Is It Wrong To Want The Kinekt Gear Ring As My Wedding Band?

by Sean Fallon on February 1, 2010

I will be getting married later this year and looking for wedding bands is definitely on the to do list. If the Kinekt ring was made in some other material besides stainless steel I might actually consider itâ€”only to be laughed at and shot down brutally by my fiancee. It’s probably just as wellâ€”I can see myself developing some sort of OCD disorder from obsessively playing with the working gears all day.

http://vimeo.com/9054784

Product Page ($165 via Swismiss via Technabob)

Tagged as: gears, kinekt ring, ring, rings

sam

Dammit! My Fiancee said if I could find someone else using this as a wedding band then I could too. So I plugged a few words into google and ended up here, I was so happy! I yelled “Look someone’s using it as a wedding band!” then read further and cried

alisa

hey! im a future-bride and im totally letting my fiance get this as his wedding band! its completely awesome! i hope you can convince your fi to let you have it!

Sean Fallon

Sorry to let you down dude. I was hoping one of us could make it happen.
Dia

How about if I (female) give you permission? If I had known this existed, I would have totally used it for my wedding band.

Sean Fallon

Your husband is a lucky guy.

http://www.novelldesignstudio.com/blog/ Rick from Novell wedding bands

Eh – get it anyway. Use it as an everyday ring. It’s pretty cool, and definitely a conversation starter.
Marc R

Sam-

I’m going to replace my wedding band with this. Does that count?

Sean Fallon

Yes – that’s even MORE hardcore.

Ben

But couldn’t you justify it as, this wedding band, and it’s intricate design represent our marriage. The trials we will go through in the future are the gears of the ring. And to solve the inevitable problems, “turning the gears” “solving the problem” requires both sides of the marriage working together.

Sean, Sam, you can work on the wording but I see opportunity here.

Sean Fallon

No dice. I don’t think there is a combination of words in the language to express my argument in an effective way. Either way, I would only really be interested if the ring was available in something a little more precious that stainless steel.

Andy

The video does not seem to work on fashionablygeek.

There is the working video.,

http://www.kinektdesign.com/_media/kinekt.mov
Laura

Had I not already bought my fiance’s wedding band, he would probably be getting this. Might still as a birthday gift as I don’t know how well it would hold up to every day wear that a wedding band needs to. As a fun to bring out from time to time ring, however, I want one myself.
http://www.sleepydadbrewing.com Lance

YES! I just got permission to replace my misplaced wedding band with this!

Frankly, she was just glad I didn’t ask to use this:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/jewelry/756e/

Sean Fallon

Hahaha – because THAT would be tacky. Congrats on the ring dude. There is hope for us all.
Sean Fallon

BTW we would love to post a pic of you wearing this if you are interested. Oh, and I’m a homebrewer myself. High five!

sam

Well she ended up buying me one for valentines day!! She’s awesome. We finally both agree’d on this band as a wedding band.

http://imgur.com/iUZwl.jpg

Sean Fallon

Dude, you and Lance (above) – would love to post a pic of you guys wearing the ring if you are interested. Gear rings and FG: spreading the love

sam

FYI, I wanted to come and let you know I was returning my Kinekt ring for several reasons.

They run a size or a size and half small. Because the ring is so thick it’s relatively uncomfortable to wear. I wear an 11 and was just measured at the jewelry store this weekend. However my kinekt ring won’t fit past my knuckle.

The quality of the ring, it’s heavy and feels solid, but it feels loosely assembled. The gears aren’t tight and sometimes it has difficulty spinning. I’m guessing the looseness of it would pick up gunk in a short while of wearing it too. If i was going to keep it I was going to apply some bearing lubricant to it to see if it’d help the spinning, however it would probably cause it to attract more dirt.

Anyway, huge disappointment I really really wanted to love this ring as I love fidgeting with things. I wanted to give you guys a heads up hopefully it will help others make a decision.

To Kinekts credit they were prompt in their customer service and the RMA process is easy and simple.

Good luck to you all.

Sean Fallon

Eh…that is disappointing. Thanks for the heads up Sam.

http://www.sleepydadbrewing.com Lance

Ok… So I didn’t return mine.

