Listening

Open the note I started this morning and add this idea.

Received · one buzz

On your phone

Added to the same note. No copies floating around.

TheoBand

Hold. Speak.Release.

Name: TheoBand and TheoMate desk
Brand: TheoMate

A screenless band that puts Theo one press away. Say what you need done, wherever you are. Nothing listens until you press.

Reserve your place Look closer

Scroll

Look closer

One solid piece of metal.

The body and the button are cut from aluminium and finished to read as one piece. Scroll to turn it.

EV5 · IRONLINE000°

01 / 06

The whole top is the button.

Press anywhere on it. It clicks the same wherever your thumb lands.

02 / 06

A ring you can feel.

Fine ridges around the microphone, raised just enough to find with a fingertip. In a pocket, under a sleeve, in the dark.

03 / 06

The microphone stays put.

The grille in the middle doesn't move when you press, so it hears you the same way every time.

04 / 06

A light that's off until it matters.

A thin slot that disappears into the metal until the band has something to tell you.

05 / 06

One bright edge.

A thin cut edge catches the light on every colour. It's the detail you notice from across a table.

06 / 06

Metal, with a signal-friendly end.

Each end is colour-matched so the wireless signal can get out. You won't spot the join.

48 × 20 × 5.75 mm case on a 16 mm woven strap. Early design; finishes may change before release.

How you use it

Hold. Speak. Release.

Press and hold the ring on top of the band, say what you need done, and let go. Theo takes it from there. The band never sends or approves anything on its own.

01 / 04
Ready· None
Hold the band
Press anywhere on top. The ring under your thumb tells you you're in the right place.
02 / 04
Listening· Short start cue
Say it
Up to 30 seconds at a time. It records only while you're holding.
03 / 04
Received· One short pulse after phone/backend acceptance
Let go
The microphone stops and your request goes to Theo through your phone.
04 / 04
Ready to review· Two short pulses
Feel the answer
One buzz means got it. Two buzzes mean it's ready. Got it doesn't mean done.

Light and haptic patterns are read from the EV5 interaction record. They are proposed behaviours: a received cue means accepted, not done, and a band press never approves anything.

The dial ring

Your finger finds it without looking.

Around the flush microphone crown sits one turned part: the anodised dial ring. 120 radial grooves, 0.15 mm proud of the cap. It is the press locator, the tactile edge and the colour statement in one. The crown inside it never moves: 91 apertures on a fixed acoustic path while the cap travels.

Macro of the TheoBand EV5 in Iron / Fuchsia: the fuchsia dial ring, the flush perforated crown inside it, and the dark light slot beyond. — The ring, the crown and the light slot, at the scale your thumb meets them.

Macro of the woven textile strap meeting its machined copper ferrule. — Where the textile enters the machined ferrule.

120 grooves, 0.15 mm proud
A radial knurl turned around the crown and anodised in the accent. The press locator, the tactile edge and the colour statement in one part.
91 apertures in the crown
Flush, machined, and fixed: the crown passes through the cap and never moves, so the acoustic path stays the same while the cap travels 0.25 mm beneath it.
A 0.35 mm chamfer at 45 degrees
Diamond-cut and left bright along the top edge of the cap. The one detail that reads from across a table, on every colourway.
7 mm of colour-matched polymer
Both ends of the body and the end of the cap are polymer rather than metal, so the antenna sits 2 mm clear of any of it. A radio window with no visible material break.
A 16 mm woven textile
Bonded into a machined, accent-anodised ferrule with a bright chamfer, over an RF-transparent polymer tongue that also keeps the metals apart.
Two flush release keys
In the underside, beside the two charging pads. The part that wears is the part you can change; the case never leaves your wrist to charge.
A slide, not a setting
A machined slide in the flank of the cap withdraws microphone power and permission. The red witness under it is the only red on the object, and it never means recording.

Drawn, not sketched

One object, described exactly.

120

Grooves in the dial ring

A radial knurl, 0.15 mm proud of the cap. Your finger finds it without looking.

Apertures in the crown

Hex-packed through a flush machined crown that never moves.

0.25

Millimetres of cap travel

The whole cap is the button, resting on 3 momentary switches.

48 × 20 mm

Machined case

5.75 mm tall, on a 16 mm woven textile strap.

Every value is read from the TheoBand EV5 Ironline engineering record. This is a pre-production design; details may change before release, and the energy figures on this page are calculated rather than measured.

The Midnight band's diamond-cut chamfer catching a single line of light across a dark field.

