Motorola Boots Up Moto Maker For Moto 360 Android Wear Smartwatch

At the end of February, it was revealed that Motorola was in the process of extending its Moto Maker customization tool to the Moto 360 Android Wear smartwatch. The Moto Maker has been available for the Moto X smartphone for quite some time now, and allows users to personalize the color of the body/buttons and texture (back cover) of their smartphones.

The Moto Maker for the Moto 360 is now live and allows customers to choose from three case finishes (natural steel, dark steel, champagne gold) and nine different bands. Some of those options are going to cost you extra, however. You can choose between three leather band colors at no additional cost, but opting for a standard metal band or “Mono Link” metal band will cost you an additional $50. And if you want a gold finish for the casing, which will set you back an additional $30. You will also be able to select from 11 different watch faces, one of which will display when you first “boot up” your Moto 360.

The Moto 360 tops out at $329 (gold case + gold band), which still puts it comfortably below the entry-level Apple Watch Sport and $229 less than the stainless steel Apple Watch ($549). And we can’t forget that an entry-level Moto 360 with a leather band will only cost you $249.

Apple’s Jony Ive criticized the Moto Maker in a February interview with The New Yorker. Ive said that giving customers such broad control over the appearance of their devices was “abdicating your responsibility as a designer.” With that said, Apple CEO Tim Cook keeps repeating the mantra that the Apple Watch is “the most personal we have ever created” and gives customers a multitude of case materials, case colors, band sizes, and band colors to choose from. Is this a case of “Do as I say, not as I do?”