First off… Sam’s review was pretty accurate in my experience. That said, I kept mine and am wearing it now. First off… the size: I downloaded and used Kinekt’s sizing chart. I was a little worried because their chart said I was a 12 when the ring I’m replacing was a 10… So I decided to split the diff and get an 11. It fits perfectly (I apparently guessed correctly). The machining: Yep, it’s a little clunky and the pieces seem to fit a little more loosely than I had hoped. BUT mine slides and moves freely. I’m a little ambivalent about the lifetime guarantee… If it falls apart, they’ll replace it for free, but the company started in 2010, so who knows if they’ll still be around if and when it does break. It’s a little… well.. thick on the finger, but I’ve played pool, typed extensively (I do software QA), ridden my motorcycle and played the bass with it on and haven’t really noticed it.

On the plus side, it’s gotten nothing but raves from my friends… it truly is Geek Fashion at it’s highest.
Jacinta

My fiance wants this ring for his wedding band, and I’m all for it! It is unique and definitely a conversation starter!
Mikaila

I got one for my husband’s wedding band about 6 months ago.. it’s awesome. Even I can’t stop playing with it.
Sean

I had asked them about the lubricant and none is needed. If anything, it would attract more debris and it is not recommended. I also asked about the assembly and they said that was intentional. Now that I think about it, it actually makes sense, it has to be somewhat looser so that the gears are able to move freely with one finger. If the rims were tighter, a person would have difficulty. It truly is unique and original that is for sure.
Cat

I got my then boyfriend now fiance one, just because he wanted one.
The gears seem a bit loose, but playing with it for hours didn’t seem to do any harm, neither does regular wear.
But he likes it.
And it’s damn cool.
TJ

Dump her. It’s your wedding too! If she has to be that fussy about a ring, just think of how miserable she’ll make you about other things over the years. Isn’t your life worth more that that?
Cynthia

My fiance wants this for his wedding band, I actually like it myself! I agree I do wish it came in different metals to choose from, even gold! But all in all, I love my fiance and he diserves to have his wish!
blixdevil

My wife bought me one for my birthday, and I have to agree with the others – AWESOME idea, horrible design and manufacturing. The looseness of the gears is quite annoying and I don’t buy their excuse that it is necessary to maintain free spinning of the gears. I have made gears this small before, and if the gears are cut correctly then that won’t be a problem. Thes gears are not. They do not reflect a cut that is used for real gears, and as stated before the lash (play) is so bad that I can get skin caught between the gears. The one detail that really makes this ring so bad is the sharp edges. They didn’t even tumble or deburr the parts before assembly, and the small gears are so loose that they tip up and get caught on everything. I have a hard time not catching it on my jean pocket! It even scratches my hands up when I wash them.

I guess I’ll find out for sure if the losseness is really necessary, as I am about to make my own. Some may think that I am nit-picking, but for $165 I expect the ring to at least NOT scratch the hell out of my hands!
http://profiles.google.com/irock315 Jillian Jeffers

I’m getting it for my husband when we renew our vows. We had a bad first 5 years of marriage and decided to renew our vows in about a year. He loves working on mechanical things and I thought this would be a perfect idea for him. If all else fails and the ring is annoying I will just pick him up a spare ring just in case.

http://nerdapproved.com Sean Fallon

Congratulations! I really do love the idea behind this ring, but I would
definitely have a Plan B in mind since I’ve heard some complaints about the
quality. We did some meteorite wedding rings not too long ago that seemed
awesome (but expensive).

http://twitter.com/medeamaterial medeamaterial

I’m getting married in a month, and these are the wedding bands we chose for both of us Â I’m excited, but a bit worried about sizing issues, and hoping it’s not too much of a hassle to exchange them if they don’t fit, specially because we live outside the US!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WAYRWAOZSRF2FYTIKERMW75PCA imeastcoast

After emailing them, I learned that they have improved the design and the tolerances are tighter.
Anonymous

I am seriously considering buying this for my soon to be husband as his wedding band. I emailed them and they do have the option of choosing better metal for this ring. I think it is an awesome idea, and when you have kids they will always want to play with it.
Steve Bronson

These are interesting comments. This was given to me as Christmas gift and I do not have these issues. I emailed to follow up after reading this and they told me that some changes were made from when they first launched to today. It is good to see that they are making tweaks based on the feedback. I am impressed with their customer service as well. I do not think this ring is for everyone. It is an industrial design. I am an engineer so I get it and understand it for what it is and happy that someone finally made something for us.