I almost didn't share these photos because they don't do the real product justice. A better camera is the only way to capture how insanely gorgeous the color chips for the watch turned out!! We were ecstatic! I'll make sure to get plenty of new pictures of the field test units before we send them out. 

We need to wear test all the colors before determining what will be officially available, but look at where we are starting! 

From L=>R: Firefly, Turquoise, Cornflower, Purple, Silver, PR Pink

The fabric colors are the options for neoprene on the standard bands that ship with the watches. We'll have more pictures of how those are coming together shortly. Oh, and we have a few surprises up our sleeve for the extra-long men's bands.

Stay tuned....next update from Shenzhen!

C2K & the Bia Team

It's official. Plane tickets are purchased. Visas secured. 10 days from now Roger and I - Cheryl - head to China for the first pre-production build. We'll return home with field test units for our first group of testers!!

Our whole team is working (literally) around the clock right now. The updates the next few weeks will come fast furious so you can share our excitement and progress. 

The big victory this weekend was touchscreen. This has been one of the most vexing parts of the product. While touchscreens are common in mass-produced consumer devices, securing these custom-sized parts in the US for prototyping when your company is a wee bit smaller than Apple is NOT easy. Remember our "sanding glass" debacle this past November? 

We finally found a great vendor in San Jose, CA. And here is our touchscreen in action! This is a dev unit loaded with the software for manufacturing testing. These are not the functions that will be controlled via touchscreen in the final product...but you get the jist. 

Feels like progress!!

-- C2K & the Team

"It’s 11pm on Thursday night. Konstantin just walked into the office. Roger is on his third dose of Dayquil and 2nd box of tissue. I picked up a Spectrum Analyzer and a dozen of Tamales earlier in the evening. And we have one blip of unexpected harmonic impedance on the Go Stick that we need to eradicate. It’s time to get the party started!" 

It’s a big weekend at Bia.

The whole team is in Ensenada this week. Five folks from our manufacturing partner are arriving from China tomorrow. We’ll spend the weekend taking them through all the assembly and test procedures so they can set up the production line back in Shenzhen and build the first field test units!

We are also reviewing all their proposed mechanical tests, which right now include simulating:

• 2 years of bright sunlight exposure
• 5 years of button pressing, 
• 4 hours tumbling down a gravel hill.   

They requested that we perform the washing machine test in the US. ☺

----------

Why China?

Many of you asked why we decided to manufacture in China. We actually wanted to manufacture in the US but after a lot of research and some hand-wringing I made the call that it was not the right decision for the product or our customers. 

We are a small team and our specialty is product design. Large scale production is a whole different beast.

• Asia has a manufacturing infrastructure that just doesn’t exist in the US. Fabrication, assembly, logistics are all just blocks away from each other, and the different firms involved have trusted relationships and processes that we can just plug into.
• In Asia, we are able to work with a specialized new product operations firm who extends our team with very experienced resources in sourcing, manufacturing design, and quality control. ...it's a team that a small company like ours would not have been able to assemble on our own.  
• Finally, we are able to work with partners who have direct experience building very similar products to ours, which jumpstarts our learning to get a better product out the door faster.

I’ll send up more updates over the weekend via @biasport and on Facebook. And we’ll do another backer update early next week once the dust settles. 

I can’t even start to explain how hard we’ve been working these past few weeks. We have lots of very exciting stuff to share. But first I want to update you on shipping status.

Back in November, with your input, we made a decision to wait for a newer version of our GSM module. We knew our pre-production build and field testing would be delayed while we waited for the new module. Then, early this week, we were notified by our processor provider (a part used in both the Watch and the Go Stick) that their component has a power leak that could negatively impact battery life. 

On both fronts we have good news.

• Our first batch of new GSM modules has arrived - we are planning our pre-production build as I type! 
• The power problem with the processor has been resolved. 

Unfortunately updated processors will not be released until July. This, combined with the original delay in our field test units, means our ship date is likely to push out into August.  

