Pinwheel Unveils $160 Kid-Friendly Smartwatch with AI Chatbot at CES 2025

Pinwheel is a $160 Apple Watch Ultra clone made just for kids

CES 2025 Read and watch our complete CES coverage here Updated less than 4 minutes ago If your child is begging you to get them the Apple Watch Ultra that's wrapped around your wrist right now, Pinwheel has unveiled a kid-friendly smartwatch that costs $160, giving you and your wallet some peace of mind. Pinwheel, a company that sells smartphones that teach kids to use them responsibly with parental guidance, revealed the new smartwatch for kids at Pepcom during CES 2025 on Monday, showing off safety features that would please parents interested in buying the product. According to Engadget, kids have the ability to use the watch as a standalone device to make calls, send text messages, play preinstalled games (including a puzzle game resembling Tetris), and talk to a kid-friendly chatbot dubbed PinwheelGPT. The company said that kids can ask the AI chatbot any question they want, and it'll respond to them in an age-appropriate manner. However, it won't respond to inappropriate questions, prompting them to talk to a trusted adult about such topics instead. Recommended Videos Like its smartphones, Pinwheel's kid-friendly smartwatch has strong parental controls. Parents can remotely monitor text messages and call history, turn off certain features for each individual contact on their child's list, use GPS tracking to monitor their child's whereabouts through notifications telling them when they arrive and/or leave a saved location, and vet every contact their kid adds to their contact list until they're 14. They can also monitor conversations their kid has had with PinwheelGPT, even after those chats have been deleted. The watch also has a camera built on the side so that kids can conduct video chats with their friends and family. Unfortunately, Pinwheel said they won't be able to use the camera until later this year. Please enable Javascript to view this content The Pinwheel watch for kids costs $160 plus an additional $15 a month with a mobile plan. Parents interested in buying the watch for their child instead of the Apple Watch Ultra -- or any other Apple Watch model, for that matter -- can join the waitlist on the Pinwheel website.

The Pinwheel Watch is a kid-safe Apple Watch Ultra lookalike to placate your tween

AI found its way into everything at CES 2025, including this kids' smartwatch for some reason. The Pinwheel Watch doesn't scream "this is a kids' device." The new smartwatch, unveiled at Pepcom during CES 2025, doesn't have a chunky, brightly colored casing or super-thick bezels. It's actually pretty sleek, with a build like a slightly larger Apple Watch -- plus a little camera bump -- and swappable straps of different styles. To tech-aware kids who have begun bugging their parents for a smartwatch just like they have, it would easily pass as an analogue for an adult wearable. But it's also packed with safety features meant to offer only the amount of connectedness that parents feel comfortable with. And an AI chatbot, because, of course. Pinwheel already has a smartphone platform that allows for parent-approved communications, but the watch is a standalone 4G LTE cellular device with its own mobile plan (about $15 according to the company) and the ability to make calls, send texts and, down the line, do video chats. Parents can determine the level of intervention they think is appropriate for their kids, and change these settings in the Pinwheel app as they see fit. For a younger kid, they might set it so all contacts need to be approved, while a 14-year-old can be granted the freedom to add whatever friends they want without approval. Parents can remotely monitor text and call history, and turn off certain features -- like image sending -- individually for contacts. It also offers GPS location tracking so parents can keep tabs on their kids' whereabouts. Beyond basic communication, there are a bunch of features that are just meant for fun. There are built-in games, like a helicopter game I really enjoyed playing that involves tapping the screen at the right time to collect gems and keep it in the air, and a kid-friendly version of ChatGPT called PinwheelGPT. The company says the chatbot has been tested for all the common workarounds used to trick these things into doing what they shouldn't, so it won't produce inappropriate responses when prompted to. And parents can see these chats, including deleted ones. "You can certainly ask it whatever, but it won't answer," said Pinwheel co-founder Dane Witbeck. "It quickly backs out and says, 'hey, that's something you should talk to a trusted adult about.'" The abysmal hotel-casino Wi-Fi at the crowded event prevented me from actually putting that to the test, though. The Pinwheel Watch will go on sale later this year for $160 (plus the monthly cellular subscription). It's rated IP67, so it should be pretty durable against spills, dirt and other kid messes. For parents interested in a safer way to let their children start using smart devices to talk to their friends and family, Pinwheel's watch could be a pretty decent option, especially for kids in tween territory that may not want an extremely limited, immature-looking wearable.

This $160 cellular smartwatch with a camera aims to be an Apple Watch for kids

While some parents treat their kids to an Apple Watch, the Pinwheel Watch aims to offer an interesting alternative. The $160 cellular smartwatch combines strong parental controls with a kid-friendly AI chatbot. Unlike the real thing, the Pinwheel includes a camera, with the company promising that video calling will be coming later this year ... Engadget says that unlike some smartwatches designed for kids, this one doesn't look like a toy. The Pinwheel Watch doesn't scream "this is a kids' device." The new smartwatch, unveiled at Pepcom during CES 2025, doesn't have a chunky, brightly colored casing or super-thick bezels. It's actually pretty sleek, with a build like a slightly larger Apple Watch -- plus a little camera bump -- and swappable straps of different styles. To tech-aware kids who have begun bugging their parents for a smartwatch just like they have, it would easily pass as an analogue for an adult wearable. Pinwheel says the parental controls offer a very high degree of power and flexibility. For a younger kid, they might set it so all contacts need to be approved, while a 14-year-old can be granted the freedom to add whatever friends they want without approval. Parents can remotely monitor text and call history, and turn off certain features -- like image sending -- individually for contacts. The company also claims the AI chatbot is kid-proof. [It has] a kid-friendly version of ChatGPT called PinwheelGPT. The company says the chatbot has been tested for all the common workarounds used to trick these things into doing what they shouldn't, so it won't produce inappropriate responses when prompted to. And parents can see these chats, including deleted ones. "You can certainly ask it whatever, but it won't answer," said Pinwheel co-founder Dane Witbeck. "It quickly backs out and says, 'hey, that's something you should talk to a trusted adult about.'" The camera, sitting at the bottom of the watch, will support two-way video calls. There's no availability date yet beyond later this year, and in addition to the $160 purchase price it will need a custom cellular plan at around $15 per month.