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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

by Phosphor Watches $185.00 USD

http://www.phosphorwatches.com/

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:

PHOSPHOR e-ink watch (Digital Hour)

PHOSPHOR e-ink watch (Ana-Digi)

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.

e-ink Technology Cross Section

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

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

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.

More…

FTA

A customer sent us an email once and she said, ‘ThinkGeek? Why can’t you make us an alarm clock that has a techie feel but is also stylish?’ We pondered the question, drafted some blueprints, built a prototype from pop tarts and LED arrays, and, voila – the Matrix Cube Clock was born. Ask, and you shall receive. Connected by thin ribbon cables, each clock module can be stacked vertically, horizontally or in a pyramid, depending on your mood and the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn’s moons.

Dimensions: Each cube is approximately 3.5″ square. 12 or 24 hour format available! Even includes a snooze button. Woohoo!

Buy it now at ThinkGeek.com

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.

Flip Clocks from Wikipedia:

An electric motor turns two wheels continuously: the faster at a rate of 1 revolution per hour, the slower at a rate of 1 revolution per 24 hours. The wheels move continuously, not in steps.

The faster wheel has connected to it a ring of 60 flat plastic “leaves”. On the “leaves” are printed numerals so that, when you hold two adjacent “leaves” apart like an open book, the two open “leaves” spell out a numeral, and flipping a “leaf” increases the number shown by 1 unit. The “book” is opened vertically, and its pages form a ring. This ring is put into position and rotated so that one page falls each minute, showing a new number for the minutes. “Leaves” 45 through 59 have a small tooth on them. The purpose of this tooth is explained later.

The slower wheel has connected to it a similar ring of “leaves”, but there are only 48 “leaves” on this ring. These “leaves” have hour numbers printed on them. There are two of each hour, like this: 12am, 12am, 1am, 1am, 2am, 2am, … 11pm, 11pm. One leaf falls each half-hour, at approximately 25 and 55 minutes after the hour. A different design features 60 “leaves” with the numbers 1 to 12 repeated in fives, each leaf falling after 12 minutes. The disadvantage of this is that there is no way to show “AM” or “PM” information.

The teeth on the minute leaves are used as follows: at 45 minutes after the hour, the tooth pushes a lever which will catch any falling hour leaf. The lever holds the old hour leaf in place until it is time for the new hour to start.

FTA:

Some measure time with a pendulum. Others measure it with springs. Still others rely on crystals. We monkeys prefer monitoring the subtle oscillations of cesium atoms in a vacuum. Pick your own way – make it yours. See, Time is a constant companion and should be feared and respected.

Even Gollum knew all about Time. It can slay kings, ruin towns and beat high mountains down. Time can let you know when you need to catch the train, or when the latest episode of The Guild is online. Still, time is an abstract concept. Most animals don’t understand why their instincts tell them to start swimming upstream to spawn, but we higher-apes need our day violently split into 86,400 seconds just so we can get things done. We turned time into an absolute – something to be measured, labeled and tamed.

This clock is unique in that its mechanism is exposed for all to see. Notice how the plates rotate against a bent metal finger that releases them only when it is the next plate’s turn to fall. Watch the curious dance – the harmony of motors and gears. See, originally this clock had a case covering it, but through a happy accident, it was forgotten. It looks even cooler the way it is, so there you have it.

Details

• Battery powered alarm “flip” style clock
• 24 hour alarm
• Remarkably precise, though seconds are for display purposes only
• Requires 2 “C” cell batteries (not included)
• 17.5cm x 6cm x 9cm

Click here to view the embedded video.

Buy it now from ThinkGeek.com

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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Gallery

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.

One word of caution:  This clock does not run on 110v.  This poses two distinct problems.  The first one is that you will need to find a power converter for it.  Not a big deal but it is a pain.  Second, if it derives its clock from the mains line, it will be expecting a 50Hz reference and in the US, it will be getting a 60Hz reference instead.  I don’t know if it uses the mains line for reference or has its own internal oscillator.

From DealExtreme:

Dimensions: 11.42 in x 3.86 in x 1.34 in
Weight: 29.45 oz

Click here to view the embedded video.

Buy it here: DealExtreme.com

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

p.s. I want one!

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.

via Wikipedia and via technabob.com

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.

