Sweet! It’d be great for a steam punk Halloween costume, hell it’d be great for everyday use. I’d like to see one with color LCD. Maybe yank the screen from an old cell phone or one of those “wrist TVs”.

Posted at 7:13 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by polymath

Simply Beautiful!

Posted at 7:15 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Jimi

Check that PCB! :O

Posted at 7:20 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Mielle

That is a incredible piece of work. Reminds me of my solsuno watch that im wearing.

The creator should get a batch of these made and start selling them. I’d buy one.

Posted at 7:27 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Doc

Pretty slick job.

He could charge it inductively if the case is not made of ferrous metal. Only requires a coil and a diode in the watch.

The NTP update could be done when in the charger and also inductively (by amplitude modulating the charge waveform, which could be detected easily on the watch). At setting time, the PIC should look at the time error and adjust the compensation factor to maintain accuracy.

Posted at 7:27 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Peter

Wow, inspiring and dedicated work!

Posted at 7:35 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by AO

ntp would require a network connection, no?… does he plan on adding wifi?

An LCD would be interesting, but I doubt you will find one that is circular and sized right for the watch.

Posted at 7:36 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by eric

Though I appreciate the sheer beauty of the PCB work and the bright LED’s, I would love to see a version with a bezel insert.

Posted at 7:38 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Skitchin

Why not charge it up by winding it?! That was the beauty of pocket watches free energy!

Posted at 7:40 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by grovenstien

this is really nice.

Posted at 7:51 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by walt

Love it, I feel a little bit unsure about the case though. I think a cleaner specimen would appeal to me more and some kind of mask for the led’s to reduce leakage would be nice.

Overall though, absolutely love this.

I was thinking yesterday about building a sound and light generator into a pocket watch as I do hynosis.

So really this project couldn’t have been better timed, nice work.

Posted at 7:55 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by babble

Okay, it was pointed out to me just now that I missed the whole point of this as it was his grandfather’s watch. Apologies for that oversight, I am lazy at reading text sometimes. Awesome hack!

Posted at 7:59 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by babble

Wow. I’ve actually been looking for something like this for going on a month, now.

Posted at 8:00 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Alastair

i would buil a strapwatch model, with a solar pannel as a cover, that would resolve the problem of 4 day battery life, at least for a while…

Posted at 8:00 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Azur

Paul, your grandfather would be proud. Fantastic work.

Posted at 8:26 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by oshean

Excellent work and nice design.

Posted at 8:43 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Slipster12

Alien artefact from the future.

Posted at 8:52 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by F.

Just like something a time traveler would wear. Does it predict when the next wormhole will open too?

Posted at 8:53 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Hackius

Stunning work, really nicely implemented!

Posted at 8:56 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by benryves

would love to see this as a kit.

Posted at 9:02 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Nonya-Biz

a project like this was on my “to do list”, I see someone else got there first. nice work.

Posted at 9:07 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Man On Fire

disappointed at the lack of source code and board files

Posted at 9:14 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by UltraMagnus

I too would like to see this as a kit.
It’s incredible to see the ingenuity people can put out after thinking about something. I wonder how long it took to put together.

Posted at 9:15 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by kfkboys

Oh my god.

i want one.

Posted at 9:23 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Josh

Marvelous.

Posted at 9:35 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by guy

Come on people… RTFA…

@kfkboys – Right at the top of the article.. Build time: 20 weeks (over 2 years)

@Peter / Eric – The goal is to make a time settings and alarms adjustable with a simple application on a host computer, and also to have automatic NTP time updating whenever the watch is hooked up to a PC on the Internet.

Posted at 9:43 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by firetech

Oh.. and to Paul…

Your work is amazing. I love the detail and design put into the board.

Awesome work!

Posted at 9:45 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by firetech

Very impressive but if I may may I would suggest some sort of chime/bell emulation instead of a buzzer for the alarm. it would be a finishing touch and I’m sure something can be thought up, perhaps use some sort of tiny brass pin like musicboxes have and have something move against that by electronic means?

Posted at 9:55 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Wwhat

Well I think for those talking about LCD’s OLED etc you are just plain WROOONG. This is SO MUCH better, anyone could make an LCD/OLED based one! But this is SO MUCH more a true piece of art and an object of such beauty.

Lets hope he does get to making a kit or something out of this for sale, if not too hefty I would buy one.

Posted at 9:57 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Noth

Paul,

Well done! I was thinking of something like a desk clock version of an LED clock some time ago but, this is way cooler. Excellent work.

Your grandfather would most certainly be proud.

Would love to see more about your design, schematics / code etc..

Posted at 10:09 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Neil H.

Absolutely wonderful.

Doctor Who-worthy.

Posted at 10:11 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by strider_mt2k

Awesome. I would love to see a kit as well.
You could do some cool stuff with this. How about a compass function? Or altimeter?

Posted at 10:33 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Dan

Awesome! Very well done. Very impressed he could fit it so nicely in the case. Looks great!

Posted at 10:47 am on Oct 14th, 2009 by Tony

I would take one right now. Jeez simply beautiful. This machinist approves.

Posted at 12:47 pm on Oct 14th, 2009 by The_Evil_Machinist

@Wwhat: the buzzer isn’t an alarm. It simulates the vibration of a second hand.

