How Much Did the Cicret Bracelet Cost, and Was It Real?

Updated on July 23, 2026 | Written by Alec Pow
This article was researched using 5 sources. See our methodology and corrections policy.

The Cicret Bracelet never became a commercially available product, so it has no legitimate current retail price. Its developers originally discussed a possible price of approximately €380, or roughly $475 at the exchange rates used in 2014 reporting. Later online claims mentioned preorder prices near $250 and a release price around $300, but no verified consumer version reached the market.

The safest amount to spend on an original Cicret Bracelet today is $0. There is no official store selling a working Cicret projector bracelet, no independently tested retail model, and no evidence that customers received the arm-projection device shown in the viral promotional video. Listings that currently use the Cicret name may refer to unrelated fitness trackers, generic smart bands, or products using recycled images from the old concept.

The Cicret Bracelet was a proposed wearable that claimed it could project an interactive smartphone-style interface onto the wearer’s forearm. The concept attracted enormous online attention and hundreds of thousands of dollars in claimed donations, but it never became a verified consumer product.

Article Highlights

Jump to sections

• The Cicret Bracelet cannot be purchased as a functioning retail product.
• Its original proposed price was approximately €380.
• Later promotional claims mentioned prices near $250 to $300 (at $30 per hour, earning that amount would take about 1 to 1.3 full-time workdays, before taxes).
• The polished viral demonstration was a concept video, not footage of a completed product.
• No independently tested production model was released to consumers.
• The company associated with the project entered judicial liquidation in France in 2019.
• Current listings using the Cicret name are not proof that the original projection bracelet exists.

Cicret Price Claims

Cicret Price or Funding Claim	Amount	What It Actually Represented
Proposed retail price	About €380	An early estimate for a future product that was never released
Reported preorder price	About $250 (about 1 full-time workday at $30 per hour)	Later promotional claim, not a verified retail transaction
Reported release price	About $300	Projected future price that never became a normal store price
Early app funding target	€300,000	Funding requested for the broader Cicret software project
Prototype funding target	€700,000	Money requested to continue bracelet development
Later stated fundraising target	$500,000	Amount publicly promoted for prototype development
Legitimate price today	$0	No verified original Cicret Bracelet is available to buy

Contemporary technology coverage reported that the team expected a possible retail price near €380. The same report described planned 16 GB and 32 GB models, several colors, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a projector, proximity sensors, and possible standalone cellular features.

Those specifications were development claims rather than features of a product available for testing. No buyer could walk into a store, pay €380, and leave with the device demonstrated in the promotional material.

What Cicret Promised

The proposed bracelet was supposed to contain a small projector that cast an Android-style interface onto the user’s skin. Eight proximity sensors would detect the wearer’s finger position, theoretically allowing taps, swipes, scrolling, typing, gaming, internet browsing, video viewing, and phone controls on the forearm.

The project also described an accelerometer, vibration alerts, a USB connection, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, storage, and synchronization with smartphones. Some statements suggested the bracelet might eventually operate independently by using cellular-network functions without carrying a conventional phone.

The concept was extremely attractive because it combined a smartwatch, projector, gesture sensor, and smartphone interface in a thin rubber wristband. The difficulty was fitting the required projector, optics, sensors, battery, processor, wireless hardware, cooling, and controls into a device small enough to wear comfortably.

The Viral Video Was a Concept

The original video made the bracelet appear nearly complete. It showed a bright rectangular display aligned neatly on the forearm, smooth scrolling, responsive touch controls, video playback, messaging, maps, and phone functions.

That video was not evidence of a finished working product. In December 2014, project co-founder Guillaume Pommier acknowledged that the impressive demonstration was a mock-up rather than a functioning prototype. WTOP reported at the time that a prototype had not yet been built.

Snopes subsequently described the footage as a concept presentation rather than a real-world demonstration. AFP later reached the same general conclusion when an old Cicret clip circulated again, explaining that it showed a model for a device that never reached the market.

