Even before the Apple Watch started shipping last week, several products aimed at charging your iPhone and Watch at the same time were touted from several different accessory manufacturers. The Duet Dock, currently on Kickstarter, won’t be here until August, but looks like a solid competitor to other products we’re seeing.
Machined from aluminum, Duet uses a design similar to those we’ve seen from other manufacturers — it has an elevated “arm” onto which you can place your Watch for charging, as well as a dock for an iPhone. The two parts are held securely together with neodymium magnets but can be separated if desired. The Watch band is wrapped around the arm, which makes it less susceptible to movement. I think this is a good idea — my cats have decided that a Watch on its charging puck is a great toy, and the open ends of the band are a big temptation to them.
The team behind the Duet is a twosome of brothers, Matthew and Mark McLachlan. They’re the same duo behind earlier successful projects — the SoundJaw and SoundJaw Unlimited, which are clip-on speaker enhancers for iPhone and iPad.
The “duet” part of the product comes from the fact that the two pieces can be used together or separately, and the team has even designed the Duet to be right- or left-handed — that is, the Watch can be either on the left or right side of the iPhone dock. Buyers need to specify their preference when pre-ordering as part of the campaign. There’s a choice of finishes that matches the Apple Watches as well — silver, space gray, and gold.
At this point the campaign is about 40% funded with 39 days to go, so it’s a shoe-in to be fully funded. You can still get in on the action for as little as $79 — all of the early-bird $69 Duets have sold out already. Duet looks good, and I can’t wait to review this for Apple World Today later this year.