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

The Super Electrofluorescent Profanity Machine, or Four Letter Word (for short), is a bit of electronics cobbled together out of vintage Cold War-era Soviet vacuum fluorescent tubes and custom driver circuitry. It was designed and built by me. The device does two things: the first (mundane but utilitarian) thing that it does is tell you the time. It’s an accurate clock whose numbers glow brightly enough to dimly illuminate a dark room, serving as an effective night-light. It probably won’t wake you up, unless you can’t sleep in the presence of dim green lights. The second (less mundane and utilitarian) thing that it does is generate random four letter words, which it displays for you at a rate of one per second. Every English word consisting of exactly four letters is possible, and the device is programmed to predispose the generation of words that you can pronounce, as opposed to incomprehensible trash. As the name of the device implies, even the more profane of English words is possible (though not necessarily probable). The effect is strangely hypnotic – the short length of time that this device spent on my desk at work was deliriously unproductive. The main board has three buttons, one for switching the device between word-mode and time-mode, and two for setting the time. Included is a header to break the buttons out, in case you want to enclose its bare sexy boards inside a case that frustrates attempts to set the clock.

http://www.etsy.com/

This is an interesting one.  There is nothing technically interesting about the clock but the two features that make it stand out are the amber colored display and the clear housing.   It has a pretty simple design – it is just a brick but for $20, you can’t go wrong.

The only problem is that it is no longer for sale.  I originally found this one on the Urban Outfitters website but they no longer have it in stock and Kikkerland does not seem to have it on their site.  Oh well :-/

More photos after the jump

* 6″w, 3″h, 2.5″d
* Plastic, electronics

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp;jsessionid=8A9E8304D1D6EFDEB495389D7D3CEBF6.app13-node1?itemdescription=true&itemCount=60&id=14149967&parentid=A_FURN_WHATSNEW&sortProperties=&navCount=3&navAction=poppush&color=00

As best as I can tell, I believe this is just a concept clock.  The claim to fame is that the clock has enough decimal points in the seconds position to count in the millionths of a second.  I doubt the internal oscellator is that accurate – but I don’t think I would be able to notice if it was off by a little bit.

Video and gallery after the jump

Click here to view the embedded video.

via eBay

Okay, I just ordered this clock and should have it in about a week.  Below is the photo Jon sent me of my actual unit and the description was lifted from the eBay auction description.  The highlights are:

Numitron based display.  Numitrons are display tubes that are fundamentally different than Nixie tubes of VFD tubes.  The display is formed using the standard 7-segment pattern but the elements are actually little filaments like one would find in a flashlight or other incandescent bulb.  They are low voltage / low current devices that had a short lived popularity until they were replaced by LED displays.

The Numimini is computer programmable.  You can change the display patterns and types via USB and the included software.

Full description from the auction after the jump.

I will post a follow up review after I receive it and have had some time to play with it

Click here to view the embedded video.

Numimini is a clock. It’s a clock that uses an obsolete display technology to create a unique item for your desk, mantelpiece or bedside table. But that’s a bit of an understatement, so read on…

What’s a Numimini?

Start by taking a look at the photos in the listing. Numimini uses four genuine Russian filament or numitron tubes to display the time – two for the hours and two for the minutes. The tubes are mounted on a little raised platform of shiny dark laser-cut acrylic which stands on four short legs. Between the digit pairs are a couple of tiny LEDs which act as a separator (and much more too, as you’ll see below…). The whole thing is crisp, modern and compact – just the thing for sitting on your desk, next to your monitor. Actually, it’s a great idea to put Numimini near your computer, because it’s designed to plug into a USB port…

And more of that later too, but for now, you’ll get the best impression of Numimini by watching it in action. Check out the YouTube video below. If the embedded video doesn’t work, go search YouTube for ‘Numimini’ – there’s only one such clock, so you’ll have no trouble finding it. Enjoy…

The video doesn’t really do the clock justice, particularly from a colour balance perspective. The numitron glow is a rich organic orange, and the two LEDs in the middle of the display show the whole spectrum of colours from red through green to violet and white. But anyway, you get the picture - we can play a lot of games with numitron tubes and a couple of LEDs. There’s serious work going on under the hood to make this happen – sitting at the heart of the whole operation is a powerful PIC microcontroller from the 18Fx550 family. It’s packed with about 18K of firmware that handles everything from USB communications to some intricate timed juggling to create the visual effects. Oh yes, and it displays the time too. So although you spend most of your time looking at the lovely tubes and hardware, I spent most of mine writing software!

