From Five Hour Energy to ZzzQuil, there are no shortages of substances legal, regulated and outright banned to help us mentally speed up or slow down. Unfortunately, virtually all of them include chemicals that have some kind of side effect and they’re often difficult to gain access to in the moment they’re most needed.
That’s not so for doppel, a round wrist-worn device that might pass for a mechanical watch at first glance. Indeed, unlike digital watches that have few or no moving parts, doppel is designed to generate movement. Rather than using gears to tell the time, though, the product generates a rhythmic buzzing designed to produce a calming or energizing pattern of buzzes on the inside if your wrist. The principle is the same as using music to calm one down or pump one up. Doppel’s battery will do so for five to 10 hours. The standard stainless steel doppel goes for about £85 (about $127) and should be ready in March 2016. Turquoise, the group behind doppel, seeks $155,412 by July 16th.
Assuming it works, which Turquise does not prove conclusively, doppel makes a strong case to be the connected thing one should have on the other wrist assuming one wears a watch (smart or traditional). The product has more potential than other wrist gear that simply indicates stress levels, handing off the calming tasks to an app. The company would have a stronger case if it relied on biofeedback like the HeartMath Inner Body Sensor that completes the feedback loop using one’s breathing.