TouchOne Keyboard is an intuitive typing aid for your smartwatch

Typing on a smartwatch is tricky – the keys are so small, you need fingers the size of toothpicks to do it right. But not with TouchOne Keyboard.

It’s a natty keyboard for smartwatches that presents the letters of the alphabet in a dial formation. The letters are grouped together in eight sections – to select e, for example, just press anywhere in the 1 section. Using a system similar to the old T9 keyboards on dumb phones, it will work out which word you’re typing. Hence it’s suitable for people with fatter fingers.

It works on both circular and square smartwatches, so the Apple Watch shouldn’t be left out.

The makers point out that the QWERTY keyboard was invented a long time ago, and really isn’t suitable for wearable devices. TouchOne looks like one of the better attempts to crack the problem of how to type on such a small screen.

As well as the keys placed around the dial, you can use a series of gesture controls for common functions. Tap the centre of the screen to put a space, for example, swipe left for backspace, up for shift and down for enter.

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Using the buttons along the bottom, you can also switch from letters to emojis, numbers and punctuation. If it’s not getting the word you want, hold the section and the keys appear bigger, taking up most of the screen. Then just swipe to the one you want.

It’s just gone live on Kickstarter and is seeking $10,000 with 37 days to go. If successful, it’ll be available in December.