Numitron tubes

Numitrons are based on the same principle as the standard incandescant light bulb – current passing through a wire in a vacuum heats it up to make it glow. But numitrons take the idea and push it a lot further: a light bulb only has one filament, and numitrons generally have seven or more which are independently controllable. Seven filaments arranged in the classic seven segment configuration allows us to have a tube which can display all ten digits. And that’s the purpose of the numitron.

Numitrons were one of the successor technologies to the beautiful neon discharge nixie tubes, emerging into general use around 1970. The two tubes are not dissimilar in appearance at first glance – a glass tube with lots of wires coming out of it. But electrically they are completely different. Nixies require high voltages, typically around 180V, which was convenient enough in the valve era, but awkward for the modern transistor circuitry and logic chips that were beginning to dominate. In contrast, the numitron is a low voltage device, with less than 5V being required to illuminate the filaments. As a result, numitrons began to be incorporated into new equipment designs in place of nixies.

However, they only flourished briefly, because at the same time the LED and LCD display technologies were developing as serious alternatives. And they had significant advantages over numitrons – they used much less current and had no fragile glass envelopes. So, it was not long before numitrons were rendered obsolete for most mainstream applications. As a result of this transient usage, numitrons were not manufactured in huge volume, and that means that the tubes are generally rare today – there are many fewer numitron types available now than there are nixies. The only place they seem to have survived in any numbers was in the Soviet Union, and that’s fading into history now too.

There are only two Russian numitron types that are still readily available from surplus sellers in the ex-Soviet Union. These are generally known in the West as IV-9 and IV-16 tubes. They are very similar devices – the only real differences are first that the IV-16 has a more compact shape; and second that the IV-9 has a decimal point indicator, whereas the IV-16 does not. Check out the photo for a side by side comparison. Of the two, the IV-16 is significantly rarer and more expensive.

Numimini can use both tube types, creating two different variants of the basic design. The IV-16 clock is slightly lower profile, and has a lighter look. The IV-9 version has some additional display options created by the presence of the decimal point indicator. But you have to look hard to tell them apart – both are beautiful little things. You can see that for yourself – the video clip on YouTube is of an IV-9 clock, and some photos in this listing are from an IV-16 unit. The tube type offered in this listing is specified below (but you may be able to change if it’s not the one you prefer – contact me to ask).

Features

Telling the time is of course just the start of it. You’re going to be looking for your clock to cope with switching in and out of daylight saving (summer) time as the months go by. Maybe you get the odd power cut? Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to go and reset the time on the clock yet again when the power comes back on?

Numimini can help you out with these, and more. Here’s a very brief overview of the main features, some of which are discussed more further down the listing:

•     Four genuine Russian IV-9 or IV-16 numitron tubes

•     Nearly 6 million overall display configurations, each individually selectable.

•     Automatic daylight saving (summer) time correction worldwide.

•     Ultra accurate clock chip, capable of 1 minute per year accuracy with optional software fine-tuning

•     Battery backed to keep time for months without external power.

•     Total control over display brightness with 16 fixed settings or automatic adjustment

•     Auto-dimming facility with ambient light sensor with software-adjustable sensitivity and response time

•     Power from any full-spec USB port or from a plug-in adapter (not included)

•     Nineteen different animations for the appearance or disappearance of digits

•     Two independently controllable colon dots which can convey information in ten different ways, with a full spectrum of colours displayable.

•     Unique combinatorial colour code option for seconds display

•     Five speeds for the digit display sequence – choose the one which suits you best.

•     Twelve or twenty-four hour display formats.

•     Two display styles for digits 6 and 9: modern or retro.

•     Option to suppress leading zeros on the hours display.

•     Optional user-defined daily blanking period to maximise tube life with four different blanking modes selectable

•     Control the clock from the USB port of your PC using a dedicated host application running under Windows XP.

•     No tricky installation: the host application is a single standalone .EXE file which uses the built-in Windows HID driver.

•     Official unique USB ID codes prevent clashes with other USB devices on your system

•     A demo mode to show off to your friends.

•     Complete programming interface documentation and example source code provided so you can implement your own host application.

•     Unique serial number and purchaser’s name burnt into the firmware and readable using the host application.

•     Complete documentation and assembly instructions – step by step guides, about 34,000 words!

