The clear top motor is perhaps doppel’s most striking feature. You can see it spinning as it creates the heartbeat-like vibration on the inside of your wrist.
When set at a slower rhythm you can see the double beat clearly - a familiar lub-dub pattern. Go faster and it spins into a whirl of activity, just like your own heartbeat if someone made you jump.
For the team, getting the experience of the vibration right was one of our driving motivations. This didn’t just include designing the sensation of the heartbeat-like vibration by creating the perfect wave pattern, it also involved thinking extensively about how the wearer relates to doppel.
We always wanted doppel to work with the human body and for the wearer to feel the effect through their senses - a clean break from the graphs and digital notifications of many of today’s wearables.
The design has always been inspired by the natural world and for us it felt right for people to experience doppel through sight as well as touch.
But despite the open motor being part of the design since day one, it hasn’t been an easy journey.
Before starting on this project, clear top vibration motors didn’t actually exist at mass manufacture scale. As a bespoke part, we had to find a supplier who was willing to take a chance and help us create them.
After working on the visual design we created our own prototypes and then shipped them to China to see if they could be scaled up.
Designs in a sketchbook
Our in house made clear top motors!
Our hard work paid off and we found some suppliers who liked our proposal and was prepared to manufacture them.
This marked the start of the design for manufacture process which involved hours of work using CAD and testing casing materials both in house and in China.
We tested prototype after prototype:
Prototype motors from various manufacturers ready for testing
We definitely didn’t make life easy for ourselves but we’re so proud of this innovation.
What do you think? Do you like the open motor? Let us know!