This smartwatch runs Lollipop, but will work with your iPhone

This smartwatch runs Lollipop, but will work with your iPhone
Blocks is gearing up for launch

Remember that modular smartwatch announced last year? Well it seems to be coming along nicely. For one thing Blocks Wearables has teamed with Qualcomm to stick the Snapdragon 400 in its watch.

That's the same chip as you'll find in the LG Watch Urbane and various other wearables, so it should get the job done. This was revealed at Computex in Taipei and reported by Android Community, but it's not the only new piece of information that was shared at the show.

Apparently the Blocks smartwatch will have a circular colour display which acts as a core module, complete with all the essential smartwatch components, including Wi-Fi, a main battery, the processor, Bluetooth and more.

Cross-platform compatibility

That will be enough to make it a fully functional smartwatch, though interestingly one which will run a version of Android Lollipop rather than Android Wear and one which will be compatible with both Android and iOS.

The modular bit comes in the strap, which is made up of a number of links, each of which can have an extra module in, be it NFC, a camera, an extra battery or whatever else.

The Blocks Wearables team has also partnered with Tateossian to provide a various shells for the modules, covering a range of colours, materials and textures, so you can change the look of your smartwatch as well as the functionality.

The team has even signed a manufacturing deal with Compal, so it seems it's well on the way to making its modular smartwatch a reality, though a crowd funding campaign is still expected sometime this summer, with a release hopefully by the end of the year.

James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.