- The Jaye Band is a new, minimalist smartwatch device
- Its primary job is showing you your most important phone notifications
- There are no on-board apps or sensors to get in the way
Left unchecked, the phones we carry around with us at all times can become overwhelmingly distracting. A new wearable called the Jaye Band wants to do something about that, acting as a simple filter for everything that happens on your phone.
It's now raising funds on Kickstarter (via Android Authority), and sells itself as "the minimalist smartwatch designed for the modern attention crisis". It promises to "reclaim your brain" and give you "a wearable built to filter your distractions, not add to them".
The idea is that the band becomes a discreet window for your most important notifications, while everything else gets left on your phone. You can set blocks of 'do not disturb' time, and there's no tracking or health monitoring.
In theory, your phone stays in your pocket for much more of the day, so you're not constantly checking for new alerts, switching between apps, and scrolling through feed after feed on social media to find a new distraction.
Pricing and shipping
Hardware wise, the Jaye Band sports a small, monochrome OLED display, intended to be shown on the inside of your wrist. The device measures just 38mm x 14.5mm x 7mm (that's 1.5 inches x 0.6 inches x 0.3 inches), so it's very lightweight.
The wearable has already gone through three rounds of design and refinement, the developers say, and now needs funding for the production push. It's already blown past its $5,000 goal, and has raised $35,749 at the time of writing.
There's an early bird price deal currently available which lets you reserve your band for $129 (about £97 / AU$184, though shipping to Australia doesn't seem to be offered). When the device launches fully, it'll retail for $249 (about £188 / AU$355).
Shipping is scheduled for December 2026, but as always with Kickstarter, there may be delays and production problems along the way. If you're looking for a more minimal tech experience day-to-day, the Jaye Band could be the answer.
