Concept → Reality · Rewritten

Yuxa, the bracelet phone made from plants

In June 2010 a Mexican designer showed a phone worn as a bracelet, made from plant fibers and biodegradable plastic and built to signal by vibration. It was a five-day contest idea and it stayed one. Both halves of it, the wrist phone and the plant-based shell, exist as real products, just never in one object.

The Design Blog editors

LG GD910 watch phone with a metal case, a small touchscreen and a dark strap

LG’s GD910 watch phone of 2009, a real phone worn on the wrist from the same period; a related product, not the Yuxa concept. AI-retouched from an image by LGEPR (LG Electronics), CC BY 2.0.

Verdict 2026

Still a concept

Yuxa stayed a set of renders by Veronica Eugenia Rodriguez Ortiz and was never built. Phones worn on the wrist and phone casings made with plant fiber both reached the market, but as separate products.

Apple Watch SE 3 GPS + Cellular, 40mmClosest thing you can buyApple Watch SE 3 GPS + Cellular, 40mm8.2Design ratingAlways-on display in the classic caseCheck priceOur design review ↓

The idea today

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Nobody sells a bracelet phone made from plants, but these two products each cover one half of the idea.

  • Apple Watch SE 3 GPS + Cellular, 40mm

    Apple Watch SE 3 GPS + Cellular, 40mm

    The wrist-phone half: with the cellular model you can take and make calls from the watch without the iPhone nearby, according to Apple’s listing.

    Our design review

    8.2Design rating
    Form8.2
    Material8.2
    Detail8.6
    Longevity8.0

    The SE 3 keeps the classic Apple Watch shape: a 100 percent recycled aluminum case, a nylon composite back and Ion-X glass that Apple rates four times more crack-resistant than the SE 2’s. It finally gains an always-on display, and the Digital Crown, side button and speaker grille all work as on the pricier models. TechRadar’s reviewer found the bezels thicker than on the Series 11, which makes it look older. Battery life is rated at 18 hours, so it needs daily charging.

    Strongest point
    Always-on display in the classic case
    Compromise
    Thick bezels and daily charging
    Check price on Amazon
  • Pela Case for iPhone 17, Black Boreal

    Pela Case for iPhone 17, Black Boreal

    The plant half: a phone case made with flax shive, a plant fiber, according to the maker’s listing. This listing fits the iPhone 17.

    Our design review

    7.4Design rating
    Form7.9
    Material7.6
    Detail7.3
    Longevity6.8

    Pela molds the case from a soft plant-based polymer blended with flax shive, which gives it a rubbery, cushioned feel in a slim shell, and this iPhone 17 version includes MagSafe. A MobileSyrup reviewer, in a sponsored month-long review of an earlier model, saw black scuffs on the edges that faded with use. The soft material trades crisp edges and buttons for grip, and the case is tied to one phone generation, so its useful life ends with the phone.

    Strongest point
    Soft flax-based shell, slim with MagSafe
    Compromise
    Soft material scuffs; tied to one phone
    Check price on Amazon

Product images from the retailer listings, cut out and staged with AI.

  1. 2006NEC’s FOMA N701iECO goes on sale in Japan with a casing of polylactic acid bioplastic reinforced with kenaf fiber.
  2. 2008Veronica Eugenia Rodriguez Ortiz designs Yuxa in five days for the Greener Gadgets design contest, according to her portfolio.
  3. 2009Orange announces that LG’s GD910, a 3G touchscreen watch phone, will go on sale at its Bond Street store in London on Aug 27.
  4. 2010Yuxa is published on design blogs as a wearable phone made from plant fibers and biodegradable plastic.
  5. 2017Apple announces the Apple Watch Series 3 with built-in cellular, which can make calls without an iPhone nearby.
  6. 2019Nubia shows the Alpha, a phone worn around the wrist with a 4-inch flexible OLED display, at the MWC trade show.

What it was

Yuxa was a phone you wore. Veronica Eugenia Rodriguez Ortiz, a designer from Monterrey, Mexico, drew it as an open cuff for the wrist: a dark shell with a woven texture, yellow-green raised details and a black strip down the middle. Design blogs published it in June 2010.

The description was short. The shell would be made from plant fibers and biodegradable plastic. There was an OLED display, a rechargeable battery and Bluetooth. Calls and messages announced themselves by vibration instead of sound, with different patterns for different callers, and a call began when the wearer took the bracelet off the wrist.

Her portfolio adds the context. It files Yuxa under the Greener Gadgets design contest of 2008 and says she had five days to develop it. The question she set herself was electronic waste. Her presentation board puts the working life of a cell phone at about 18 months.

Yuxa was right that a phone on the wrist should tap instead of ring, and hopeful that a compostable shell could answer for what sits inside it.

Where the idea went

We found no sign that Yuxa went beyond renders. The portfolio shows no prototype, and no manufacturer took it up.

The wrist phone was arriving anyway. In August 2009 Orange announced that it would sell LG’s GD910, a 3G touchscreen watch phone, in limited numbers from its Bond Street store in London. In September 2017 Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 3 with built-in cellular, which makes calls with no iPhone nearby. In February 2019 Nubia showed the Alpha at the MWC trade show, a phone worn around the wrist with a 4-inch flexible OLED display.

The material had a head start. In 2006 NEC put the FOMA N701iECO on sale in Japan. Its casing was polylactic acid, a plastic made from plants, reinforced with kenaf fiber, and the makers said approximately 90 percent of the casing came from biological sources. Today plant fiber appears mostly in accessories, such as phone cases made with flax.

What it means now

Yuxa’s best guess was the quiet one. A device on the wrist does not need to ring. When Apple announced its first watch in 2014, it described alerts you could feel as well as hear, and a tap on the wrist is now an ordinary way for a watch to ask for attention.

Its hardest problem is the one it started from. A plant-based shell says nothing about the battery, the display and the circuit board inside it, and the concept never explained what would happen to those. Sixteen years on, the wrist phone is ordinary, and the phone made from plants is still mostly a case.

The original post, summarized

Our June 2010 post covered Yuxa, a bracelet-shaped phone concept by Veronica Eugenia Rodriguez Ortiz made from plant fibers and biodegradable plastic, with an OLED display and vibration alerts. It is summarized here rather than republished.

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