One bright edge

Made to be felt,not looked at.

No screen, no feed, nothing to scroll. One machined slab, one anodised ring your thumb finds without looking, and a cue you feel rather than read.

Make it yours

Seven ways to wear it.

One metal, one anodised accent, one dark textile. The accent repeats on the ring, the chamfer, the ferrules, the slider, the clasp plate, the wordmark and the stitch, so each band reads as one idea.

Iron / Fuchsia

Satin iron anodised body and cap, fuchsia anodised dial, black technical textile with fuchsia stitch.

Choose a colourway

The seven TheoBand EV5 colourways laid out in a row: Iron / Fuchsia, Nickel / Cobalt, Iron / Copper, Nickel / Prussian, Black / Gold, Ceramic Cinnabar and Midnight.

Colours are shown as renders. Final shades may differ slightly between the metal and the plastic ends.

Macro of the TheoBand EV5 lockout slider, anodised in the colourway accent, seated in its machined track in the flank of the cap.

The lockout

A piece of metalyou can movewith your thumb.

Privacy

A real off switch for the microphone.

The band only listens while you're pressing it. And if you want to be certain, there's a switch you can move with your thumb.

A switch, not a setting
Slide the switch on the side of the band and the microphone loses its power. No app, update or bug can turn it back on.
Red means off
The red mark under the switch is the only red on the band. It always means the microphone is off.
It never records the room
It records only while you hold the band. There's no always-on mode, so there's nothing to remember to turn off.

Inside

Every part earns its place.

A cap that is also the button. A crown that is also the microphone. A polymer end that is also the antenna's window. Nothing on the outside is decoration, and nothing on the inside is spare.

Three switches, one cap
The cap rests on three momentary switches so the whole surface presses evenly.
Fixed acoustic path
The crown passes through the cap and never moves; the microphone hears the same way every time.
Radio in the open
The antenna lives in the polymer end, away from metal, so a metal cap is possible at all.

Line drawing from the design record. A fit study of reserved envelopes, not a routed board.

Exploded line drawing of the TheoBand: hold cap and dial ring lifted off the body, crown, switches, cell and board beneath.

Rendered fit study: the hold cap lifted off the body over the component envelopes.

On the wrist

Small enough to forget. Deliberate enough to trust.

Unhurried.Iron / Fuchsia
Charging, quietly.Iron / Fuchsia
Worn, not noticed.Iron / Fuchsia
Set down at the door.Iron / Copper
Close enough to whisper.Black / Gold
What it sits beside.Midnight
Opened.Black / Gold
A strap, changed.Nickel / Cobalt
Packed.Nickel / Prussian

The lifestyle photos on this site are computer-generated, people included. The products are shown as early renders.

Our technology

Five decisions, and what each one cost.

Most of the work in an object this small is deciding what not to put in it. These are the five choices the rest of the design is built around — the problem each one answers, and what it gave up to answer it.

The TheoBand in its listening state, the status slot lit while the cap is held down.

01 / 05

The whole cap is the button.

An object with no screen has to be operable without being looked at — in a pocket, under a sleeve, mid-sentence, in the dark.

So there is no button on the object, because the object is the button. The entire top surface presses, resting on 3 momentary switches so it travels evenly wherever your thumb happens to land. Around it, a turned ring of 120 fine grooves stands 0.15 mm proud — enough for a fingertip to find the edge by feel and know, without looking, that it is in the right place.

0.25 mm of travel, and the gap around the cap is that travel drawn as a shadow line rather than hidden.

Macro of the perforated microphone crown inside the anodised dial ring.

02 / 05

A crown that never moves.

If the microphone travels with the button, the acoustic path changes every time you press — and it changes by however hard you pressed. The same sentence arrives sounding different.

So the microphone does not travel. The perforated crown passes up through the hold cap and is fixed to the body beneath it, and the cap moves around it across a three-tenths-of-a-millimetre reveal. 91 apertures sit on an acoustic path that is identical on the first press and the ten-thousandth.

One fixed path to one microphone. It hears you the same way every time.

The TheoBand's materials: satin-anodised aluminium meeting colour-matched polymer at the case ends.

03 / 05

Metal everywhere except where the radio lives.

A machined aluminium case is, electrically, a box that radio does not leave. The finish everyone wants is the finish that stops the product working.

So the metal stops where the antenna starts, and nowhere else. Both ends of the body — and 7 mm of the cap above one of them — are polymer, colour-matched and finished to the same satin so the transition is invisible to the eye and total to the radio. The antenna sits inside that window, 2 mm clear of any metal part.

