It's the Eames model.The Bradley Element features an innovative, three-dimensional surface - unlike any of the Bradley models. It’s all about the best, for the most, for the least. If you respect the user group you are designing for and you are keeping in mind that you are trying to design something that is superb not just for that user group but for mainstream use, I think that the result is exemplary design and the key word that always comes around in our design critiques is 'inclusive design'. Marcus Fairs: Do you think this is a kind of philosophy that could be expanded, designing things for people with some kind of impairment but aimed at a wider market?ĭavid Zacher: Definitely, we never would have hit on this idea of using ball bearings to tell time if we hadn’t been solving for that problem, so I can see a broader application in products that follows that same approach, of inclusively designing something. People just think it’s a beautiful and eye-catching watch. We've gotten great response from all over the world from our Kickstarter funders and the community that has come to support us has been amazing.Īmanda Sim: And a majority of the responses don't have anything to do with vision impairment.
Marcus Fairs: And what has been the response so far from blind people and non-blind people?ĭavid Zacher: Oh it's been wonderful. Marcus Fairs: Where is it at in terms of development? Is it a product that is available and ready for order?ĭavid Zacher: We recently finished fulfilment on our Kickstarter orders so it's in production and it's currently available for preorder in the UK, US and Canada with delivery in June.Īmanda Sim: But in June it will be available in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, South Korea, the US, Canada and throughout Europe. But Eone is a for-profit company because we believe the proceeds of what we make from this watch can be fed into improving innovation and products for impaired users.ĭavid Zacher: And we worked really hard to try and keep the price-point of it as low as possible. To keep it as accessible as we possibly can. We were approached by Hyungsoo Kim, a graduate of MIT Sloan School of Management, who founded Eone Timepieces and is very much interested in projects for social good. Is that right?Īmanda Sim: Yes in graduate school, at the Rhode Island School of Design. Marcus Fairs: So you developed this when you were at RISD. Marcus Fairs: So he can check whether he needs to leave without letting anyone know. So it’s built for discretion and it’s all about the modern man who needs to be couth and gentlemanly but somehow always knows where he needs to be and what time it is. It’s built for durability, it's easier to clean, easier to fix, but we’re marketing it as the gentleman’s watch. It comes in a range of different watch bands in stainless steel as well as canvas and leather. So we thought about how we can make a fashionable watch that would also work for tactile users and hopefully appeal to a larger audience of everyday users.Īmanda Sim: The watch is built from solid titanium. So that was one piece of intel that we gained and as we went further into it we found users who were wearing fashion watches, even though they couldn’t tell the time. They were using their iPhones to tell the time. We found users who had a talking watch which is quite loud and a little embarrassing to use in a public place like a classroom say. Marcus Fairs: I heard you saying before how blind people would buy fashionable watches and then listen to Siri reading out the time.ĭavid Zacher: We did a tremendous amount of user research. We started out thinking about what kind of watch or time keeping device would work for blind users and we struck upon this idea of using ball bearings rotating around a track to indicate the minutes and the hours on the dial. Marcus Fairs: Tell us what this product is and how the idea came about.ĭavid Zacher: It's a tactile watch that was designed with users who are blind in mind. Readers can get 25% off the regular admission price when booking online.īelow is an edited transcript of the interview with David Zacher and Amanda Sim of Eone: You can register your interest in purchasing The Bradley with us today on the Dezeen Watch Store blog, and we will contact you as soon as we can confirm a shipping date.ĭezeen is media partner for Designs of the Year. Because the bearing is raised, wearers can feel its position with their fingers. The Bradley is named after Bradley Snyder, an ex-naval officer who lost his eyesight in an explosion in Afghanistan in 2011 and who went on to win gold and silver medals at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.Ī magnet inside the titanium watch moves a ball bearing around the track. "So I can see a broader application in products that follows that same approach, of inclusively designing something." "We never would have hit on this idea of using ball bearings to tell time if we hadn’t been solving ," he said.
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