A 12-year-old from Raleigh who is trying to build a better smartwatch got some major support this week from a large technology company.
Lenovo, the world’s largest personal computer maker, gave David Barrow $5,000 to put toward creating a prototype of his Comb720 watch.
The design of the Comb720 was inspired by Barrow’s beekeeping hobby, with the watch face of seven hexagons resembling a honeycomb.
“There are only seven buttons, so you can get to an app just by tapping,” he said.
Barrow’s 14-year-old brother spent 100 hours writing the code for the watch.
After WRAL News aired a story about Barrow’s watch idea and plan to raise $50,000 on the website Indiegogo to finance the start of production, Lenovo Chief Technology Officer Peter Hortensius got in touch with Barrow and invited him to the company’s U.S. headquarters in Morrisville.
“It was really just a case of a child that I just wanted to meet,” Hortensius said.
Barrow explained his concept and his business plan to several tech executives on Monday.
Hortensius was impressed.
“I wish a lot of adults could carry themselves as well as he does,” he said.
Barrow said he was surprised and grateful for the meeting and the donation to his Indiegogo crowd-funding effort.
“I had a great time getting to talk to them about my product, and they donated to my Indiegogo campaign,” he said.
Lenovo officials plan to keep a close eye on the project — and on Barrow.
