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Bitcoin Watch

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I like nice watches and I am a big fan of Bitcoin, so when I read in a Chinese WeChat group about the first watch for the Bitcoin aficionado I immediately decided to check it out. Normally I don’t buy watches off the Internet (I want to see and feel them first, especially more expensive ones), but this one is so special that I ordered it right away after seeing it online.

The watch, called the Cryptomatic, is available in 4 different colors (red gold, silver/red gold, silver, and black) and I immediately liked the black one. The timepiece ships from Hong Kong and took about 3 days to arrive in Canada.

What’s I like about the watch is not only the fact that it prominently shows the Bitcoin logo and has the 1-12 numbers in binary format, but also that you can only buy it with Bitcoin. Luis Rosende, the designer and watchmaker, is also a big Bitcoin believer and said in the group chat that he refused several orders because people wanted to pay in fiat currency. If you want a watch like this and you can’t to pay in Bitcoin you don’t ‘deserve’ to own one yet. Hint: If you don’t have bitcoin yet and want this watch, go to Circle.com and set up an account. It’s very easy and takes less than 5 minutes to set up and fund a bitcoin account.

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The packaging of the watch looks great and opening the box for the first time was part of the experience for me, it reminds me a bit of how Apple packages its products. The watch itself is as beautiful as the pictures on the website. It’s quite thick but not too heavy, and it comes standard with a black metal chain and an additional black leather strap. The chain can easily be shortened with the tools that come with the watch.

The Cryptomatic itself is self-winding, just like most other high(er)-end watches, so you’ll need an automatic watch winder in case you don’t wear it everyday. If you don’t have one you can buy one here with Bitcoin. The watch is a limited edition watch, each of the 4 colors is only produced 200 times. Your watch will be numbered, mine was 003 out of 200 (it’s engraved on the side of the watch).

The Cryptomatic watch costs CHF 888 (about 2.5 bitcoin on the day that I ordered it), so it’s not super expensive but it’s certainly not a low end watch either. If you believe in Bitcoin and want to spread the Bitcoin gospel, this is a great product to own. I am sure it will be a conversation starter at many dinners, meetings or parties!

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  1. I have to say I expected it to be a little more fancy from a technical point of view, judging by its name “Cryptomatic”. I mean where is the internal storage for your bitcoin vaults, the LTE connection and NFC chip for doing transactions on the go, etc.? 🙂

  2. Tom, that’s what the Apple Watch will be for 🙂 Adding some functions would actually be an interesting idea, but it does not fit to a traditional watch. For now I’ll use my phone to pay in bitcoin, I am sure in the future there will be easier solutions that don’t even involve devices (e.g. facial & voice recognition linked to public & private keys).

  3. Hi, this is Luis from Cryptomatic.

    First of all, thanks Marc for your kind & honest review.

    Tom, I love your witty comment 🙂

    The name cryptomatic comes from cryptocurrency + automatic (the watch has a self-winding automatic movement and can only be obtained using cryptocoins)

    I designed it to be what it is, a purely mechanical watch and a tribute to Bitcoin. Something you will be able to pass from generation to generation regardless of what digital currency we’ll all be using in the future. If it’s given proper care it will last for decades and won’t be obsolete like our current mobile phones or smartwatches. Marc will be able to wear his when he buys an iPhone 16 🙂

    Some companies make physical bitcoins, we decided to make a physical bitwatch.

    By the way, you can add wallet capabilities to a smartwatch already (google “aegis wallet android”)

    I’m sure when the Apple Watch comes out, Bitcoin solutions will follow.

    Said that, just wait and see what we’re working on 😉

  4. Circle.com would be nice if also non us bankaccounts and non us creditcards could be linked. but they can’t at the moment. If that is possible in the (near) future and it also is a bitcoin account without all the difficult links and codes + an app for iPhone it would be a great step forward.

  5. Rob, Circle also works with non-US credit cards (I don’t have a US credit card but I used one of my cards to add funds). Bank accounts indeed don’t work (yet).

  6. Marc, I tweeted to Circle and they said that most non us cards won’t work. Maybe because you have a Canadian card that one works, however, my Dutch issued Mastercard not. Thay might add that in the future. Hopefully they do that soon, but linking non us bankaccounts or paypal accounts would be better.