Will the Spectra be the one to do it? I’m certainly intrigued to see if it can.