Ed Jelley’s Accidental Small Business: How a 3D Printing Experiment Led to the Miniphone Ultra, an EDC Inspired Case for the Apple Watch Ultra

When does an Apple Watch go from being a watch to being something else? I’m sure, for some, the answer is something like, “As soon as you walk into an Apple Store,” but (as I’ve discussed before) the Apple Watch has, especially in its last few iterations, really come into its own. Thanks to additions like GPS and cell service, it’s even become a decent phone replacement for those days when you want to leave your phone at home.

Personally, I love the freedom I feel walking out of the house for a hike or bike ride without my phone, secure in the knowledge that if someone really needs to get a hold of me, they can (that I could also theoretically call for help isn’t the worst thing either). But despite that wonderful feeling, I still don’t love wearing an Apple Watch, especially not when it so often comes at the expense of wearing one of the many other watches I’ve picked up over the years to fill that bottomless hole that exists somewhere deep inside every collector.

That’s where the Miniphone Ultra comes into play. Designed by our close friend and Worn & Wound Contributing Editor, Ed Jelley, the Miniphone Ultra is a case that transforms the Apple Watch Ultra (or Ultra II) into a kind of phone replacement, freeing up your wrist space, but still giving you the flexibility to leave the phone at home. Admittedly, using one screen to limit your use of another would sound ridiculous to our great-great-grandfathers, but it’s an elegant solution to what is a very real problem in 2025.

The Miniphone isn’t the first case to try and turn an Apple Watch into an iPhone substitute, but it is the first one (at least to my knowledge) that manages to accomplish that goal without looking absolutely terrible. In fact, at least to my eye, it actually looks pretty cool. The translucent orange case, which comes with a paracord lanyard in black or olive and either steel or black hardware, feels right at home in today’s EDC landscape and fits perfectly with the orange-accented smart watch, and its reasonable price tag of just $30 means there’s hardly an excuse not to try it out (assuming you already own an Apple Watch Ultra — those are not included).

Alongside the Miniphone, Ed has also launched a new brand, Elrow Industries. Both the Miniphone and Elrow Industries have been a bit of an overnight happy accident — born of nothing but the desire to play around with his son’s newest toy, an urge to leave the phone at home, and a viral series of Instagram posts. Earlier this week, I got to go back and forth with Ed and ask him some questions about his new “accidental small business” and to hear a bit about how it started, where it’s going, and whether he’ll ever get his own 3D printer.

You call Elrow an “adventure in micro-manufacturing.” Adventures can be daunting. How has this one been?

Honestly, kind of a whirlwind. I posted a photo on my Instagram and it took off in a way that I’ve never had a post even come close to. Right now, there are well over 2 million views on my past 6 posts. Really, all I wanted to do was mess around with some 3D CAD software and make something I thought would be useful. Call me industrious, but when enough people ask to buy something and scaling up your “business” is as simple as clicking “reprint tray” on the 3D printer, it was hard to not jump in.

One day, you’ve got an iPhone in your pocket and an Apple Watch on your wrist, what inspired you to bridge the gap between the two?

The main inspiration was to ditch one of the two. We at Worn & Wound are no strangers to double wristing, but I much prefer wearing a mechanical (or quartz) watch on my left wrist, and nothing on my right. The phone is full of distractions – way more than the Apple Watch, so the hope was to (sort of) ditch that too. There are a few other options out there that turn the Apple Watch into a mini phone. I was on the fence about some of those other options, but they just didn’t look like how I wanted them to look. I have a longstanding interest in EDC gear, and the few cases on the market either looked like junk or too toyish. I wanted something that looked and felt good.

How would you describe the Miniphone Ultra? Is it an accessory, a hack, a tool?

It’s definitely a case for your watch more so than anything else. I’d brand it as an accessory that allows you to use your Apple Watch Ultra in a different way than what Apple intended, but still something that can be super useful on the daily. 

Besides you, who is the Miniphone Ultra for?

It’s for anyone that’s just sick of their phone. I have my screen time tracked though my iPhone and when you look at how much time people are spending on their devices, it’s just crazy. I’m over it. The average screen time is somewhere between 4 and 6 hours per day on your phone. In a single week, you’re losing almost an entire day to the screen on content that you’re probably not going to remember anyway. I am grateful for the connection that you get to friends and the online community, but when you think about it, there’s so much you’re giving up just to stare at a screen. Between setting up a super boring Focus mode (all greyscale, limited apps, hard limits on social media) and carrying around the MPU (both inside my house and out), I was able to cut my own screen time down 50% over two weeks. Of course, that’s kind of out the window since turning this whole thing into a little shop. 

How did the Miniphone go from being a personal project to a real product? Can you take us through the process of developing the Miniphone Ultra from conception to execution?

One of the coolest things about 3D printing is the ability to rapidly prototype, and I mean RAPID. You can be looking at a design on a screen, and then 40 minutes later you’ve got one in your hand. It’s truly fascinating how quick and easy 3D printing has become in 2025. I carried my own around for a week or two, posted it on the internet, and boom – people were asking to buy it. I ran through a bunch of versions in CAD, about 4 different printed samples with minor tweaks to accommodate hardware and ergonomics, and then that was that. Again, the speed from idea to physical product is just mind-blowing. 

Where did the name “Elrow Industries” come from?

Elrow is a portmanteau of my kids’ nicknames – El and Row. It’s also the name I used for the pop-up coffee shop that my wife and I ran out of our house a few months back. Turns out offering your friends free coffee and a place to hang isn’t super lucrative, but really fun. I liked the mix of the two names, and in the interest of speed, it made sense to move forward with that name. 

How did 3D printing make its way into your life?

We actually got the printer for my son for his birthday a few weeks back, but I’m going to be buying my own. His prints get priority, so I’ve been doing a lot of waiting around for Minecraft-themed fidget toys in between printing batches of cases. We’ve been having a blast working together in the modeling software, and he’s a surprisingly harsh design critic for only being 8 years old. 

This has all happened really quickly. How has the dawn of Elrow differed from how you’d have imagined building a brand?

It’s funny, I’ve done everything in one way or another for other brands, but never my own. I run my family’s electronic manufacturing firm (experience in production, timing studies, accounting, 2D CAD, mechanical engineering, general un-fun business junk), work in consumer marketing and product design for Tactile Turn (what products will sell, photographing said products, social media, etc.), and combining all of those skills into one set and seeing how fast I can do it has been fun. It’s been an ass-backwards fall into it, and I don’t know how long it will last, but for now it’s fun. 

Practically speaking, how has the process been? Any unexpected hurdles or triumphs?

Practically, it’s nothing I haven’t done before – just never done all of it at once. It’s thrilling to see orders roll in (we just crossed 100 in 10 days), but not so thrilling to make sure everything is printed, QC’d, tested, assembled, picked, packed, and shipped properly. I did make a switch from bubble mailers to boxes after having 2 orders arrive with damage. 

Now that Elrow is up and running, do you have any ideas for more products?

I do have a finished working prototype for an AirTag case that I’m testing out right now, hopefully I can find the time to get that up on the site and see how it goes. I’ve found it fun to re-design the items in my everyday life that I am not totally happy with. The goal was to sell 40 items, and once we cruised past that rather quickly, I’m excited to see where it goes. I’ve always been a person with many irons in the fire, and we’ll see how long I leave this one in the heat.

The Miniphone Ultra is available to order now directly from Elrow Industries’ website.

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