The Pinwheel Watch is a kid-safe Apple Watch Extremely lookalike to placate your tween

The Pinwheel Watch doesn’t scream “it is a children’ gadget.” The brand new smartwatch, unveiled at Pepcom throughout CES 2025, doesn’t have a chunky, brightly coloured casing or super-thick bezels. It’s truly fairly modern, with a construct like a barely bigger Apple Watch — plus slightly digital camera bump — and swappable straps of various kinds. To tech-aware children who’ve begun bugging their mother and father for a smartwatch identical to they’ve, it might simply move as an analogue for an grownup wearable. But it surely’s additionally filled with security options meant to supply solely the quantity of connectedness that folks really feel comfy with. And an AI chatbot, as a result of, after all.

Pinwheel already has a smartphone platform that enables for parent-approved communications, however the watch is a standalone 4G LTE mobile gadget with its personal cell plan (about $15 in accordance with the corporate) and the flexibility to make calls, ship texts and, down the road, do video chats. Mother and father can decide the extent of intervention they assume is acceptable for his or her children, and alter these settings within the Pinwheel app as they see match.

For a youthful child, they may set it so all contacts should be authorised, whereas a 14-year-old might be granted the liberty so as to add no matter mates they need with out approval. Mother and father can remotely monitor textual content and name historical past, and switch off sure options — like picture sending — individually for contacts. It additionally gives GPS location monitoring so mother and father can hold tabs on their children’ whereabouts.

Past fundamental communication, there are a bunch of options which might be simply meant for enjoyable. There are built-in video games, like a helicopter recreation I actually loved enjoying that entails tapping the display on the proper time to gather gems and hold it within the air, and a kid-friendly model of ChatGPT known as PinwheelGPT. The corporate says the chatbot has been examined for all of the frequent workarounds used to trick these items into doing what they shouldn’t, so it gained’t produce inappropriate responses when prompted to. And oldsters can see these chats, together with deleted ones. “You possibly can definitely ask it no matter, but it surely will not reply,” stated Pinwheel co-founder Dane Witbeck. “It rapidly backs out and says, ‘hey, that is one thing it is best to discuss to a trusted grownup about.’” The abysmal hotel-casino Wi-Fi on the crowded occasion prevented me from truly placing that to the take a look at, although.

The Pinwheel Watch will go on sale later this yr for $160 (plus the month-to-month mobile subscription). It’s rated IP67, so it ought to be fairly sturdy in opposition to spills, filth and different child messes. For folks interested by a safer method to let their youngsters begin utilizing sensible units to speak to their family and friends, Pinwheel’s watch might be a reasonably respectable possibility, particularly for youths in tween territory that won’t need a particularly restricted, immature-looking wearable.