Hyungsoo Kim is founder and CEO of eone timepieces. A firm believer in the importance of universal design, his goal is to create innovative products that are accessible to everyone. Hyungsoo holds an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a BA/MA in psychology from Wesleyan University. Visit eone's website to pre-order The Bradley.

Like many great ideas, ours was born of a problem. When I was a graduate student at MIT, I sat next to a classmate who is visually impaired. He would whisper to me to ask the time, even though he wore a watch — which prompted me to wonder how the blind tell time.

I later learned from my classmate that he had a talking watch that announced the time out loud when he pressed a button, but he rarely used it in public because he found it disruptive and embarrassing. After that conversation with my classmate, I went home and Googled "watch for the blind". I couldn’t believe what I saw.

SmashingConf isn't the eighth wonder of the world, but we are pretty close. Join us at SmashingConf Oxford on March 16–19 or meet us at the shores of Santa Monica for SmashingConf LA on April 27–30. You won't be disappointed.