Spy Review

Armatix, a German firm, has introduced a new gun with an electronic safety. It is wirelessly connected to a custom wrist watch and unless the gun is near the watch, it will not fire. It is only when the watch sends a signal to the gun giving it a real ‘green’ LED light to fire.

At €7,000 this piece is expensive. As a safety mechanism and a hi-tech one at that, the watch seems to be a great idea. There are both pros and cons to this kind of gun. One of the pros is that if you are keeping it at home, nobody can accidentally use it without the watch. Another one is that if a criminal (or anyone) is trying to wrest it from you and is successful, he still cannot fire it. So the wristwatch makes it a smart gun.

However, suppose you keep the gun at hand, but do not wear the wristwatch constantly, you cannot fire it. Of course, an intruder or criminal may not know that and may get intimidated all the same. Or if you change the gun to the other hand, again you will not be able to fire it. If you are not at home and your wife wants to use it, again she will not be able to without the watch.

If you do have a break-in, you need to be able to access a usable gun immediately, without having to put on a watch. If you are a law enforcement officer, and you get injured in the gun holding hand, you will not be able to fire the gun with the other hand either, and nobody else will be able to use it – say a partner who either does not have a gun or has run out of bullets. And what happens if the phone’s battery dies out? Again the gun becomes unusable.