It reads as one machined slab. The one place it is not, you cannot see.

Macro of the anodised lockout slider in its machined track in the flank of the cap.

04 / 05

Privacy you can move with your thumb.

A microphone you cannot verify is off is a microphone you have to take on trust — and no amount of software promises can be checked by the person holding the object.

So the strongest privacy control here is not a setting. A machined slide in the flank of the cap physically withdraws power from the microphone and breaks the data lines behind it. Firmware can remove capture permission; it has no path to create it. The switch is the authority, and software is downstream of it.

The red witness under the slider is the only red on the object, shown by hardware. It means the microphone is off — never that it is recording.

05 / 05

Nothing heavy runs on your wrist.

Put a computer on a wrist and you inherit its problems: heat against skin, thickness, and a battery measured in hours.

So this one does not try. The band takes what you said and hands it straight to your phone. The work happens in your workspace, where Theo has the tools, the power and the room for it. What stays on the wrist is a controller small enough to sleep most of the day, one microphone, one motor and a coin cell — inside 48 × 20 × 5.75 mm.

A job small enough to do well, in an object thin enough to forget.

TheoBand is in development. Geometry and behaviour come from the EV5 Ironline engineering record; details may change before release.

The Iron / Fuchsia band seated in its low satin-iron cradle on a walnut nightstand at night, the woven strap lying out through both open ends, a lamp, an open paperback and a glass of water behind it.

At the end of the day

Set it down.It charges.

The dock

It charges in the open.

Most wearables ask you to take the strap off, thread the case out, and put it somewhere it cannot be worn. This one drops into a cradle with both ends open and the strap still threaded through it.

01 / 04Passive alignment

Magnets do the aiming.

You do not line anything up. Bring the case near the cradle and passive magnets pull it into register, then hold it there — no clip to press, no orientation to learn, and nothing to break the hundredth time you do it.

02 / 046 mm cradle · 1.4 mm seat

Side rails, and a shallow seat.

The cradle is a 6 mm floor with rails along its two long sides and nothing at either end. The case settles 1.4 mm into that seat, which is deep enough to locate it and shallow enough that lifting it out is one motion with one hand.

03 / 04Power only

Two pins. Current, and nothing else.

Two spring contacts rise from the seat floor and meet two flush pads on the underside of the case, 3.2 mm either side of centre. They carry power. There is no data line through this dock, which means charging cannot become a way in — not through a hostile cradle, not through a borrowed one, not ever.

04 / 04Both ends open

The strap never comes off.

Both ends of the cradle are open, so the woven strap drapes straight through and out the other side. The case charges wearing the same strap you took off your wrist, and goes back on in one motion in the morning.

Cradle geometry and contact positions come from the EV5 engineering record; magnet placement in the diagram is indicative. Charging behaviour is designed and not yet measured on production hardware.

Where it charges

Wherever the day ends.

While you read.Iron / Fuchsia
On the sill.Iron / Fuchsia
Back on by breakfast.Iron / Fuchsia
In its cradle.Iron / Fuchsia
Beside the work.Iron / Fuchsia
Between the books.Iron / Fuchsia
Before the coffee.Iron / Fuchsia
Squared away.Iron / Fuchsia
In by the door.Iron / Fuchsia

The lifestyle photos on this site are computer-generated, people included. The products are shown as early renders.

Tech specs

The whole object, written down.

The outside is read from the EV5 Ironline engineering record; the inside is what each position is and what it is allowed to do. Every figure below has a sourced part behind it.

The TheoBand EV5 in Iron / Fuchsia, three-quarter view: the satin-anodised slab, its fuchsia dial ring and the woven textile strap.

Case and finish

48 × 20 × 5.75mm

The whole object, in three numbers.

A satin-anodised body and hold cap that read as one machined part, across a reveal a quarter of a millimetre wide.

Dimensions48 × 20 × 5.75 mm
Body and capSatin-anodised aluminium
Radio window7 mm of colour-matched polymer
Chamfer0.35 mm at 45°
Reveal0.25 mm
Colourways7
WordmarkRaised 0.06 mm

The full sheetAll 34 lines, each with what it does and does not mean.