This distinction matters because many websites initially described the functions in the video as though reviewers had handled a real device. The smoother and more advanced the demonstration appeared, the more consumers assumed the underlying hardware already existed.

Funding Was Not a Normal Order

The project initially asked supporters for donations rather than selling a completed bracelet through a standard retail checkout. Early reports said the team wanted approximately €300,000 for the Cicret application and €700,000 to continue developing a bracelet prototype.

WTOP reported that donors were offered recognition on a digital “Wall of Fame” rather than a guaranteed device. Pommier specifically distinguished the request from a normal preorder. The same report said an earlier Indiegogo campaign had raised only $1,357 (about 1.1 full-time workweeks at $30 per hour) toward a $500,000 goal before it was closed.

A donation to an experimental hardware project is not the same as purchasing finished merchandise. Product specifications, manufacturing schedules, delivery dates, and refund rights may remain uncertain, particularly when the money is being used to determine whether a prototype can be built.

How Much Was Raised?

Public statements from the Cicret team later claimed that it had nearly reached a $500,000 funding target. One archived Facebook post stated that the project had raised 98% of that amount for a first prototype.

That would equal approximately $490,000. Other reports and later accounts described totals above $500,000. There is no publicly accessible audited account showing exactly how much was received, refunded, spent on development, or retained.

The safest wording is that the project claimed to have collected hundreds of thousands of dollars. It should not be stated as a precisely verified total unless supported by financial records from the company, payment processor, liquidator, or court.

The Prototype Did Not Match

The team later released footage described as a first working prototype. It showed a projection on an arm, but the image was considerably smaller, dimmer, more distorted, and less responsive than the interface in the original promotional clip.

The demonstration did not prove that the proposed consumer specifications could be fitted into the advertised bracelet. It also did not provide an independent evaluation of battery life, heat, projection brightness, touch accuracy, outdoor visibility, waterproofing, durability, wireless performance, or production cost.

Technical video creator Captain Disillusion analyzed both the original concept footage and the later prototype claims. His Cicret Bracelet debunk highlighted visual and engineering problems in the presentation. A critique is not a court ruling, but it demonstrates why the polished video should not have been treated as product evidence.

The Kickstarter Confusion

An important detail in the old article needs correction. A Kickstarter campaign using the Cicret Bracelet name was suspended in 2016, but available Kickstarter records show that CN2P, the company associated with the official Cicret project, filed a copyright complaint against that campaign.

The complaint described the Kickstarter project as an unauthorized copy and stated that the campaign did not have permission from the Cicret co-founder. Kickstarter’s public DMCA record identifies CN2P as the party requesting its removal.

The suspended Kickstarter page should therefore not be presented as the official Cicret team’s campaign being shut down for copying someone else. It appears to have been a separate campaign that used the project’s identity or materials.

This correction does not validate the original bracelet or prove that it reached production. It only clarifies which party submitted the copyright complaint.

The Company Was Liquidated

CN2P was the French company associated with the Cicret development effort. French company records show that the Paris Commercial Court opened judicial liquidation proceedings against CN2P on October 18, 2019.

The filing listed April 18, 2018, as the date when payments had ceased. The public French corporate record describes the company’s activity as developing applications and innovative products connected with new technologies.

Judicial liquidation is stronger evidence of the project’s end than the disappearance of a social-media account alone. A company in liquidation is not preparing an ordinary consumer-electronics launch through the same business structure.

Was Cicret a Scam?

Many former supporters, technology commentators, and online communities describe Cicret as a scam. The project collected money, repeatedly discussed prototypes and production, missed its expected timelines, and never delivered the promised commercial bracelet.

Those facts support describing the device as failed vaporware, an abandoned crowdfunding project, or a product that never materialized. They also justify warning readers not to send money to anyone claiming to sell the original bracelet.

Calling the founders guilty of criminal fraud requires stronger evidence, such as a court judgment, regulator finding, or criminal conviction. We did not find a public ruling establishing that the project’s creators were convicted of fraud. The article should therefore distinguish public accusations from a legally proven offense.

