Review: Fuse Chicken’s Bobine Watch for the Apple Watch
Company: Fuse Chicken
Product: Bobine Watch
Price: $24.95
Compatibility: Apple Watch
Website: http://www.fusechicken.com/products/bobinewatch
Date: July 8, 2015
The Product
The first round of Apple Watch stands have usually stuck to a simple formula – a short metal or wood pedestal with a small place to insert the inductive charging part of the cable.
While that’s great for some situations, you might need a more flexible solution. And the Bobine Watch from Fuse Chicken is exactly that. The company is well-known its Bobine stand for the iPhone. If you haven’t seen it, the Bobine basically combines a charging cable, stand, and tripod into one metal-wrapped package. Both connectors are fused directly onto the flexible metal cable.
The Bobine Watch follows the same cues and applies them to the wearable device.
Since you’ll need to provide your own Apple Watch charging cable, one end of the stand is capped with a protective white piece of plastic. The other end contains a spot for the magnetic and inductive charging part of the cable. Simply place that end into the stand and you’re ready to go.
While the Bobine Watch is extremely practical, it doesn’t offer any cable management system.
While the stand doesn’t provide any place to store the unused part of the cable, there is a small clip on the back to help route it to a computer or USB charger.
Clocking in at 24-inches long, the stand can be placed into pretty much any position you can imagine. The charging disc can even be swiveled and turned. While testing the stand out, it was really great to move it up and down so I could take a better look at the watch’s screen while charging.
You can place your watch in a horizontal or vertical position while charging, so that means the stand will be perfect for the nightstand mode arriving in WatchOS 2.0 this fall.
I was most impressed with the Bobine cable itself. While the metal is flexible, it is well made, and I would have no problem breaking it down and simply tossing it into my suitcase or gadget bag while traveling.
The only real downside is that the $24.95 stand can’t exactly be described at stylish. While there are a number of other options made with high-quality materials, the Bobine Watch is just a souped-up metal cable. That didn’t bother me in the least, but I don’t exactly think it would look great with some stainless steel versions of the Apple Watch or the gold Apple Watch Edition.
Interestingly, Fuse Chicken even includes two dash stabilizers so the stand can be used in your car. I’d prefer to actually wear the watch while driving, but some users might be interested in a stand option for their vehicle.
Overall, the flexible stand is definitely a winner.
So if you don’t care about cable management and are looking for a well-designed, functional option that should hold up over time, check out the Bobine Watch.
As for me, I’ll be keeping a Griffin WatchStand on the nightstand in my bedroom and use the Bobine Watch on my computer desk and while traveling.
What’s Hot
• Flexible design can be bent into a number of different positions.
• Setup is quick and easy.
• The Apple Watch can be charged in both a horizontal or vertical orientation.
• Will work with the nightstand mode in WatchOS 2.0.
• Perfect for travel.
• Works with both the 1- and 2-meter Apple Watch charging cable.
What’s Not
• Not exactly stylish compared to other Apple Watch charging stand options.
• While a nice touch, I don’t think the auto mount is particularly useful.
• No cable storage or organization.
Scores
Aesthetic Appeal: ★★★☆☆
Wow Factor: ★★★★☆
Build Quality: ★★★★☆
Value: ★★★★☆
Buy Now: $24.95, Amazon.com
