Events

DO-RA Smart Watch

A tale of wasted time or "Italian smart watches" 

One day in late May 2012, while doing some web browsing, I stumbled upon one rather interesting site (www.imwatch.it)and its "I'amWatch" collection of trendy looking wristwatches. A website-embedded video gave a run-down of the smart watch properties and features.  It has to be said that by that time our Intersoft Eurasia team had already made quite a lot of headway with the DO-RA project – a Skolkovo Innovation Centered-sponsored mobile dosimeter-radiometer for smartphones. While looking at the watches, I suddenly thought to myself: "Why don't I buy a couple of these smart watches and use them as prototypes for the future DO-RA watch?" No sooner had the thought flashed across my mind than my credit card was debited and had a delivery notice for May 25 of this year in my hand.

The firm, judging by the site contact details and subsequent correspondence, was Italian. After transferring the money, a guy on the other end of the line assured my assistant that we can expect the order to be delivered by express mail within 2 weeks at the latest. We relaxed in anticipation of the elegant, judging by the photos, and so real-looking, judging by the video, smart timepieces, which, to boot, were powered by Android.

At the time of placing the above orders, the DO-RA project (www.do-ra.ru) already had its own software called DO-RA.Soft, which had been designed to be compatible with several versions of Android, including Android 4.0, and whose functionality had been tested on a number of smartphones. So there was not much else left for us to do except wait for the delivery of the long-awaited I'amWatch prior to fitting it with a detachable ionizing radiation detector running our proprietary software.

It wasn't to be that simple, however. Our Italian colleagues from the city of Milan - the world's fashion capital – were apparently in no particular hurry to get our order delivered, while each of our phone calls and emails would inevitably yield one of the following encouraging replies: "Your order is being processed and will soon be sent to you by express mail",  "Your order is ready to ship, please be patient", "Your order has been processed and is currently at the airport", "Your order has been shipped, expect delivery from your local operator", "Your order…". This delivery business reminded me of a ComedyClub sketch by the Chekhov Duo about one guy who ordered reinforcement bars, got nothing and ended up drowning his grief in the bottle. In the meantime, the above-mentioned correspondence exchange dragged slowly on – 3 months in total – until it was August. 

Then, after sending yet another persistent letter to the foot-dragging Italians, our watchmakers told us they wouldn't be available until September because of fiesta! To which we reasonably inquired: "Would you mind telling us September of what year?" The joke fell flat, triggering a short, like a gunshot, reply:"of 2012."

The fiesta ended, but we were still waiting for our watch – the delivery by now was into its fourth month – and waiting, as it turned out, in vain. The long-awaited smart Italian watches never made it to Moscow. Our patience snapped and we hired a lawyer from Switzerland and one Italian guy from Milan to help us get to the bottom of that mysterious watch story. 

In the meantime, while patiently waiting for delivery, I drew a flow chart, prepared a description of a new device, worked out how its components should work and interact with each other, gave it the name "DO-RA Watch" and filed a patent application No.2012142265 for a utility model.

In late October 2012, our associates in Italy and Switzerland stepped up a gear and began bombarding the Italian "watchmakers" with phone calls demanding to know where our order was and when it can be picked up. Moreover, just in case, every time they made a phone call, they spoke in a different language: English, German and the watchmakers' native Italian. After listening to the request, the secretary always referred the caller to several different people, perhaps to make an impression of a large company. 

This time round, the reply given in reference to our order was this:  "What color are the straps on your watches?" "Red and orange," was our helper's honest reply. "Well, unfortunately these colors are not available at the moment. You'll have to wait for two weeks for them to arrive from the factory."

But everything in this world has to come to an end, sooner or later. I asked Flavio and his wife to take a copy of the paid invoice and the order details and go to the address given on the website. They did. After spending 10-15 minutes trying to reach someone by phone, one respectable-looking Italian, whether by accident, or as if by accident, came out of the office building in question and asked what they actually wanted. Flavio and his wife gave him the details of the watch making company they were looking for. To which, the respectable-looking gentleman replied that there was no such company in the office building and had never been. Still, he inquired with interest what we wanted from this firm. Upon learning that we were after watches, he said, "You're not the first ones coming looking for watches this week (it was Tuesday). There've been 5 to 10 other people asking the same question." He also added that he had ostensibly heard that the watchmakers were apparently having some delays with deliveries of watches from the factory, though they were successfully addressing the problem.

Finally, after 6 months, we drew a difficult but clear conclusion: "Finita la commedia!" And although the time spent waiting for those watches was clearly wasted, it gave us an idea for the beautiful DO-RA Watch prototype.  As for the company that registered the watch selling website, ran it and paid for its design and hosting, we tracked it down in the Internet. This company' name is BlueSkySrl. Judging by its name, its products – the trendy Italian smart wristwatches of all colors of the rainbow – are more likely to be found somewhere in heaven rather than on Earth…