Uysse Nardin’ Chairman Cellphone has something you can’t make by adding diamonds or dipping things in gold: beautiful craftsmanship. From Timezone:
Celebrated Swiss vanguard watchmaker Ulysse Nardin has partnered with the European firm, SCI Innovations, to create the world’s first hybrid smart phone: the Chairman. Inherently green, this smart phone pairs cutting-edge kinetic technology with the pedigree of the 163-year-old timepiece innovator. … While details are limited, it has been confirmed that the Chairman will be able to use any mobile phone service provider in the world and includes several components never seen before in a smart phone.
It will incorporate a Ulysse Nardin designed kinetic rotor system which is blended into the mechanical and aesthetical design of the smart phone. This smart-phone is hand-assembled under the strictest guidelines mandated by Ulysse Nardin.
Pre-BASEL 2009 – Ulysse Nardin Cellphone [Timezone via Bornrich]
That is stunning. If only I were obscenely rich…
That press release reads like Ulysse Nardin is a soul brother to The Onion’s Smoove B.
Would it be churlish of me to inquire as to whether the kinetic widget can actually generate relevant amounts of power without giving the user(or the user’s butler, given the expected pricepoint) a crippling case of onanist’s wrist?
Would it be even more churlish of me to ask if, as seems to be common with “luxury” phones, there is nothing but stock S60 or WinCE with ostentatious clipart underneath the elegant shell?
I’m guessing that the “kinetic rotor system” recharges it, which is nice, but the first thing I want to know about any smartphone is the OS.
A phone powered from a 2892 winding rotor? Highly unlikely. Orders of magnitude higher power are required to run a phone. I wonder what the Kinetic function really is.
Time to hit the mall and ask someone at the Nardin dealer if they know anything on this yet.
It looks beautiful, but it’s probably got a magnetron in it, so remember not to bring it into your casino’s high-tech security room.
Citibank is buying 1000 of these for their golf tourney goodie-bags.
It can use any wireless provider in the world? I doubt it, what about Tracfone?