Woz’s watch makes air travelers nervous

posted Nov 3rd 2009 11:20am by Mike Szczys
filed under: classic hacks, wearable hacks

woz-nixie-wristwatch

[Steve Wozniak], Last of the freelance hackers and Greatest swordfighter in the world, lives a hacker life you couldn’t even dream about. The folks over at medGadget ran into him and learned about his watch. In their interview (embedded after the break) [Steve] shows off the Nixie tube wristwatch that we can only assume he created himself.

The watch consists of two tiny tubes, a PCB, and battery. There must be an accelerometer in there because the display is switched off unless the watch is held at a certain configurable angle. Once held in the correct position the display flashes the hours, then the minutes.

The time is set by two buttons inside the watch’s case. [Steve] goes on to explain the trepidation his fellow passengers have when he disassembles the watch mid-flight and starts to monkey around with the buttons inside. Not to be stopped at electronic tomfoolery, he also shares his delight in sneaking ceramic knives on board so that he can properly cut his steaks.

Lifestyle aside, the small Nixie clock packages we’ve seen don’t even come close to this. We assume this is pretty hard on the battery and wonder if the watch gets hot if you’re stuck in a long meeting and constantly looking at the time. We can get over both of those limitations just for the cool factor alone.

Update: Reader [Stephen] left a comment pointing to the origin of the watch. It is controlled by a PIC microprocessor, boasts a four-month battery life at 50 viewings per day, and there’s some code available. It is for sale but currently out of stock.

Comments [19]

tagged: nixie, Steve Wozniak, Woz, wristwatch

Reader Comments

For the life of me I can’t find the site atm, but I did find the supposed maker of Waz’s nixie watch. The site had a quote from him about the watch if I remember correctly. So I’m fairly sure he commissioned the watch to be made by these guys. I will do my best to hunt the site down and report back with a link.

Posted at 11:33 am on Nov 3rd, 2009 by Ho0d0o/Heatgap

This has been out for years and Woz didn’t create it. A quick google would have taken you to the site he probably bought it at:
http://www.cathodecorner.com/nixiewatch/
As well as other examples:
http://www.amug.org/~jthomas/watch.html

Posted at 11:33 am on Nov 3rd, 2009 by Tuckie

I’m not entirely sure, but Woz’s watch looks like it came from here: http://www.cathodecorner.com/nixiewatch/.

Posted at 11:38 am on Nov 3rd, 2009 by Stephen

Here you go:

http://www.cathodecorner.com/nixiewatch/

Posted at 11:46 am on Nov 3rd, 2009 by Neal

It wasn’t commissioned. David made a run of them, and the Woz bought one.

If you’re interested in things Nixie, consider joining the NeoNixie-L group on Yahoo Groups.

Posted at 11:52 am on Nov 3rd, 2009 by jc

I love that watch… I remember seeing it a year or 2 ago… kind of wish I had ordered one then, as they’re out of stock now with no ETA on a new model :(

Posted at 12:08 pm on Nov 3rd, 2009 by Nicholas Overstreet

Shockingly, that isn’t the only Nixie watch ever made. The first one was by Jeff Thomas http://www.amug.org/~jthomas/watch.html

Brian

Posted at 12:20 pm on Nov 3rd, 2009 by Brian

I’m wondering how hackaday’s commenting system works, since Tuckie’s comment was posted long after mine but has somehow appeared before it with an earlier timestamp….

Posted at 1:55 pm on Nov 3rd, 2009 by Stephen

i was sneaking ceramic knives onto planes right after 9/11. just saying…did steve photodocument it? because i did!

Posted at 3:02 pm on Nov 3rd, 2009 by julian

I sneak ceramic planes onto planes.

Posted at 4:30 pm on Nov 3rd, 2009 by nope

It’s simultaneously funny and sad that people fear stuff like this. the panic over the Aqua teen “bomb” is another example. we live in a world run by this stuff, and yet it’s imprisoned in pretty little boxes with “do not open” stickers and so hacking is instantly assumed to be sinister. good on you, woz. have a danger-steak for me.

Posted at 4:43 pm on Nov 3rd, 2009 by Greg

@Stephen:
If you’ve posted several times before, your posts appear instantaneously. Otherwise they wait to I suppose moderate them.

Nice watch, though, as many others have stated, its been out for awhile. I’m working on a design for an alarm clock using nixies, and a decatron for tenths of a second. I’ll be trying to post it when it’s done. Won’t surprise me if it doesn’t make it, seeing as how its been done plenty now.

Posted at 7:31 pm on Nov 3rd, 2009 by Abbott

The luxury of fame.. If one of us did this, we’d be taken by air marshals and never seen again.

Posted at 11:17 am on Nov 4th, 2009 by Jeff Ledger

Want!
The batteries on this will probably last longer than the sinclair red-led watch I had in the 70’s!

Posted at 11:32 am on Nov 4th, 2009 by fred

The knife he uses to cut steaks on a plane is actually his business card, I think I recall him saying it was made of stainless steel.

Austenitic stainless is non-magnetic, and the amount of metal in a buisiness card is, of course, not very much, so it does not have to be ceramic to pass security.

Posted at 1:34 pm on Nov 4th, 2009 by Joel

You freakin kids… I can’t believe that… I haven’t read the link, so if the lift angle is software-configured rather than configured by a physical switch, then maybe there is.

but my guess? mercury switch.

Posted at 12:02 am on Nov 5th, 2009 by dan fruzzetti

Hiro Protagonist would destroy the Woz.

Posted at 11:09 am on Nov 5th, 2009 by linus

There are no mercury switches. The tilt angle is read constantly by an angle sensing chip relative to gravitation angle and fed to the PIC microprocessor. The code is setup so you can self determine a good reference angle to hold the watch at to have it display. There are a few user settable options in the code, all set with the internal button switches. I know this from the manual that came with mine which is S/N 3 of the original production lot. I love mine, and wear it to special functions. My first battery lasted a year.

Posted at 6:10 pm on Nov 5th, 2009 by Steve 3

I have one of the prototypes as there was much discussion among the technical types on neonixie-l about the best way to do the power management.
The case was designed by John Smout of http://www.jsdesign.co.uk/ who makes lovely things nixie-related – see http://www.clock-it.net/ – a very talented designer.
The case was machined by an on-line machining shop. Main problem is lack of tubes as they are not made any more.
I’ve had mine for a new years – since at least 2005 – here’s a very bad photo of John & I looking like hypnotised rabbits in headlights with our watches – mine hasn’t lit as my wrist angle was not correct when the photo was taken – http://www.desmith.net/NMdS/Shack/John%20&%20Nick%2008-Apr-06.jpg

Posted at 2:23 am on Nov 8th, 2009 by Nicko

Woz’s watch makes air travelers nervous

Recent Posts

Reader Comments

Leave a Reply

Hacks

Resources

RSS newsfeeds

Most commented on (30 days)

Recent comments