Pine64 announces $25 smartwatch

Pine64, a maker of low-cost Linux devices, has announced the PineTime. It’s a smartwatch that should cost $25 and last for several days on a single battery charge.

The PineTime runs on a Nordic nRF52832, a chip with a Cortex M4 processor core at 64MHz with probably 64KB sram and a flash storage of 512KB. Pine64 does not put Linux on it, but a variant of FreeRTOS, according to the tweet with the announcement.

The watch has a still unknown screen and comes with a dock to charge the watch. It concerns an existing design of a smartwatch, which provides Pine64 with new components and its own operating system. That should keep the price low.

Pine64 emphasizes that this is a side project. The main projects now are the cheap Linux laptops, singleboard computers and the upcoming PinePhone. That is an easily repairable smartphone with Allwinner A64-soc and 5.95″ LCD with 1440×720 pixels, 2GB RAM and 16GB storage. The phone should be released next month for around $150, but the first version does not contain an operating system. Ubuntu Touch, SailfishOS, Plasma Mobile and LuneOS, among others, are expected to start mass production next year.