•     Fully assembled and tested

•     All you need to add is the USB cable - that’s it! And I can even help with that if you like…

Configuring the clock

OK, so we have a clock which can tell the time, and has loads of features and display options. How do you get to play with them? Well, you need a computer, because Numimini is a USB device. Just plug the clock into a full-power USB port on your computer system (standard mini-USB cable not provided) and run the special host application program. This is a custom-written Windows application that allows you to control all of Numimini’s totally cool features. What’s more, there are no fiddly drivers to install because Numimini is a HID class device, which is something that all recent versions of Windows know how to talk to – support is built in. The application is just a simple .EXE file that you can run from the CD, the hard disk or a USB stick, yet it provides a fully-featured graphic interface to Numimini. No command line hackery to be bothered with on my clocks – just fire it up the PC program, pick the options you want and hit OK. Check out the screen shot.

At this point, Mac and Linux users are probably feeling a little left out, and I apologise to you. I only have access to Windows, so can’t offer a native version of the Numimini host application for your computer. However there’s a strong probability that the Windows application will run just fine on a decent Windows emulator (though I have not tried it). As an alternative, the CD that comes with Numimini has example source code and documentation of the programming interface for the clock. It’s a complete interface specification, with almost 40 commands controlling every aspect of the clock’s operation. If you have the requisite programming skills, it will not take you more than an evening to get something up and running. In fact, if you want to write a full host application and would be prepared to let me distribute it freely as part of the Numimini package, I will actively collaborate with you on the project.

Documentation

The documentation has turned out to be a major part of the whole project, just as for my earlier clock, Nixie7. The complete Numimini Owner’s Manual and Assembly Guide runs to over 50 A4 pages, around 24,000 words. Compare that with the single sheet of paper you get with some competing nixie clocks! It’s full of background information, discussions of the design, simple step by step guides for how to build the clock (did I mention that yet? Yes, Numimini is also available as a kit for those who like to build their own!), and all the detail you need for tweaking Numimini to get it just the way you want it. It’s also lavishly illustrated. The document is written in an easy to follow style, and broken up into sections so you can find your away around easily. The main chapters are:

1          Introduction

2          Numitron tubes and numitron clocks

3          Circuit description

4          Kit inventory

5          Assembling the clock

6          Clock operation

7          Maintenance and questions

8          Reference information

http://www.amug.org/~jthomas/clockpage.html

A few days ago Jeff Thomas emailed me with some photographs of a Pong style watch he was working on.  His modified an OLED photo key chain to display the time instead of small photos.  Like the other Pong Watch, his displays the time as the score.  In his words:

I tinkered with something similar a year ago, repurposing an OLED picture fob into a simple pong watch by directly pumping the display controller with an external PIC processor.
The program (PIC assembly) was forwarded to the OEM, with the hopes they’d release a new pong wristwatch as a variant on their picture fob using the internal MCU.
Those digital picture fobs are down to $5 now that the market is saturated with them, so I figured they would jump at the chance.
Unfortunately I never heard back from them.

Be sure to check out the rest of the photographs after the jump.

All photographs are owned by Jeff Thomas / used with permission here.

Price: 95.00 Euro (~$130 USD)

This is one of those clocks, like the Think Geek Epoch Clock, that you would get simply so that no one else could read it.  This clock is made out of plastic with a glass face covering the display.  In the photo above, each block represents one unit.  So, the time reads 12:38.  It is all powered by two AAA batteries and looks pretty simple to setup.  There even appear to be brackets behind the display so you can set it up like a photograph in a frame.  It isn’t an oh-my-god-I-have-to-get-this clock…but it would go well in your average IKEA furnished apartment.

Buy the Lexon E8 Wallclock LR 108 here

Price: $40 (US)

This clock just makes sense.  There isn’t any retro-steampunk-vacuum-tube display.  There isn’t any innovation in the way that time is displayed.  Instead, there is just a great interface and clean lines to define this clock.  The focus is on utility with an unusual two display layout.  One shows the current time and the other shows the time for the alarm.

More after the jump:

Jetlag 3 views

From their site:

“The design is informed not by the shape but by interface.  The ambition was to create a digital alarm clock with such simplicity that it would render a manual unnecessary.”  However, there is a manual included that has only this diagram in it.:

Jetlag manual

Industrial Facility

Buy it here

http://antrepo4.com/

This clock is not in production, but hopefully it will be soon.  I love this design – it is something between a linear radio tuner and a ruler.  According to their official blog: “Antrepo Design Industry is now in a research process to find a partner company that will cover the costs of production (Both of them).”  I’ve pestered ThinkGeek asking them to look at production too – hopefully someone will pick it up.

