Growing up with a large garden and an extended community, I felt wild and free as a young girl. I could just rock over to a neighbour’s house 100 meters away and my mum wouldn’t be screaming her lungs off for me till it was time for dinner.
Today not many children grow up with this carefree attitude. Even if they want to be carefree, most parents today have become more guarded and more worried about their children’s safety. We are becoming a more connected world albeit in a digital way.
When I was approached to consider my little Ayla to model the special Gator watch, I was very intrigued. I have 4 children and 3 of them were and have been and still is, very rambunctious and hyper. My no.2 ‘ran away’ from the grounds of a pub we were eating at and suddenly she was by the roadside. My no.3 used to love playing in the field all by himself. He was and is a curious cat and would wander of looking at the creepy crawlies and won’t have realised he’s wandered a little far from us. His curiosity also led us losing him in a super large crowd at a food festival in Southbank some years back. My no.4, Ayla, loves running really fast everywhere and then hiding behind whatever corner she thinks we’ll turn into.
When I told my husband about the watch, he didn’t think twice.
“Get it if it’s not crazy expensive! It sounds really useful!”
Now, I wished the Gator watch has existed when my no.2 Amelia was younger and loves wandering away without a fear in the world. I would have been able to pinpoint her exact location from an app on my own mobile phone and still allowed her the freedom to wander away in her own little world.
Today as a Year 7 student, her school doesn’t allow any mobile phone. I have been very stressed out about the fact that she is not able to call me should she want to be with a friend after school to do their homework together. The Gator watch is perfect for an environment like this. What if I had an emergency and knew she was on the way home and had no way of calling her otherwise? I wished this watch had come earlier. With it’s pre-installed multinetwork SIM, I know I can call my child anywhere in the UK and it will always be reliable.
Let’s get kids unplugged!
Colleen Wong, founder of My Gator Watch
The Gator is not connected to the internet like your Apple or Android watches and phones. This is perfect for helping our kids to start getting connected again to the outdoor life. Your child can only make calls to 13 pre-programmed phone numbers in the phone with a simple click at the edge of the watch. It does allow for 2 ways calls, to any number, set anywhere in the world. So if my son suddenly misses his granny in Denmark while playing at a rock pool in Cornwall, he could very well do so (though you get limited minutes with your monthly contract).
Asger loves all things military and James Bond-ish and the Gator made him super excited. Even though it was a wee big on his super tiny wrist (they follow their mum with her kiddie wrist 😉 ) he felt like a spy with the watch on as he can call mummy by talking to his wrist. And hooray to no games he can access to that little piece of technology. 😉
I’ve asked the amazing founder of Gator Watch, Colleen Wong, for a full break down of her product and her company. I wanted to make sure the information was correct and I wasn’t giving out the wrong information due to my own excitement of having my own Gator watches.
- 2-way voice calls almost anywhere in the world with a pre-installed multinetwork SIM card which makes the watch more reliable.
- No access to the internet, social media or games.
- GPS and WIFI tracking combined to pin point the wearer’s exact location.
- 4-day standby battery.
- Weighs as much as KitKat.
- Our service plans are £9/month on an annual contract or £11/month on a month to month contract. They include 60 minutes of voice calls and unlimited data. The watch roams free in most of the EU and you can even call from UK to the EU and it is included in the 60 mins. Our watch can be used anywhere in the world with 2G networks which are almost every country in the world!
- Tech Sixty Four is a British brand, owned and operated by flexible working staff, most of whom are parents of young children.
- Our customer support team are all mums of young children who cover 7 days a week from 8am-12am. We offer an end to end solution so we cover all the questions about the hardware (the watch) and also the service (the networks). A one-stop shop to answer all our customers’ questions.
- Safety of our data is a key priority and we employ a London cyber security team to test our platforms monthly which is more than what most major companies do. All our watches are end to end encrypted. (Most of the cheap watches in the market now and esp those from China, do not have any encryption or secure servers so people need to be aware of that)
- We have won numerous awards including the AXA Health Tech Challenge Award and the Small Business Grants and we can be found in many media publications.
(As a mum, I am seriously impressed that Tech Sixty Four and Colleen are pushing for flexi work which has been proven to be best for parents. The get to spend valuable time with their children after school as present parents and are more effective workers without the stress of commuting.)
Now if you have read my last blog post, you’ll know why I’m even more excited for the children to have these Gator watches. They’ll definitely need these to help calm this mama’s heart as walking to school independently is very much the thing to do. Now when would you feel comfortable to let your kids run free and safely?
You can check out Gator Watch at https://www.techsixtyfour.com/
P.S I am seriously impressed too with the Customer Service from Tech Sixty Four. As someone who has been in the service industry and given training on it, I am so impressed with how they treat their customers. Every question, every issue, every problem is taken care of as soon as they possibly can. Many big companies rely on a call centre somewhere to take your calls or emails. When an issue seems pretty serious, the founder herself, Colleen, will take on the query.
