Timepieces are a staple of Hackaday, we have featured so many of them over the years that for us to become really excited by a fresh one it must be particularly special. The days when simply breaking out the Nixies was enough are long past.
So this binary wristwatch project by [Sverd Industries] definitely caught our eye. Not for being particularly novel, after all binary LED clocks are not in themselves hard, but for the exceptionally high quality of its construction. It’s a simple enough design, with a real-time clock chip and an ATmega328 in its most power-sipping mode on a circular PCB with an array of LEDs as the display, and all contained within a 3D-printed shell.
This design has real quality, the discrete components are tucked underneath the board leaving the ICs on the top with only the LEDs for company. The glass front is glued into place, and the shell is professionally 3D-printed. Power comes from a single CR2032, and to save battery life the LEDs are only activated by the press of a concealed button. We would wear this watch. For that matter, you would wear this watch. Take a look at the video below the break, and we’re sure you’ll agree. Looks like a few are even available over on Tindie.
This isn’t the first binary watch we’ve featured, so it’s tough to pick a comparison. This very low BoM example might lack some of the polish of the one presented here, but it has the same ability to catch our eye.
Nice work!
Nope. No way. Not enough aesthetics, way too much geek. It’s not impossible to make a classier DIY timepiece, but it needs to be far more understated. That doesn’t happen as long as the primary, secondary and tertiary goal is to advertise “I MADE THIS!”. That message should be implied, not hit you in the face…
very nicely done!
alright so this is kinda cool and all but i would not wear this watch either, though for completely different reasons that Max, first of all i think it’s too clean but more importantly watches need to be able to tell the time all the time and not need a button press for that and second of all a watch with no water resistance is just begging for death, speaking from experience with a watchy. oh and third of all coin cells suck rechargeable batteries are the only way to go.