Gun Control...Horology Style

Right out of a James Cameron sci-fi war epic comes the Armatix .22; a firearm that can only be operated when it is within a specific range to the wristwatch that accompanies it. Designed as a safety feature, a green LED on the back of the gun shows when it is receiving a wireless signal and can be fired. If someone not wearing the watch grabs hold the LED turns red indicating the gun is locked. The technology was developed by the German firm Armatix, it is produced in limited edition and can be had for about $10,000 [7,000 Euro]....ouch!

Someone please design a nicer looking watch for this thing.

Photos courtesy of Bryan William Jones

It's certainly an interesting avenue of firearm safety that could be explored further, and it certainly shows promise in potential use by police departments. That said I can already think of a couple of problems such as; what if the offending person happens to obtain the gun and is aiming it at the watch wearer at point blank range? [sure it may be unlikely, but stranger things have happened] Only time and further development will tell.

EDIT 2/1/10: I've since learned that the gun comes in several variations of pistol, and that the watch actually has a fingerprint ID pad so only the allowed operator of the pistol can activate the system to work. The watch can also save a couple of different officers so the gun can be swapped during a shift change.

It's only a matter of time before Hublot jumps on this and announces a new version of their "Big Bang" line. ;-)

I was first made aware of this through an article by Aaron Rowe over at Wired.com.