Who said smart watches were a fad? The intelligent wristwear market, while not exactly new, is iron-hot, as evidenced by everyone and their mother's intentions to enter it. The real winners now are those companies able to introduce stop-gap products that fill the void between, say, Pebble and Google's rumored Android watch. The insatiable demand for these halfway smartwatches is perhaps epitomized by the early success of Secret Labs's and House of Horology's Agent watch, a Kickstarter project which blew through its $100,000 goal in less than 12 hours today.

That's not to say the Agent is without merits. Its internals are smartly designed around power efficiency, ease-of-charge, and simple interfacing with existing electronics. The smartwatch packs a second processor for low-performance tasks, an energy-efficient 1.28" 128x128 Sharp Memory Display, integrated wireless Qi induction charging (the Agent includes a compatible pad), and support for Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy. Outside, the Agent is ready for most every scenario one might encounter day-to-day: it uses motion and light sensors to measure distance traveled while walking or exercising, and the body is water-resistant.

On the development side of things, Secret Labs emphasized the ease with which apps can be quickly and efficiently coded. Programs can be written using C# and Microsoft Visual Studio, common enough tools that should, thanks to the forthcoming SDK, make writing code for the Agent a snap.

The Agent is available for pre-order at the reduced price of $129. Secret Labs and House of Horology expect to ship the watch later this year at a retail price of $249. If Pebble doesn't suit your fancy and you're too impatient to wait for a Google smartwatch (which, admittedly, is wistful thinking), then grab your own Agent at the source link.

Source: Kickstarter