Hands On With HereO, The Small And Simple GPS Watch Made Especially For Kids


If you’ve got a child between the ages of 3 and 8, you’re in an interesting spot as a parent. The kid is old enough to be involved in activities such as school and play dates, which can keep them out from under your watchful eyes for hours at a time. But they’re not quite old enough to have a cell phone of their own for keeping in touch.

A startup called HereO has made a gadget especially for keeping tabs on young kids in that age range. HereO has made what it claims is the world’s “smallest and coolest” GPS watch device, which connects with a mobile and web app to allow parents to keep track of where their children are at all hours of the day. The watch will retail for $149, and is available for $99 to people who fund the device’s ongoing IndieGoGo campaign. The GPS tracking service used by the app is paid for on a subscription basis, for $5 per month.

There are of course other kid-focused GPS tracking devices on the market (they’re often actually referred to as digital ‘leashes’.) But the folks at HereO say that their offering is specially designed with a small form factor and eye-catching colors so that it might be something that kids might actually enjoy wearing. The idea is that it’s less a leash, and more of an accessory.

HereO’s chief strategy officer Daniel Leon stopped by TechCrunch headquarters to give us a look at the HereO experience from both the kids’ and parents’ perspective. Check that out in the video embedded above.