More photos after the break.

http://a2591.blogspot.com/2008/12/im-not-radio-too.html

By The Verdict

I’ll start by saying that £49.95 is way too much for what looks to be metal colored plastic and genuine faux wood texture.  However, the segregated 7-segment amber LED display looks cool.  That almost makes up for the abysmal design of the exterior and the terrible product name.  It almost does.  This could be a neat clock if it were just the face (minus the dial) and the radio function was removed.  Encase the remainder in a solid metal box and then it would be worth that price.  However, anything that looks like it came out of a JC Penny caltalog shouldn’t cost more than $20.  Calling it a collectable doesn’t make it one.

http://www.expertverdict.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product1_17552_-1_41317_11051

This is a neat watch concept by industrial designer Julien Bergignat.  The display looks sharper than any e-ink based display I’ve come across but the strong formal elements in this rendering make up for any criticisms I can come up with   Given the flexible nature of this medium, I don’t see why something like this would be difficult to produce.  It is functiaonally a braclet with an e-ink display wrapped around it.  If one with sufficient resolution can be produced for the hands, I think this woud be easily produced.  If Esquire can do it – why not a watch manufacturer?

Esquire example after the break:

EDIT:

TrendHunter.com has a better write up than I do.  Check it out:

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/transformer-epaper-watches-luxury-tima-displays-both-digital-and-analogue-t

I love this clock.  It is nerdy on so many levels but manages to keep a good formal arrangement.  Who says geeks can’t be designers?

The Epoch in this case refers to the Unix Epoch (AKA POSIX Time) of 00:00:00 UTC Jan 1, 1970.  Basically, computers count time as an integer starting at that time.  That integer is converted to HH MM SS by the computer and then displayed in a human readable format.  This clock displays the raw vale for the time.  Additionally, this clock can display time in hexadecimal, octal, binary or roman numeral formats.  I still can’t read roman numerals so I don’t think I will be using that one too much….

More Info: http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/a7c5/

This has got to be one of the coolest watches I’ve seen in a while.  It is quite a bit more advanced than the Nixie watch and, unlike the Tokyo Flash watches, the whole face is animated.  The display plays a mini-pong game and the score represents the hours and the minutes.  I don’t know what the battery life is like on this thing but even if it needed to be charged daily, it would be worth it!  Check out the links below for more information.  This is an amazing little gadget.

Video and Links after the break

Click here to view the embedded video.

More Info: http://www.maushammer.com/systems/Watch/Introduction.html

How-To: http://www.maushammer.com/systems/Watch/Build_Log/Build_Log.html

More Video: http://www.maushammer.com/systems/Watch/Movies.html

The Kickass Clocks and Kickass Watches series got some serious attention on this site.  Thank you!  Because I am addicted to seeing my web stats go up – here is Kickass Clocks Part Two:

Verbarius

By Art Lebedev – $200

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

Most clock write out the time in numbers.  Verbarius writes out the time in words – in multiple languages.  For example, “It’s either forty-five minutes past four, or fifteen minutes to five, or four forty-five, or a quarter to five.”   I love this clock and don’t know how I forgot to put it on the original list.

Pong Clock

By Sander Mulder – $sold out

http://www.sandermulder.com/pong_clock.html

From the site:

In the old school Pong © TV game you could put the paddles in such a position, that the ball kept bouncing forever. Quite hypnotic, and it became the inspiration for this time-killer/clock….

While this game of Pong © randomly plays, the so called ‘players’ score the time. The left player scores the hours, and the right player scores the minutes, creating an unusual timepiece, ideal for those Friday afternoon moments.

The Pong © Clock displays the time, but you can also switch to game mode. This allows you to play a game of Pong © against the clock with the use of two buttons on the back !

Pong © is a copyrighted trademark by Atari inc.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Wooden Clock

By Unknown – $75-$150 (lots of imitations on eBay)

http://www.urbanjunkie.co.uk/product.php/574/0/wooden-clock

This click doesn’t win awards for any major innovation, just for good design.  The clock face is hidden behind a thin piece of wood instead of red plastic like most digital clocks use.  For better or worse, this would go great in an Ikea bedroom.

