Analog Calm Down, Everyone: The ‘Ant Farm’ Watch Is Not Real

It seemed a little iffy from the start, but we’ve seen everything possible in fashion so we went with it: a portable ant farm, worn on your wrist, by Philly-based Analog Watch Co. Analog has really jumped the shark with this one, we thought. In fact, we were about to email Lorenzo Buffa, the head of Analog Watch Co., whom we know from back when we featured his gorgeous minimalist wooden watch, and ask him if he’d gone completely nuts.

The watch, according to the website, will go on sale on April 1st (cough) for $59.  The kit (pictured below) includes nesting sand, tweezers, a feeding tube, a refillable watch body, a case tool and live harvester ants. Still with us? 

People got wind of the ant watch and went nuts. Animal welfare website The Dodo published a blog post about the watch and even reached out to Analog for comment. The company stuck to its story, only coming clean today in this statement posted on the site:

Analog Watch Co. has confirmed to The Dodo that the Ant Watch was intended to be an “April Fools gag,” despite assertions of its validity when originally contacted for this post. The backlash from the gag, said creator Myles Bu, has been “pretty intense … I thought it was obviously that our Ant Watch was an impractical idea. We wanted to create a dialogue, just something quirky,” Bu said. “No ants were harmed in the making of those two prototypes.”

Moral of the story? April Fool’s Day is next Wednesday, so be prepared.