Crank It a Few Times
The dial is built into the lock's thumb-turn. When the battery dies, twisting it five to 10 times (depending on how far and fast you turn) generates enough power to wake the lock; the light turns green when it's ready, and you're in with a fingerprint, code or the app. Founder and chief inventor Jamie Siminoff says rival locks' backup plans — 9-volt battery terminals or a USB-C port — are useless to someone standing at the door at 1 a.m. with no battery and no cable. Once inside, you pop out the rechargeable battery pack and charge it normally. The pack lasts about a year, and the Ring app warns you before it runs down.
Four Ways In
Ring ditched the keyhole entirely: entry is via a fingerprint reader, a backlit touchscreen keypad, the Ring app, or Alexa voice. The app supports remote locking and status checks plus scheduled or time-limited access for dog walkers and house cleaners; Ring eventually wants third-party developers to build specialized software, such as tools for Airbnb hosts who rotate codes. The lock fits a standard single-cylinder deadbolt, needs no wiring, comes in black, silver and brass, connects through Amazon Sidewalk, and works with Alexa. None of its features requires a subscription.
Designed for a Vacation Home
The dial's origin is personal. "I struggled because this particular house will get used very little, and I know the freaking battery will die on it," Siminoff said of his vacation home — and he worried family or friends could get stranded outside a door with no power connection. He used AI to help design the hand-crank concept. "Almost everything in our lives today is digital, yet we still carry around little pieces of metal in our pockets," Siminoff said. "That's because of smart lock anxiety. A lock has to work every time, and until now, a dead battery could leave you locked out of your own home. No backup key or battery to carry, no locksmith to call."
The Smart Lock Wars Heat Up
Ring's logic is clear: it started at the front door with video doorbells, and a lock is the natural extension into whole-home security. One caveat from Gadget Review: no independent hands-on testing has occurred yet, so the dead-battery claim remains exactly that — a claim. But conceptually, Ring has turned smart locks' biggest psychological barrier — "what if the battery dies?" — into a twist of a dial. Early next year, the $249 lock goes head-to-head with the incumbents.