12ft GPS Wall Clock

By SparkFun Electronics

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorial_info.php?tutorials_id=47

While this cock isn’t for sale, SparkFun goes in to great detail explaining how they built it and even provide the code you will need if you want to replicate the project.  A GPS powered clock isn’t new to this list – the reason this clock is here is that it is twelve feet long.

CRT vector clock

By Chris Radek

http://www.timeguy.com/cradek/clocks

This has got to be the smallest CRT clock that I’ve ever seen.  The inventor is a little shy on details but the presentation of this clock is simply astounding.

Chris – if you ever want to part with this clock, please contact me.  Brian@ this domain.com

Time Table

By Ross McBride – not in production

http://normaldesign.net/normal/en/index.php#show.30

Unfortunately, this guy isn’t in production.  And I don’t have room for something like this in my little apartment.  I have no idea what this would cost but based on what I can find their other products going for and what similar pieces go for, I would have to imagine this would be in the $2,000 range :-/

5071A Primary Frequency Standard

By HP / Agilent – discontinued

http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/product.jspx?cc=US&lc=eng&pageMode=OV&pid=1000001383%3Aepsg%3Apro&ct=PRODUCT&id=1000001383%3Aepsg%3Apro

Did you ever want your own atomic clock?  You can actually find these on eBay for $2k to $10k.  However, in most all cases, you will need to buy a new cesium source for the clock.  I have no idea how much that part costs but I would imagine shipping radioactive material will command a premium on top of the normal UPS / FedEx charges.  I think if I ever got a package like that at work it would make people suspicious.  (But they already know I’m weird.)

Specifications

• Performance suited to advanced communications and tracking systems
• Frequency accuracy to 5 x 10-13
• Long-term stability better than 1 x 10-14
• Proven track record in military and commercial applications
• Easy to use with automatic start up and intuitive menu structure

Key Points

• Performance suited to advanced communications and tracking systems
• Frequency accuracy to 5 x 10-13
• Long-term stability better than 1 x 10-14
• Proven track record in military and commercial applications
• Easy to use with automatic start up and intuitive menu structure

Check out Kickass Clocks Pt.1 and Kickass Watches

The Nixie Tube Digital Wristwatch!

By Jeff Thomas / Resonant Instruments LLC

http://www.amug.org/~jthomas/watch.html

This is the really little brother of the NixiChron clock.  The fact that he managed to fit all of the components in to such a small packagaing – and fit four vacuum tubes in it is amazing.  They require about 180vdc to power…your average AA battery puts out just 1.5 for comparison.

The Nixie Watch

By Cathode Corner – $395

http://www.cathodecorner.com/nixiewatch/index.html

This watch was inspired by the one above.  It uses an entirely different design – tubes and power supply.  It looks a little more like a watch than the above one but uses only two display tubes.

Negative

by Tokyo Flash – ¥16,900 / $170

http://www.tokyoflash.com/en/watches/tokyoflash/negative/

If you want to show your geeky side with pride, this is the watch for you!  This is the first of the mass produced watches on this list.  Tokyo Flash makes some amazing watches.  They focus on innovative ways of displaying the time to make reading it unintuitive.  If this watch isn’t for you, check out some of the other ones they offer.

Bling binary LED watch

By Todd Bailey – $?

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2006/05/concept_bling_binary_led.html

This watch is for the DIY crowd and would probably appeal to the BOFH-type personality.  You know, the guy who wants you to know that he is better at technology, computers, and anything else that uses electricity than you do.  This watch isn’t for the casual enthusiast – no only do you have to build it, but it tells the time in bianary.  Reading it takes a bit of practice but can become second nature to the true aplha-nerds

Synchronar 2100

By Roger Riehl – $?

http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?p=1366081

This was an amazing device.  It was the first mass produced LED wristwatch and was designed never to need adjustment.

From http://www.soluhr.com/sync.htm

Independent inventor Roger Riehl designed the most advanced wrist timepiece devised up to that time. His goal was to built an extremely accurate timepiece that required no service, could withstand great variation of temperature, was shockproof, was waterproof to great depths, was visible in any lighting conditions, and had multiple functions. In short, his goal seemed to be to build the ultimate wristwatch that would simultaneously overcome all of the traditional challenges to the wristwatch.

