Segmentus clock (concept)

By Art Lebedev – $n/a

http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/segmentus/

From the guy who brought us the Verbarius clock comes the Segmentus.  (Is anyone else noticing a naming pattern here?) This concept clock was built to address the challenge of creating a digital clock with hands.  While clocks have addressed this challenge before, this one brings the usual Art Lebedev polish to the final product.  The only thing I want to know is how noisy would this be to operate?  With dozens of little motors and mechanical parts,  this might not be a clock that you would keep in your bedroom.

http://www.ineedcaffeine.com/videos/mechanical-clock-full.flv

E Ink Digital Hour Clock Watch with Black Leather Band

by Phosphor Watches $185.00 USD

http://www.phosphorwatches.com/

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My primary interest is still, and always will be, collecting Nixie Clocks.    However, I just found what is probably the first practical and mass produced e-ink watch.  I’ve you’ve never seen an e-ink display, they are quite a bit different than the LCD monitor you’re using to read this.  Instead of having the light be emitted from the display, light is reflected off of it like newspaper or any other printed medium.  However, they have an amazing contrast ratio between black and white giving them a distinct advantage in legibility and making reading them on a sunny day easy.

They have three basic formats: traditional called Ana-Digi, square called Digital Hour, and my personal favorite is a full calendar called (shockingly) Digital Calendar.  All watches are offered with a metal, leather or polyurethane wristband.

These things are beautiful.  I want one.  I have to imagine that these will become the e-ink equivalent of the Synchronar (world’s first LED watch…)

I won’t bore you with any more text.  Here are the other photos:

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Now GO BUY ONE

about e-ink technology:

Electronic ink is a proprietary material that is processed into a film for integration into electronic displays. Revolutionary in concept, electronic ink is a fusion of chemistry, physics and electronics to create this new material. The principal components of electronic ink are millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair. In one incarnation, each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a negative electric field is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the user. This makes the surface appear white at that spot. At the same time, an opposite electric field pulls the black particles to the bottom of the microcapsules where they are hidden. By reversing this process, the black particles appear at the top of the capsule, which now makes the surface appear dark at that spot.

To form an E Ink electronic display, the ink is printed onto a sheet of plastic film that is laminated to a layer of circuitry. The circuitry forms a pattern of pixels that can then be controlled by a display driver. These microcapsules are suspended in a liquid “carrier medium” allowing them to be printed using existing screen printing processes onto virtually any surface, including glass, plastic, fabric and even paper. Ultimately electronic ink will permit most any surface to become a display, bringing information out of the confines of traditional devices and into the world around us.

From PHOSPHOR Watches

http://www.phosphorwatches.com/v/site_pages/einktechnology.asp

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PHOSPHOR Watches

Art Technology Limited
Unit 11, 7th Floor, Grand City Plaza No.1
Sai Lau Kok Road, Tsuen Wan
New Territories, Hong Kong
T: +852.2553.2662
F: +852.2580.1661

By ThinGeek (OEM Unknown) $35

This is another gimmick clock but it is well executed and it looks nice.  Each HH MM SS display is separated in to its own cube with the controls on the HH.  They are teathered with a small wire and the whole device is powered via a mains transformer.

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ThinkGeek (OEM Unknown) $50

ThinkGeek just recently released a clock that is a little unusual.  Instead of focusing on weird LED displays or retro nixie tubes, they built a clock on a long-dead technology: flip clocks.  I could try and explain them but I think Wikipedia does a better job.  Read the description and see the videos after the jump.

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By Jon Ellis / ~$150

via eBay

Follow up to Numimini – Preview

I just made a quick video demo of the software included bu Jon to program the clock.  Check it out.

http://www.ineedcaffeine.com/videos/numimini.flv

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by DealExtreme (OEM Unkonow) $70 USD

I will be the first to admit that this clock is ugly.  The only thing that saves this clock is the well executed LED display.  It is unclear between the photos on DealExtreme.com whether this clock is orange or red, but I have seen videos and photos of both.

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By John Smout / Clock-It / Price Unknown

I found this clock while searching for clocks to feature and reminds me a lot of the Verbarius clock.  It is a large VFD display that spells out the time and appears to be able to display other information.  Sadly, it seems that only four of these clocks were ever made.  Go check out Clock-It now, he has some good stuff there.Samsung VFD display in grey metallic finish case

This clock was made in conjunction with a friend, Andrew Jardine, who also introduced me to PIC programming, which opened up a whole new world to me. At last I can make my electronic dreams come true… maybe.

Not much to say about the case, it is a minimal shape made from thick polycarbonate to house the displays and my driver board that sits on the back of it. As the display itself runs off 5v and has all the necessary components to make the display work, all I needed to do was feed it serial data and off it went.

The aim of this clock is to display words much as a person speaks when you ask them the time. About six o’clock, nearly half past six, that kind of thing. So it approximates to the nearest ten minutes and gives an appropriate response.

In addition there are a few other modes. A static rather than scrolling clock, one that dissolves snowflakes into the characters.

I have made four of these clocks. Andrew has one, two have been sold and I kept one.

I have a small quantity of the displays left and Iintend to expand the repertoire of words with an EEPROM.

Originally from Clock-It

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p.s. I want one!

A clock so unique it has its own Wikipedia entry

I found one of these clocks on eBay a while ago and shamelessly stole the images from it, from Wikipedia and from one other source (below.)  They are old VFD Matrix displays that have become somewhat of a collector item.  Since Wikipedia has a good description I will let them describe it:

Electronics 7 are industrial clocks with luminescent indicators where each figure was formed by four or eleven 7-segment lamps. For each indicator there was a board decoding the binary code sent by the main board. There were also models based on light-emitting diodes . The basic shortcoming of the clocks was that the segments of the display were gradually burnt out, and there was a significant difference in a luminescence between more often and less often displayed segments. It usually happened after ten or more years of continuous work. All the street and wall clocks were based on the kit by Saratov factory “Reflector” and even now are used in many administrative and industrial premises in Russia. The clocks were made on the basis of vacuum-fluorescent indicators manufactured in Russia.

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A collection of links on watchmaking and collecting that are a fun read:

Watchmaking

http://www.csparks.com/watchmaking/

HOROZIMA-Horology Reference Journal

http://www.horozima.com

THE WATCHISMO TIMES

http://watchismo.blogspot.com

Montres/Watches

http://montresuisses.blogspot.com

Omega Collectors

http://omega-constellation-collectors.blogspot.com

: : e-kycz.com : :

http://e-kycz.com/blog

Sphere By Milan

http://spherebymilan.blogspot.com

Do you want me to add your site?  Leave a message in the comments with the URL.

By Etsy user Koolatron / $125

I like this device.  Not only is it a cool use of a great use of cyan VFD displays, but it is small and at $125, it is worth every cent.

 

 

 

First and foremost, it is a 4-letter-word device.  Normally, these are made with tubes such as the B7971 or similar Panaplex displays (think of a flat version of a nixie tube).  Instead, the inventor opted to go with a VFD.  I’ve never seen a FLW this small and I’ve never seen one with display type.  Basically, it is a device that spells out words, usually in English, that are exactly four letters long.   Nice work! Second, this device acts as a clock.  It might not be as polished as say, the Nocrotec, but this device does have a charm to it. I really hope the seller decides to make more of these.  At $125, it is a great deal.

Gallery and seller’s description after the jump

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