Posted at 1:57 pm on Oct 14th, 2009 by AP

I would gladly replace my wristwatch with this. Thirded (fourthed?) the need for a schematic, board file and source code!!

Posted at 2:01 pm on Oct 14th, 2009 by jeff-o

My first thought was disappointment – here he was replacing the wonderful intricacies of miniaturised clockwork with solid state electronics. Then I looked a bit more and realised that it’s a really neat piece of miniaturised engineering in its own right, and a fantastic tribute expressed in his own skills. Brilliant.

Posted at 2:35 pm on Oct 14th, 2009 by sgf

that’s really cool. i’ve been working on something quite similar for a long time. i like the idea of bringing modern technology together with the amazing art and craftsmanship of the old time watchmaker. i’m finishing up my second version, and starting the third. seeing this inspires me to put a bit more resources into my old project.

Posted at 2:49 pm on Oct 14th, 2009 by charlie

Marvelous! I’ll throw in the “I want one” vote too. I would also dump my wrist watch for one of these.

Posted at 5:14 pm on Oct 14th, 2009 by Kraven

Wow, simply gorgeous…

I’ve got two vintage pocket watches given to me by my grandmother because she thought I was so much like my grandfather who I had never met. When I was first given them, neither worked, but as I got older (and into engineering and electronics) I decided to try and get them to work.

After many discussions with a local watchmaker, I managed to get one working with parts from both and a little playing around with the spring mechanisms. But the second, sadly, will never work. The main gearing and mechanics are too far gone with time, so something like this would be an amazing project! I third (or fourth) the PCB and source code posting! I don’t care if I have to take the back down to charge it, I’ll do it everyday!

Posted at 7:31 pm on Oct 14th, 2009 by Formori

very impressive

Posted at 10:41 pm on Oct 14th, 2009 by jproach

Absolutely impressive! Wow, what a PCB!

Posted at 11:09 pm on Oct 14th, 2009 by markii

Considering the nature of the enclosure, a kit is unlikely as it is a total custom job for the case.

Truly inspired work.

Posted at 11:18 pm on Oct 14th, 2009 by Bushi

Damn! Beat me to it. I had seen a site full of clock PCBs like that, and got the idea to make a pocket watch like this.

My idea was to use all orange/amber LEDs and have the microcontroller give them a very slight pulse/flicker effect to look like neon bulbs or nixies. :3

Very nice work, and I’d love to see source/CAD files, too!

Posted at 12:40 am on Oct 15th, 2009 by Bakamoichigei

Dude, this is a work of art!. I’d love to have the skill to make one of these, if you ever descide to make some to sell that would be awesome!

Posted at 5:27 am on Oct 15th, 2009 by Alex key

WANT.

Posted at 7:21 am on Oct 15th, 2009 by The Steven

@AP
Yes the seconds but it’s an alarm too, you should watch the video to the end.

Posted at 7:47 am on Oct 15th, 2009 by Wwhat

Hi all,

Thank you for all the amazing comments! I’m quite gratified that people have enjoyed seeing the project so much.

To answer a few comments: I’ve had a lot of suggestions of induction charging – I think it’s a fine, and I have a bit of experience with it (for another hush-hush project), but I’m concerned about the practicality as odds are good whatever case I used for v2.0 will be ferrous. I’ll keep it in mind, though!

As for a kit, or selling them, I’m hoping that v2.0 will be of high enough quality to sell in limited quantities but it all depends on the availability of cases. I’m looking for a decent manufacturer of modern cases just in case. A kit is definitely on the cards once I’ve got all the bugs out, but please note that standardisation was not a big theme in pocket watches. That’s why horologists had to be so skilled – they often manufactured replacement parts entirely by hand because they were not available anywhere. Consequently, it would be a bit of a hunt to find a suitable case for the kit (but it would go fine as a deskclock in a wood enclosure)

As I’m already elbows deep in v2.0, I think it would be a bit premature to release the design files – especially if I intend to market them. But rest assured I do very much intend to release the source when it’s done; I’ll probably include it with a kit, and on post it on the website.

Once again, I’ve been overwhelmed with the positive response I’ve received. Thank you all very much.

cheers,

-Paul

Posted at 7:59 am on Oct 15th, 2009 by Paul Pounds

@Paul:
Thank you for sharing this awesome piece of engineering skill! I suspect if your Grandfather were alive today, he would have to agree that your electronics work is of a master caliber.

Inspired me enough to pick up a basic hunter-style watch off eBay to start tinkering with. Hope you manage to get the kit marketable. Cheers!

Posted at 8:20 am on Oct 15th, 2009 by Akoi Meexx

hmm, instead of readjusting time via computer for 2.0 you could have it receive radio signals from the atomic clock. as well as a coil for wireless charging. But still very amazing piece of art and tech

Posted at 6:46 am on Oct 16th, 2009 by SumDude

That is one of the most elegant pieces of handmade electronics I’ve ever seen. The integration with the case and the thumbwheel and the extras such as the vibrate alarm and ‘tick’ are just incredible. Applause!

Posted at 12:19 pm on Oct 16th, 2009 by Aaron

Speechless!

Posted at 4:55 pm on Oct 20th, 2009 by Gabe

So want one.

Love the PCB work. It is so detailed and well done.

Let me know when you start selling them.

Posted at 2:26 pm on Oct 24th, 2009 by Techustle