I love unique clocks.  Not grandfather clocks, not cheap $10 alarm clocks, I am talking about hand-made small quantity digital clocks.  Without any more filler text, here is my list of favorite clocks:

Nocrotec Sylvia Clock

By Dieter Wächter – $399

http://nocrotec.com/start.php?navi=5&pid=21&gtxtid=110&lg=en

This clock is based on Vacuum Fluorescent Display tubes.  They are a seven-segment based display like most led clocks but these are quite a bit different.  For starters, this clock costs nearly 100x as much as your normal department store clock.  The digits have a beautiful cyan color and the design of the tube allows you to see the inner workings.  Image and brief description are from Nocrotec

FEATURES
- Digit height: 0.6″ (15mm)
- 12/24h mode
- Date in configuration DD.MM.YY or MM.DD.YY
- Leading zero suppression: The leading zero can be blanked or shown
- Cross fading: different modes to fade the digits from one number to the next
- Alarm clock
- Power down mode: tubes and supply can be totally switched off for a user programmed period in order to save energy and increase life expectancy of the tubes
- 12VDC input voltage
- Time is battery buffered when no line power is available; battery will last for more than 10 years
- User settings are always stored
- Case made of massive cherry wood and shiny black anodized aluminum as used for high-end audio equipment.

The Scope Clock – Cathode Corner

By David Forbes – $999

http://www.cathodecorner.com/scra/index.html

The second version of the Scope Clock is currently in production and will hopefully be on sale soon.  The display of the clock is a CRT display originally intended for oscilloscopes.  All of the display characters are drawn as vector images, unllike the AVR based Scop Clock kit sold by SparkFun Electronics.

In the updated version of the Scope Clock, the housing has been completely redesign to fit in a much smaller cylindrical housing.  I can’t tell for sure but it appears to still be based on the 3RP1A CRT.  The time is set via GPS.  You need to program the UTC Offset and DST parameters but once it finds a GPS signal, this will be the most accurate clock in your house!

Pixel

By François Azambourg for Ligne Roset – $2,500

http://www.ligne-roset-usa.com/Products/decor/accessories/Pixel_1519.aspx

I really wanted this clock.  Bad.  It is a little large – almost three feet in diameter but it is one of the most unique clocks I’ve seen in a while.  It is made up of a honeycomb of about 300 frosted white LEDs.  The image of the hands is made by turning off lights selectively.

NixiChron

By Jeff Thomas / Resonant Instruments LLC – (discontinued)

http://www.amug.org/~jthomas/nixichron.html

This is my clock.  I am the proud owner of the last one made according to the creator himself.  (It was also the cheapest one on this list…)  The display in this clock is a Russian Nixie tube called an IN-18 / ИН-18.  This is a really odd display.  There are 10 filaments inside of the tube.  Each one is shaped in the form of a number.  The tube is then filled with neon gas and a little bit of mercury to prevent cathode poisoning.    When ~180vdc is applied to one of the numbers, it glows.

Six of the IN-18 / ИН-18 tubes are used to display the time.  Like the Scope Clock, the time is set via GPS but a built in clock keeps the clock going when a signal cannot be located.  The tubes are some of the largest that were produced in quantity which adds a collector value to the clock.  Since they do wear out, I have a second set stored in a hard Pelican case.

大人気LED CLOCK-DROP TYPE

By Karlsson (OEM unknown) – $150~$200 USD

I can’t find much information, at least not in English, about this clock.  Up until about two weeks ago, all of the sites that sold this clock were in Japanese.  Amazon JP sold this clock but most of that was in Japanese as well.  However, in late October, I discovered that Giftmonger.com sells this clock!  Unlike every other site, they do ship to the US and other countries outside of the EU.

The display is made up of square LED pixels.  What makes this clock unique is that the digits scroll down.  The new digit pushes the old one out of its place in a brief animated second.  Below are a few photos of the clock from various sites.

PIN Clock

By Daka Design – $50

This is about the only clock on this list that you can easily find.  Amazon.com sells it.  The concept is simple – the display is made up of pins that extend to form a pattern in the shape of the digits.  It is like a practical version of the toy that you played with as a kid.  (You know, the one that you used to make hand prints in…that that is about it….)

And because it reminds me a lot of this song, here is “Only” by Nine Inch Nails.

Check out Kickass Clocks Pt.2 and Kickass Watches