First you’ll need a watch to jury-rig into a smartwatch, and you will also need to purchase a Chronos to get the process started. Once your Chronos arrives, take the included towelettes and wipe down the bottom off the watch. Then stick the Chronos to the backside of the watch using the “micro-suction side” and hold this in place for roughly 10 seconds. Moving forward, you can charge the Chronos by placing it inside of the included charging cradle.

Once charged, you can then pair it with the Chronos app from the App Store or Google Play. You can then use it to track your steps, calories burned, and even establish vibration LED notifications for calls, emails, and texts. You can also set up gestures that allow you take a photo or silence calls by simply taping the face of the watch. For those with metrics in mind, Chronos can share its fitness data with Google Fit and iOS HealthKit (when we tested the Chronos alongside our traditional dedicated smartwatch, these fitness metrics were pretty similar).

There are also ways to tie in your preferential playlists — more or less. Using the Chronos, you can double-tap the crown of the watch to pause and play tracks, or triple-tap the crown to skip to the next song. This is exceedingly more complicated and certainly less useful than a traditional smartwatch. Once fully implemented, the DIY version isn’t nearly as versatile as a full-blown smart watch, however, it is still exceptionally more functional than a traditional watch. Nonetheless, you are saving hundreds of dollars by choosing a homemade option. The choice is yours.

David Cogen, a regular contributor here at Digital Trends, runs TheUnlockr.com, a popular tech blog that focuses on tech news, tips and tricks, and the latest tech. You can also find him over at Twitter discussing the latest tech trends.

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