Case and finish

Dimensions
48 × 20 × 5.75 mm
A machined slab with a 4.5 mm corner radius, wide enough that the dial ring sits inside metal on both sides.
Body and cap
Satin-anodised aluminium
Body and hold cap read as one machined monolith across the reveal between them.
Radio window
7 mm of colour-matched polymer
Both ends of the body, and the same length of the cap, so the antenna never sits under metal.
Chamfer
0.35 mm at 45°
Diamond-cut along the top edge of the cap and left bright on every colourway.
Reveal
0.25 mm
The cap's travel gap, drawn as a shadow line rather than hidden.
Colourways
7
One metal tone and one anodised accent each, repeated on every highlight part.
Wordmark
Raised 0.06 mm
The 2.3 mm "theo" mark on the cap top, in the accent anodising.

Strap and wear

Textile
16 mm woven technical textile
1.2 mm thick, stitched in the colourway accent.
Ferrules
Machined, accent-anodised
A bright 0.2 mm chamfer over an RF-transparent polymer tongue that keeps the metals apart.
Taper
16 → 10 mm over 6 mm
The tongue enters the case through the polymer end; no lugs, no carrier.
Exchange
Two flush release keys
In the underside. The part that wears is the part you can change.

Controls and capture

Hold cap
0.25 mm of travel on 3 switches
The whole cap is the button, resting on three momentary switches so the surface presses evenly wherever you meet it.
Dial ring
120 grooves, 0.15 mm proud
A turned radial knurl around the crown: the press locator and the tactile cue in one part.
Crown
91 apertures
Hex-packed at 0.5 mm pitch through a flush machined crown that never moves.
Microphone
One digital MEMS
On a fixed acoustic path that never travels with the cap, and powered only while the cap is held.
Maximum hold
30 s (proposed)
A bounded capture. The buffer is not an archive, and there is no always-on mode.
Status light
6 modules behind a 1 × 5.2 mm window
A flush slot with a dark light guide in the cap top: invisible until it has something to say.
Haptics
A linear resonant actuator
Driven with a waveform shaped per cue, so received, result and attention feel different. One pulse means received, never yes.

Privacy, in hardware

Lockout
A machined slide in the flank
It withdraws microphone power and breaks the data lines. Software can remove capture permission, never create it.
Isolation
A load switch and a signal multiplexer
One withdraws the rail and the other breaks the data lines. The slider works them both; firmware is downstream of the metal.
Witness
Red, under the slider
The only red on the object, shown by hardware. It means the microphone is off — never that it is recording.
Capture model
Deliberate hold only
No ambient listening and no meeting capture exist in this product, by design rather than by setting.

Silicon and radio

Controller
A 128 MHz Arm Cortex-M33
With a coprocessor beside it for the radio. Nothing heavy runs on the wrist; the thinking happens where there is power for it.
Memory
1,524 KB non-volatile · 256 KB RAM
Shared by the RTOS, the link, the codec and a bounded capture ring — not an audio store.
Storage
32 Mbit, non-volatile
Signed firmware slots and bounded settings. Not a voice queue.
Link
Bluetooth Low Energy, 2.4 GHz
Through your phone. The band has no connection of its own, by design.
Antenna
A 2.4 GHz chip antenna
In the polymer end of the case, kept 2 mm clear of any metal part.
Radio current
4.8 mA transmit · 3.4 mA receive
Component figures at 3 V and 1 Mbps, not whole-board consumption.

Power and charging

Cell
A 50 mAh rechargeable coin cell
Lithium-ion, 12.1 × 4.0 mm, 3.7 V nominal, in a protected assembly.
Charge management
On board, dock-powered
The charger and the 1.8 V rail live inside the case. There is no port on the object.
Charge rate
25 mA standard · 50 mA fast
Preliminary component figures to 4.3 V, between 0 and 45 °C. Charge time is not calculated here.
Protection
An independent protection circuit
Separate from the charger and from the firmware, with its own handling rules.
Dock contacts
Two power-only spring contacts
There is no data path through the dock, so charging can never become a way in.
Cradle
Side rails, 6 mm tall, open at both ends
The strap drapes through it. The case charges in the open, and never leaves your wrist to do it.

Every figure here comes from the TheoBand EV5 Ironline engineering record, and every position is sourced. This is a pre-production design: finishes, tolerances and final component selections may change before release, and runtime figures are calculated rather than measured.

Energy

Watch a day run down.

One 50 mAh cell, three modelled days. Pick a day and the gauge drains the way the load model says it would — and stops where the first 24 hours leave it. None of this is a runtime; it is arithmetic, drawn at the size it deserves.

85%

of the cell still there after the first 24 hours

Clears the 24-hour goal, reserve intact.