A careful description is that Cicret became widely criticized as an alleged crowdfunding scam because money was collected while the promised consumer product was never delivered.

Could the Concept Work?

Individual parts of the concept were not imaginary. Pico projectors, gesture sensors, touch-detection research, wearable computers, and smartphone mirroring already existed. The challenge was combining them into a slim, affordable, waterproof bracelet with practical battery life and a usable image.

A projector does not make a dark mark on skin in the same way that a self-lit screen displays black pixels. Ambient light, arm shape, skin color, hair, movement, projection angle, focus, and shadows from the user’s fingers all affect the image. A usable projection also consumes power and generates heat.

The projected interface shown in the concept video had much of the clarity, contrast, alignment, and responsiveness of a normal phone screen. Producing that experience from a wrist-sized device was a much larger engineering task than combining a projector with eight sensors.

The Hidden Price

The planned €380 product price did not include the financial risk of funding an unproven design. A supporter who donated $250 and received no product effectively paid $250 for participation in a failed development effort.

A buyer who later paid another seller $50 for a generic tracker advertised with Cicret images would have spent $300 without receiving the promised projection bracelet. Disputes, chargebacks, international shipping, and return postage could increase the loss.

ThePricer’s simple opportunity-cost model shows another effect. Investing $250 instead at a modeled 7% annual return for ten years would grow to about $491.79. The difference of $241.79 is not a direct charge from Cicret, but it illustrates the longer-term cost of money placed into a product that was never delivered.

Do Not Buy Current Listings

Old Cicret videos and pictures continue to circulate on social media, video platforms, blogs, and online stores. A listing may use the same projected-arm images while shipping an ordinary Bluetooth fitness band with a small built-in screen.

No current marketplace listing should be treated as official merely because it includes the word Cicret. Look for photographs of the physical item, manufacturer identity, model number, independent reviews, projector specifications, return address, warranty terms, and verified demonstrations from buyers.

A legitimate seller should be able to show the exact device projecting a responsive interface in continuous, unedited footage under several lighting conditions. Product photos copied from the 2014 concept video are a warning sign.

Consumers interested in real wearables can compare current Apple Watch prices, smart glasses, compact projectors, or established fitness trackers. None of those products should be expected to reproduce the fictional experience shown in the Cicret concept video.

Why Keep This Article?

This page remains useful because the old promotional footage continues to resurface without a date. Someone encountering the video today may reasonably believe that the bracelet is a newly announced product or that improved technology has finally made it available.

Deleting the article would remove a consumer warning from a URL that may still receive searches and links. Rewriting it preserves the historical record while correcting the original recommendation to order the product.

The article also demonstrates why projected prices should not be confused with actual costs. Cicret was often described as a €380 gadget, but no normal customer ever had the chance to buy a verified retail unit at that price.

What We Verified

• Checked: Contemporary reporting described the original Cicret video as a concept demonstration rather than footage of a finished bracelet.
• Confirmed: Early published development targets included €300,000 for software and €700,000 for bracelet prototype development.
• Cross-referenced: The frequently quoted €380 amount was a proposed future retail price, not an established store price.
• Verified: AFP reported that the projected-interface bracelet shown in circulating footage never made it to market.
• Checked: French business records show that CN2P entered judicial liquidation proceedings in 2019.

Answers to Common Questions

How much did the Cicret Bracelet cost?

The developers originally discussed a retail price near €380. Later promotional claims mentioned approximately $250 to $300, but no verified retail version was released.

Can I buy a Cicret Bracelet today?

No. The original Cicret projection bracelet is not available as a verified commercial product.

Was the Cicret Bracelet real?

It was a real product-development concept, but the smooth arm interface shown in the viral video was a mock-up. A finished consumer version was never independently verified or released.

Was Cicret proven to be a scam?

The project is widely accused of being a scam and can accurately be described as failed vaporware. We did not find a public criminal judgment proving fraud by the founders.

Did Cicret refund its supporters?

There is no complete public record showing how much was refunded, how many donors received money back, or how the collected funds were ultimately distributed.