Blocks modular smartwatch will start crowdfunding campaign this summer, will run Android Lollipop
Nathan Ingraham / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
Blocks entered a 2015 smartwatch field where rivals were betting on distinct platforms and designs — LG's webOS smartwatch was slated for early 2016, while Fossil previewed a round Android Wear piece built on Intel hardware. Blocks' differentiator is hardware modularity plus an Android Lollipop core, pitched at backers rather than retail shelves.
The bet worked commercially before the first unit shipped: by October 2015 the campaign had blown past its $250K Kickstarter goal, with a $195 core module and bundles from $250, and delivery stretched into 2018 when the maker reported it was still working through backer shipments — a gap between crowdfunding momentum and manufacturing reality.
First-order effects
- Kickstarter backers become Blocks' entire launch channel and its most exposed constituency: they fund tooling up front and absorb any slip between the promised May 2016 ship date and actual delivery.
- Running Android Lollipop on a $195 core module positions Blocks against Android Wear incumbents like Fossil on price and customizability rather than polish.
Second-order effects
- Crowdfunded modularity forces incumbent makers to answer the customization question — TAG Heuer's later Connected Modular 45, which swaps smart and mechanical watch heads, shows the premium end adopting swappable architecture too.
- Module economics put pressure on Blocks' supply chain: each add-on module multiplies SKUs a small team must manufacture and inventory, which is exactly where the backer-delivery backlog compounds.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, smartwatch design splits into two tracks — integrated devices from established players and modular platforms funded directly by users — with crowdfunding acting as both validation and a years-long fulfillment risk for startups.
- Modular wearables remain structurally hard to sustain at scale: the same swappability that wins early adopters raises per-unit cost and complexity against mass-market integrated watches.
The trend: Consumer hardware is splitting between integrated flagship wearables from established brands and crowdfunded modular platforms whose backers fund — and wait out — the manufacturing risk.