20% reserve

A rechargeable coin cell · 50 mAh nominal · 3.7 V

6.7days

From a full cell

At this load, start to empty.

160h

The same figure

In hours, as the record writes it.

5.6mAh

Spent each day

Out of the 50 mAh nominal.

0.23mA

Average current

Across the whole 24 hours.

The figure we will publish

The target is at least 24 hours of normal use with 20% still in reserve, measured on hardware with the app connected rather than modelled. Until that run is done we would rather show you the arithmetic in full than round it into a number we cannot stand behind.

Calculated from the engineering record's own load model — a 50 mAh coin cell with modelled idle, capture, status, reconnect and haptic currents. These are calculated days, not measured runtimes.

The details, quietly.

48 × 20 × 5.75 mm
Case: Machined satin-anodised aluminium; polymer RF ends; 16 mm
Woven textile strap: Exchangeable tongue-and-channel concept; 7
Colourways: One metal tone, one anodised accent each; 120
Dial ring grooves: 0.15 mm proud, radial knurl; 91
Crown apertures: Flush, fixed acoustic path; 0.25 mm
Cap travel: On 3 momentary switches; Slide
Microphone lockout: Mechanical; red witness means muted; Phone
Transport and audio: Dependent by design; no loudspeaker

TheoBand

Hold. Speak.Release.

A screenless band that puts Theo one press away. Say what you need done, wherever you are. Nothing listens until you press.

Reserve your spot Choose a colourway

Pre-production render.

First 100

Be one ofthe first 100.

The first 100 TheoMates are a numbered first edition, with your name and number engraved on the case. A refundable $1 deposit holds your number. Numbers are given out in order, so the sooner you reserve, the lower yours will be.

Engraved on the case

No./ 100

One hundred numbers in total. One of them could have your name on it.

Your number and your name, engraved where the case meets your wrist. There will only ever be one first 100.

01
Your name and number, engraved on the case
One of 100 cases with its number and your name on it. Once they're gone, they're gone.
02
Founder pricing
Your spot comes with a price below the launch price, applied the day we announce one. You don't have to guess at a number now.
03
A strap nobody else gets
A strap and finish made only for the first 100, then retired. They won't come back in a later colour.
04
First in line
When there's something to buy, the 100 hear before everyone else, in the order they reserved. People who reserved both devices are called first.

This is what we're working toward, not a guarantee. There's no final price or date yet, and your deposit comes back whenever you ask.

Reserve your spot.

$1 for one device, $5 for both. Refundable any time, for any reason.

It's not a purchase. The deposit holds your number; it isn't a payment toward the price.
You're not locked in. Get it back any time. The only thing you give up is your number.

Fully refundable, any time, no questions asked. You can do it yourself from the reservation page. Manage or refund your reservation or read the reservation terms.

Why now. Numbers are handed out in the order they're reserved. Waiting only costs you a lower number, and reserving costs $1 you can take straight back.

Things you can count on.

It only listens while you press the button. Every recording starts with your thumb.
It doesn't track your body. There's no health or fitness sensing in it.
It doesn't carry your location or your money. Maps and payments stay on your phone.
It never sends anything on its own. The band can ask; only you can say yes.

Hold. Speak.Release.

One solid piece of metal.

The whole top is the button.

A ring you can feel.

The microphone stays put.

A light that's off until it matters.

One bright edge.

Metal, with a signal-friendly end.

Hold. Speak. Release.

Hold the band

Say it

Let go

Feel the answer

Your finger finds it without looking.

One object, described exactly.

Made to be felt,not looked at.

A piece of metalyou can movewith your thumb.

A real off switch for the microphone.

A switch, not a setting

Red means off

It never records the room

Every part earns its place.

Three switches, one cap

Fixed acoustic path

Radio in the open

Small enough to forget. Deliberate enough to trust.

Five decisions, and what each one cost.

The whole cap is the button.

A crown that never moves.

Metal everywhere except where the radio lives.

Privacy you can move with your thumb.

Nothing heavy runs on your wrist.

Set it down.It charges.

It charges in the open.

Magnets do the aiming.

Side rails, and a shallow seat.

Two pins. Current, and nothing else.

The strap never comes off.

Wherever the day ends.

The whole object, written down.

Watch a day run down.

The details, quietly.

Hold. Speak.Release.

Be one ofthe first 100.

Your name and number, engraved on the case

Founder pricing

A strap nobody else gets

First in line

Reserve your spot.

Things you can count on.