Some things remain classics, even after centuries, and chess and watches have certainly stood the test of time. [W&M Levsha] decided to combine them both in this “Chess Club” watch containing a miniature chess game frozen in time.
[W&M Levsha] used an off-the-shelf wristwatch for the mechanism and case, but rearranged the parts and built a custom watchface that’s much nicer than the original. The new watchface was cut and etched on a fiber laser after disassembly of the original watch.
The real magic happens when [W&M Levsha] turns those teeny little chess pieces on the lathe. The knight was a two piece affair with the horse head being laser cut out of brass sheet and then soldered onto a turned base. As you can see from the video embedded below, all of the chess pieces inside the watch could fit on the maker’s fingernail! It’s probably a good thing that this tiny set isn’t playable since trying to play on a board that size would be an exercise in patience.
We’ve seen machined chess sets here before at a larger scale, but if you’re more into 3D printing, how about teaching your printer to play?
Looks awesome but I was sorta hoping it was going to be some kind of automata build where an ESP or something (this is still HaD right?) moving those little pieces around.
I was imagining some kind of etch-a-sketch with magnets for movement.
Add CNC to an Etch-a-Sketch then program a controller to play chess on it. Call it the Etch-a-Chess.
That would be awesome. Do it!
I would buy one ! With moving pieces.
Beautiful. ❤️
You have to admire the craftsmanship.
Extraordinary craftsmanship! I too thought maybe this could be playable with magnets etc but that might distract from the clean build.
It’s….crooked lol
That was, indeed, a very odd aesthetic choice. If the pieces had been carved to match the angle and changing scale, it would have added an extra layer of intricacy and polish, but as it is it just makes it look like a weird optical illusion.
I want one is it for sale?
What is this… a game of chess for ants?