New Dutch wristwatch helps find lost kids in crowds

Amsterdam entrepreneur and former TV director Erik Recter designed a wristwatch that will help find kids who got lost at the beach or in other crowded places. Vodafone launched a test with this smart-watch in Domburg, Zeeland today. 100 kids and their parents are participating. The KiGo watch uses GPS and WiFi positioning to track your child's position both inside and outside buildings, and is accurate within a meter in the open air. If you lose sight of your child, you can find out where he is using the accompanying smartphone app. The watch is also scratch and shock resistant and waterproof to a depth of 3 meters and has a sensor that will send an alert to your smartphone if the watch is suddenly removed from your kid's wrist. It is also equipped with an emergency button, which will set off a loud alarm on your phone if your child presses it. You can even send simple messages to and from the watch using icons, for example to call your kid home for dinner. The watch is targeted at children between the ages of 5 and 10 years, old enough to wander off or go exploring, but not yet old enough to own a smartphone. It costs 189 euros, after which there is a fixed monthly subscription of 6 euros. While KiGo is only now officially launching, the interest for this watch is gigantic. Recter's startup Watcher Enterprises already received numerous orders from Israel, Russia, Brazil and Turkey. "Countries in which many parents worry about whether their child will come home at the end of the day", Recter said to Dutch newspaper AD. Due to the many orders, there is already a 6 weeks waiting time. "We hope to asap make it suitable for producing in larger quantities.