PocketWatch Air
Dendritic Technologies
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Pre-launch ยท Coming to Crowd Supply

Know what you're breathing.

A tiny air monitor that lives on your keys. Press the button and read the light: green means the air is fine. Red means it isn't. For the office you came back to, the classroom your kid sits in all day, and the smoke that rolls in every summer.

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PocketWatch Air, a navy teardrop-shaped keychain device with a steel split ring
Render from the actual design files, not a photo of a finished unit.
The problem

You can't see bad air. You spend all day in it anyway.

The air-quality number on your phone comes from a government station that can be miles away, outdoors, on a roof. It knows nothing about the conference room with no windows, a classroom with thirty kids in it, or your kitchen at dinner time. We spend nearly all our time indoors, and indoor air is almost never measured.

Back at the office

You didn't pick the building.

Return-to-office means trusting ventilation you've never seen, in meeting rooms that were stuffy before the word "aerosol" meant anything. Bring your own answer.

Parents & schools

Kids feel it first.

Children breathe faster than adults and are more sensitive to fine particles. Check the drop-off line, the gym, the classroom after recess: the places they spend their whole day.

Smoke season

Smoke doesn't follow forecasts.

Wildfire haze arrives street by street. It lingers indoors long after the sky looks blue โ€” this tells you when it's actually gone.

"I had asthma as a kid, in a home full of smoke that nobody measured. This is the thing I wish my family had."

John Naulty, founder
The waitlist

Early-bird pricing goes to this list first.

PocketWatch Air launches on Crowd Supply, the crowdfunding site for open hardware. Join the list and you'll get first crack at early-bird pricing, plus word when the first units come off the line and when the independent review is published.

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One glance, one answer

What the light is telling you.

No app needed in the moment. A small light gives an instant answer, using the same health guidance behind the official air-quality index. When you want the full numbers, they sync quietly to your phone.

Green โ€” breathe easy

Particle levels and air chemistry look healthy.

Amber โ€” take note

Elevated readings. If you're with young kids, or anyone with asthma, keep the visit short.

Red โ€” act

Unhealthy air. Close the window, step out, or mask up.

On your phone

Your whole day, mapped to air.

Every reading is stamped with the time and place it was taken. The app lays them out as your day: overnight at home, the spike on the subway platform, the office afternoon, the burst when dinner hits the pan. Once you can see the pattern, you can change it โ€” open a window, move the desk, pick the other train.

App screens are a design concept. The app ships alongside the device.

Everyday carry

The air report for where you actually are.

It clips to your keys and weighs about as much as a car fob, so it's with you at the school run, on the subway platform, in the office, at home. No fan inside means it's completely silent and there's nothing to clog. A single charge lasts for months of daily checks.

PocketWatch Air on a wooden table beside house keys and a backpack
Render from the design files.
Where the project stands โ€” updated July 4, 2026

Design complete

Second-revision hardware, engineering and safety reviews passed.

Pilot in fabrication

A 10-unit pilot run is on order at the board house.

Bench validation

Bring-up, sensor accuracy and battery life on real hardware.

Independent review

Neutral third-party hardware and security review, then the design goes public.

Crowd Supply

Campaign launch. The waitlist hears first.

For the curious

What's inside.

Most pocket monitors cut a corner somewhere โ€” a fan that clogs, or a sensor that misses the smallest particles. Here's what we put in instead.

No fan. Nothing to clog.

Bosch's BMV080, the smallest fanless particle sensor made, reads PM1, PM2.5 and PM10, including the ultrafine PM1 fraction most rivals can't see.

The full air picture

A Sensirion SGP41 adds VOC and NOx air-chemistry indices; an SHT40 adds temperature and humidity. Particles, chemistry and comfort in one reading.

Readings that can't be faked

A dedicated security chip (ATECC608B) signs every reading on the device itself, so a measurement can prove where it came from. That's what citizen-science networks need.

Built to carry

Nordic nRF52840 with Bluetooth LE to your phone, USB-C charging, and a user-replaceable battery. Deep sleep between readings stretches a charge for months.

Under the hood

You'll get to see all of it.

We designed the whole board ourselves โ€” four layers, drawn in KiCad, with a teardrop outline, an integrated keyring, and a battery system with proper charging, protection and fuel gauging.

KiCad 3D render of the populated PocketWatch Air board, front side
The board itself โ€” KiCad 3D render of the rev-2 design now in pilot fabrication: Raytac nRF52840 module, Bosch BMV080 on its FPC, secure element, RGB verdict LED โ€” and the Open Source Hardware gear mark already on the silk.
KiCad 3D render of the board back: charger, cell protection, fuel gauge, USB-C
A proper power path โ€” the back carries the battery side: power-path charger, dedicated cell-protection pair, fuel gauge, a cell-contact thermistor, and exposed SWD test points for debugging.
CAD render of the enclosure back with user-removable battery door
Repairable by design โ€” engineering CAD of the enclosure back: the battery door opens without tools, so the cell is user-replaceable, not glued in.

The complete design โ€” schematics, PCB, enclosure, and firmware โ€” will be published as open source once an independent hardware and security review by a neutral, respected third party is complete. We want the first public release to be one you can audit and trust.

Hardware under CERN-OHL-S v2, firmware open, one honest caveat: the Bosch BMV080 sensor ships with a proprietary driver blob we're not allowed to redistribute. Everything around it is open. Compliance work (FCC Part 15B, FDA laser notice, battery and enclosure safety) is scheduled ahead of any sale.

KiCadCERN-OHL-S v2OSHWnRF52840 ยท BLE 5.4USB-C

Want one on your keys?

Join the waitlist โ†’