“We very often encounter a situation when we can't get through to our relatives: children, spouses, parents and friends, when it's really important for us to have a short conversation and check if everything's all right,” says Rafal Czernik, co-founder of the Wristy Technologies.

Therefore, together with his business partner, Elżbieta Jarmusz, he decided to create a device that allows quick and effective contact with children and older people – those who often simply forget to carry smartphones with them, fail to turn on the sound silenced during classes or a visit to a doctor. They also find it difficult to deal with the arge number of functions on their smartphone, of which they only need a few. The answer to these problems is a device that is easy to use and physically “attached” to its user. That's how the GSM communicator called Wristy was created – devoid of the touchscreen, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection, memory card slot or a camera, so all those additions which are usually standard in smartwatches and make their use highly complicated.

The Wristy is not just another smartwatch. It is a much simpler device – in fact, a watch-phone. It is equipped with some basic features: the ability to call one of four pre-programmed numbers, and answer or reject the call. That's all. Once you take the call, the communication occurs through the built-in microphone and speaker. That's why you need to talk to the wrist and listen to the answers from it. This is an unusual solution and unfavourable for having long chats, but that isn't the task of this device. It's to be used primarily to exchange basic messages.

The system is resistant to reprogramming, because the configuration is done over the phone and authenticated with the IMEI number assigned to the subscriber's account by the operator. The equipment also allows you to locate people close to you on the map, so you no longer need to call them asking: “Where are you?”

It seems that none of the large manufacturers of consumer electronics offer anything similar, so the Wristy start-up found its niche. This is hardly a surprise since there are real professionals behind it. Elżbieta Jarmusz and Rafał Czernik are business consultants with experience in the financial sector. They met during the Executive MBA programme at the Warsaw University of Technology Business School and it turned out that they have a lot in common: they are very active professionally, often worrying for hours about where their children are and if they are all right. Now they have one thing less to worry about.

Aleksandra Stanisławska