It was a great idea to begin with to make something we already have on our body, smart. Most individuals are used to the idea of wearing a watch around their wrist, so why not target the watch market when it came to the move towards smart devices. Given, companies have been making attempts for years to do this. Casio pretty much started the trend with its digital calculator watches back in the day. They just never fully took off outside of limited groups, until the watches truly became smart. What they can do now, pulls at all of our favorite stories growing up, like Dick Tracy. So many people began to make the move towards replacing their not so smartwatch with something that tracks everything they do and keeps them up to date on everything going on with the phone in their pocket.
However, what if you were perfectly happy with the watch you already have on your wrist? What if you spent a good amount of money on a nice Citizen, Fossil, Gucci or whatever else triggers your interest? Maybe you want a smartwatch, but can’t quite justify letting go of the one you already have that cost you so much and still works just fine.
Thankfully, one company by the name of Rifft was kind enough to consider this and has developed a solution that personally, I am quite surprised no one else has thought about yet. Instead of a smartwatch that replaces your not so smartwatch completely, it becomes it. In other words, you get to keep your expensive watch and instead, upgrade it to being smart by simply replacing the band. The band, referred to as “CT Band SimpliCT”, can be seen as a Fitbit that has been turned into a band that will attach to any normal watch face. IT has a small screen built into it that delivers all of your messages to and it keeps track of your daily fitness and so forth.
Pretty neat right? Now you can physically customize your smartwatch to look like however you want, instead of opting for a digital replica of a fancy watch face. This means that all of those watches sitting in the drawer are once again modern and ready for use.
Personally, I have a fossil watch that I absolutely love. I have had it for years and have more than gotten my monies worth out of it given how much it has been worn. It still looks new outside of some scratching on the band (which now can be fixed). It isn’t smart by itself nor was it over $100. I just simply liked the design and that opinion has never changed. Now, I could continue wearing it.
They have a large selection of colors to choose from as well as silicone or leather (looks like no metal solutions for now). They claim it offers 1-2 days worth of battery life, water resistance and touchscreen. Their app functions on both iOS and Android (no Windows yet) and brings your typical fitness tracking as well as weather alerts.
Currently, they are up for pre-order and can be found on their website at https://www.byrifft.com/en/ (link removed/website offline) for around $200. A little pricey, but for those who really love their old watch, it may be worth the upgrade.
