A pocket watch, tucked into a waistcoat pocket and trailing a long chain, is a retro-hip accessory. A pocket watch gutted of its mechanical innards and updated as a smart appliance might be a horological abomination, but would still be a cool hack. A pocket watch converted to a digital Enigma machine is in a class all by itself.
[Simon] admits that he has a thing for pocket timepieces, having a sizable collection of old and not-so-old watches, some that even serve for everyday carry. Trouble is, they eventually break, and qualified watchmakers are getting hard to come by. So refitting defunct watches has become a hobby for him, and this example is a doozy. It uses an Enigma emulator running on an Arduino, similar to one that he stuffed into a somewhat oversized wristwatch a few years ago. Fitting it into a pocket watch case required a bit of finagling, including a 0.5-mm thick main PCB that flexes a bit to fit the contours of the case. A small OLED screen peeks through the front bezel, which is done up in an attractive black crinkle finish with brass buttons for a nice retro look. There’s even an acid-etched brass badge on the front cover with his special logo, complete with a profile of the original Enigma rotors.
Very impressive workmanship, and we don’t even care that it doesn’t tell time. Need a little background on the original Enigma? [Steve Dufresne] did a great job going through the basics a while back.
Wow, just wow!
People should look at the Pixel. See: http://rabidprototypes.com/product/pixel/
And mini Pixel. http://rabidprototypes.com/product/pixel-mini/
The pricing is like a cold shower, for just an M0 with OLED and micro-SD connector….
Nice little bits of kit, especially given the colour screen but yes, the price is a bit much and also it wouldn’t work in the watch as they are too big, even the smaller one. The internal diameter of the watch casing is only 42mm. The mini wouldn’t even fit in the case let alone leave room for battery and four switches.
Colour is REALLY bad for power efficiency too.
You are right, I did not think. In my case I made the case for my Watch/Osc/Game-Pad using my 3D printer, and the casing is square in shape and ugly unlike this design.
Sorry to everybody for posting without thinking more about the watch-case being used.
The title is a bit confusing, he used an Omega watch case, not an Enigma watch case…
Yes, I can see how it is confusing, both Omega and Enigma being watch types. The Omega though is my broken favourite old watch. I didn’t pull that apart. I am not sure what sort of casing this watch is from. I didn’t want to ruin a working or slightly broken watch so the one I used was a one beyond reasonable repair. It didn’t come with a crystal which was good since I didn’t need that. I waited quite a while till a suitable casing came up on the local auction site. I also didn’t want to pay that much. I don’t know the total cost in parts of the whole watch but about $50US I guess? Time though is another matter!
For anyone interested I updated the watch to actually tell time by adding a STMicroelectronics M41T62 RTC chip to it. I wrote that up here: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bb/2018/12/18/enigma-machine-pocket-watch-update