I love a good idea. I have them all the time. Sometimes I’ll be just walking down the street and think of something cool and say, “Hey! That’s a good idea!”

The problem with most of my good ideas is that I never follow through with them. That’s not always the case; I’ve had some humdingers that I did pursue and they usually panned out favorably. but for the most part, my ideas remain exactly that: ideas.

It takes a more that just a flash of brilliance to bring an idea from some vague mental picture or scribblings on napkins to something you can hold in your hand. That’s why I have a lot of respect for people who peddle their eureka moments on sites like Kickstarter.

See, Kickstarter acts as an idea clearing house, hooking people with projects and ideas, but no cash up with lots of people who have a little cash and like the projects and ideas they see on display. If enough people with cash sponsor a particular project then the project takes off, and hopefully succeeds. Sponsors who commit certain amounts of money usually get something in return, the finish product, for example.

Such is the case with the Scott Wilson and the folks at Minimal. Scott came up a great idea. Two, actually. He designed two watchbands for the latest generation of iPod nano. The TikTok is designed so the nano can be easily snapped into a plastic holder while the LunaTik incloses your 6G nano in aircraft grade aluminum.

True, watch bands that accommodate the 6G iPod nano are a dime a dozen these days, but Scott and his crew wanted to produce something a bit better than what’s available. Did they succeed?

I can’t speak for the TikTok, but I pre-ordered the LunaTik, and I like what I see.

It took less than five minutes to get my nano secured into the LunaTik case, which pulls apart into halves once the hex-screws are removed. It would have taken less time had I read the included simple instructions.

LunaTik fresh from the box

Once ensconced in the matte finished aluminum case and you’ve set your nano to show the clock face upon activation, there’s nothing else to do but put the whole affair on.

LunaTik 5 minutes later

This may strike you as odd, but I normally don’t wear watches. I tried, but I just wind up breaking them. I have a small collection of ex-wrist riders to prove it. Besides, I don’t care for anything on my hands or wrists; it feels confining to me. This is probably because when I wear a watch I put it on the right arm, and I’m right-handed. A recipe for watch disaster if ever there was one. Putting a watch on my left arm just doesn’t feel right.

My aversion to watch wearing may change now that I have the LunaTik. The iPod nano in a LunaTik makes a handsome, if somewhat largish watch. Runners and exercisers will love having the nano in such a convenient place.

Looks great even on small wrists

There are downsides to wearing a nano as a watch. The first thing you’ll notice is that you have to push the sleep/wake button to activate the nano, thus showing the clock face. That means you need two hands to tell the time. A mild inconvenience for the sake of cool, but one that can get increasingly annoying over time.

What is cool is that when the nano is in clock mode, a swiping gesture across the face reveals other watch-type functions like a timer and stopwatch. The touch-screen interface really shines here, and having the nano on your wrist seems obvious.

Another downside, however, is that the wrist is not a great place to run wired headsets from. If you are doing anything that requires a lot of arm movement, like running for instance, then that jiggling wire will get old fast. The folks at Minimal are look at ways to remedy this, likely by offering a slimmed down Bluetooth adapter that fits the dock port. Get a set of wireless headsets and you’d be good to go.

When they do offer this I hope they make it so that the dock and headset ports are sealed against moisture. Unless you live in a dessert, running with a nano that close to your sweaty skin while out in the elements is just inviting trouble.

Actually, it’s Apple who should be taken to task for that last bit. Why promote the nano as a device one can exercise with if you don’t make it at least a little bit environment proof?

In fact, none of the negatives I mentioned are due to the LunaTik itself. They are nano design flaws, or to be kinder, design oversights that could have made a good device great.

In any case, the LunaTik is a well executed idea that makes the nano a great looking multifunction watch. If you own a 6G nano and you want to wear it as a watch, this is the band for you and I suggest that you Get it Now* (er, once they become generally available).

* Note: My rating system goes like this;

• Get it Now! - Highest rating and an absolute must-have
• Highly recommend - Minor flaws, but a great product
• Recommend - Flawed, but still a solid product
• So-so - Problem product that may find a niche market
• Avoid - Why did they bother making it? A money waster.