Polio watch visually tracks progress towards polio-free world in ‘real time’

The project called Time to Act was developed by the Rotary Club Marseille. The idea was simple: 5 great designers create 5 unique digital watches in 5 years and raise critically-needed funds to get rid of polio once and for all.

The first model was designed by the renowned French designer Marc Alfieri and manufactured in Switzerland. Via smartphone app or laptop Bluetooth connection, the polio watch measures in real time the current state of fundraising and progress towards polio eradication. A visual depiction of a poliovirus on the dial will gradually disappear as funds are raised and a clean planet (in form of a 2D map) will progressively appear symbolizing progress towards a polio-free world.

“Acquiring a polio watch will demonstrate your commitment to one of the most ambitious human efforts in history, the eradication of the poliovirus from the world,” said the watch designer Marc Alfieri.

The polio watch is one of the latest initiatives by Rotarians around the world committed to achieve a polio-free world. Since 1985, Rotary members have contributed more than US$1.2 billion and countless volunteer hours to help immunize more than two billion children in 122 countries. Along with its partners including WHO, UNICEF, CDC and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary has reduced polio cases by 99 percent worldwide, from 350,000 cases in 1988 to 407 in 2013.

The selling price of the polio watch is $650 of which $150 (equating to more than 1,000 doses of vaccine) is donated to polio eradication.

For more information, please visit www.poliowatch.com. Visit www.endpolionow.org to donate directly to Rotary’s PolioPlus programme.