[Pierce Brosnan]-era James Bond had a beautiful Omega wristwatch. Of course as with any Bond gadget, it couldn’t just tell time; it needed to do something else. This watch had a laser, and [Patrick] figured he could replicate this build.
This is apretty normal 1.5W laser diode build, stuffed into a wrist-mountable device that will kill balloons. This is really a watch, though: press a button and this thing will tell time.
In the video below, [Patrick] goes over what damage this watch can do. He manages to pop some black balloons, burn holes in a CD case, light a few matches, cut cellotape, and put tiny burn marks in his wall. The battery won’t last long – just a few minutes – but more than enough to propel [Patrick] into Youtube stardom.
There are no plans or tutorials for the build, but the teardown [Patrick] shows is pretty impressive. To stuff a laser diode, battery, and clock into a watch-sized compartment, [Patrick] needed to turn down the metal buttons to fit everything into his watch case.
Because the comments for this post will invariable fill up with concern trolls, we’re just going to say, yes, this is incredibly unsafe, no one should ever do this, and it probably kills puppies.
For the kids playing at home there are some comprehensive online safety guides from many of the universities, i.e.
http://web.princeton.edu/sites/ehs/laserguide/sec2.htm
which are more easily read before permanently damaging one’s retinas
Oh, no, think of the puppies!
Nice build, I want one.
I’m sure the puppies will only go blind. And that’s OK with HaD staff it seems.
Can’t watch it with sound atm, but that looks awesome. And hey, he has glasses and he’s using it inside so at least he’s trying to be safe…ish.
That being said, this brings back memories of playing Goldeneye on the 64. Sweet build!
Ordinary mortals burn CDs, he burns CD cases! Very nice, but I think having an actual clock on the thing is a waste because when somebody asks you what time it is there is only one answer, ITS LASER TIME!!!!
He could use the laser to burn the time on a wall, or whatever.
Wristwatch. I remember, used to use it to tell time. Wish I had my LED watch from 1978. Replace all the segments with laser diodes and instantaneously etch a timestamp on objects. just gotta remember not to look at it when someone asks the time!
That’s how some film-cameras used to add a time stamp on photos, but with an ordinary LED. I doubt it would work on a laser.
I was he would mount it on a shark.
Usually the idiots who would use lasers to do damage to other people don’t have the necessary skills to build one, therefore be very careful if someone asks you to make one for him.
Im betting this is probably a 150 mW laser diode, rather than a 1.5 W diode as described in the article. A 1500 mW diode would not be your regular run of the mill laser. It could do a lot more than pop balloons.
Never mind. I couldn’t see the video before. I now see it is a blue laser, so 1500 mW is perfectly reasonable.
Perfect for CCDs in cameras.
I thought Sean Connery also had a laser watch in Never Say Never Again.
From Russia With Love had a garrote watch
Thunderball had a geiger counter Breitling
Never Say Never Again had a laser Rolex
Live And Let Die had a magnetic watch
The Man With The Golden Gun had a ticker-tape telex Seiko
Moonraker had an exploding Seiko
For Your Eyes Only had a radio/telex Seiko
Octopussy had a tracker/CCTV monitor Seiko
The Living Daylights had a guard-summoning watch
Goldeneye, Die Another Day & Tomorrow Never Dies had an explosive/laser Omega
The World Is Not Enough had a grappling hook Omega
…and yet the one that gets built over and over again is the laser one.