The Bradley Timepiece was originally designed for blind people. Its titanium body contains a magnet that rotates two ball bearings allowing people to tell the time just by touching it. One ball moves around in a groove in the watch face, indicating minutes, while the hour ball moves around its edge.
It was designed by designers and engineers Hyungsoo Kim, David Zacher, Nick Gu, Amanda Sim, Edward Sung, Jinha Lee, Maeve Jopson and Cynthia Poon, in collaboration with people with visual impairments.
The frustration with products designed for people with special requirements is that aesthetic and material considerations often become secondary to function, if they are considered at all. With the strap line “designed for everyone” its US manufacturer Eone clearly states its intention not only to be inclusive of those with disabilities, but that the Bradley will transcend its original purpose to become a desirable watch in its own right, the success of which is evidenced by the fact it’s now available for pre-order from the Dezeen watch store.
The watch is named after Bradley Snyder, who was serving as a bomb defuser in Afghanistan in 2011 when he lost his sight in an IED explosion. After the incident he said, “I’m not going to let this beat me. I’m not going to let blindness build a brick wall around me. I am going to find a way forward.” He went on to win two gold medals and one silver for swimming at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, the third medal coming exactly a year after the explosion.
The Bradley Timepiece was launched via a 2013 Kickstarter campaign that raised $594,602 against a $40,000 goal and was nominated for Design Museum’s 2014 Design of the Year award.
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- design for good :: patient dignity
- design for good :: a better a&e
- design for good :: a litre of light
- design for good :: gert