...we are as disappointed and as anxious as you are. But we heard you loud and clear in November: Delivering a high quality product is more important than delivery date. So that is what we are going to do. 

I will update you on firm dates after we do some more testing, but I wanted to reset expectations sooner rather than later.

Now on to all the fun stuff...

Welcome to SWIFT  
aka: Simulated Watch Interface For Testing – yeah, we can geek like that!

Bia needs to be so intuitive that no instructions are required. To help us nail this ease-of-use we built a “fake watch on the iPhone” and distributed it to our field testers with some tasks to perform. We’ve already made some improvements based on their input. 

Here's a sneak peak at what we are rolling out to them later today -- setting Galloway style walk/run intervals.  Don't worry, this isn't the "pretty version" yet. It's purely a functional "wireframe".

Meet Diana...as in "Diana Prince" Wonder Woman's alter ego 

In preparation for testing prototypes of our watch bands, we are outfitting our field testers with “fit and feel” models of the watch -- code named Diana.  These are simple aluminum ingots machined to the exact form and weight of the watch. 

The first bands are handmade from material samples provided by "The Queen of Neoprene".  I think the snakeskin camouflage print has promise though. 

Field test units...it's time to fly!

For a number of reasons we have decided to manufacture in China from Day 1. We will use the field test build to get our China partner spooled up. It's a bit of investment now, but will help things move faster later. 

If all goes as planned my March update will be from on the ground in Shenzhen! 

And Finally...

I can't tell you how much we appreciate your continued support and excitement. Nothing great is ever easy. Based on how this week has felt, we must be on track for some insane greatness.

We are doing this!

C2K + Sylvia

**********

PS.: Many of you have asked about being added to the field test group. We will put out a call for additional testers in early April. Stay tuned.

P2S.: On Valentine’s day we took a break from development and pitched Bia on stage in front of a 1000 people at the Women 2.0 Startup Conference in San Francisco. We walked away with the People’s Choice Award, coverage in Inc Magazine, naming Bia one of five female-founded starts ups to watch...and a much needed day of re-energizing. 

This beauty is because of you!

We ended 2012 on a rush of hardware. We are starting 2013 deep into soft stuff:

• watch bands 
• user interface 
• a new BHAG (big hairy ass goal): a wrist for every Bia!

Battle of the Bands

When you want something done right, you've got to work with the best. So this week I spent a few hours with "The Queen of Neoprene". 

No, really. That is what they all her. Karen helped design the original triathlon wetsuit and has been innovating with neoprene and velcro ever since. Rumor has it she even designed a suit that makes your butt look good.

Karen and I poured through sample books identifying the right materials to fuse together to form our watch band: screen printable fabric + neoprene + plush (the soft side of velco) + velcro.

She also had some great ideas about perfecting the fit of the strap and giving the curved back of the watch a little extra "grip" on your wrist. 

Since this is actually one of the more important parts of the field testing, the goal is to have candidate straps on field test units in February.

UX in Effect

Talking about field testing....

We are building out a true-to size watch interface on the iPhone. It allows us to do rapid test and iteration of the user experience faster than we could on the watch itself. We have the basic mechanics working and are now building out the initial screens. When it's available to test we'll spread the word via a backer email, our blog, and on our Facebook page.

2013 BHAG: A Wrist for Every Bia

We want a wrist for each of the 5,000 units in our first product order. It will help us secure better pricing and terms with our manufacturing partner. Plus it gives your friends, who missed us on Kickstarter, a chance to join you in helping us build a great product and company. 

Have some friends ready to get their wrists rocked? You know the drill:  

• Forward this email to them and tell them how excited you are about Bia.
• Have them reserve their Bia today. They'll get a special introductory price AND 30% discount on all future products, forever.  

Don't worry. The best price, delivery dates, and special "first" bands are still exclusive to Kickstarter backers. And the 30% was our special holiday Thank You to you! 

Track our progress towards our 5,000 wrist goal at www.bia-sport.com. 

Let's Do This!

Cheryl + Sylvia

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