Gizmodo: timepiece

USB Watch is Deconstructed Electronic Geekiness In Action

Kit Eaton — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:09:00 EDT

This concept USB watch, dubbed "Timeless" is either a fabulously ironic piece of deconstructivist electronic art, or a geeky overload. Whichever way you look at it, it's kinda neat: basically it's a simple digital watch, with an internal battery that's charged when you plug it into a USB socket. And then the same USB socket plugs back into the watch face, secured with PCB mount-style latches, with the ribbon cable as a strap. It's a concept... but I could rattle off a pretty long list of people I know who'd probably love to own one. [DesignBrothers via CoolestGadgets]

Bulova Watch Lost at Sea During WW2 Reunited with Owner After 67 Years, Still Ticking

AddyDugdale — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:45:00 EDT

A Royal Navy veteran has been reunited with his watch, 67 years after he lost it during World War II—and, it worked perfectly. In 1941, Teddy Bacon, a lieutenant aboard HMS Repulse, was throwing a line from ship to shore when the gold Bulova watch, bought in the Azores for $55, slipped off his wrist and into Gibraltar Harbor. The timepiece was never found, until the harbor was dredged, seven decades later.

After seeing his watch splosh into the water, Teddy sent down a couple of divers to search for it, but without any luck. So, he informed the deputy harbor-master who logged the missing object. Fast-forward to 2007, and the watch turned up during the dredging of the harbor. When the authorities checked the log, they found Teddy's claim, and sent the watch, still ticking, off to him. Now 90 years old, the reitred sailor couldn't believe his eyes when a package containing his gold watch arrived at his new home.

'To say I was stunned could be considered a major understatement,' he said. "It truly was a miracle that I had been reunited with that watch after a lifetime. Now I wear it every day and it keeps perfect time, even after all those years in the water. It is absolutely excellent and I consider it a long-lost friend.'" [Daily Mail]

Cuckinetic Clock Tells Time Rube Goldberg-Style

Kit Eaton — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:45:02 EDT

I'm always fascinated by kinetic sculptures, which is why I like this clock by painter and sculptor George Rhodes. You tell the hours from the numbered cylinders that're picked up on that wheel, and the minutes from the pointer arm. It strikes the hours when the cylinder rolls down the track and hits a bell. I'd love to see it in action, but since it's a limited edition of 50, costing $4,000, there's not much chance of that. If you do bag one of these 17-pound creations, it's signed by the artist himself. [George Rhodes via BBGadgets]

G-Shock GW-9200 Riseman Has Everything You Never Needed on a Watch

AddyDugdale — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:11:47 EST

Casio's new G-Shock GW-9200 may not have a phone or MP3 player, but that's about all it lacks. With an altimeter, barometer and thermometer, the chunky black plastic timepiece hits the US on June 28 and will cost you around $230. Full specs are below.

- 6 Band Atomic Time Sync
- Barometer (air pressure range 260 to 1100 hPa)
- Altimeter (-700 to 10000 m)
- Thermometer (-10 ℃ to 60)
- Stopwatch (1 / 100 seconds, 24 hours, with a split)
- World Time (33 world cities, 29 time zones)
- Countdown Timer (24 hours max)
- 5 Alarms (1 with snooze)
- Full auto EL light (with afterlight)
- Tough Solar (large solar charging system)
- Dimensions: 51.0mm × 48.9mm × 15.9mm
- Weight: 60.9g
The version with a Geiger counter is, I assume, coming out at a later date. [My G-Shock]

Build Your Own Tokyoflash-esque Binary Watch

Kit Eaton — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:42:31 EST

DIY gadgeteer Nate True has come up with a home-brew LED watch alternative to those Tokyoflash wristwatches that are all the rage. A mashup of a binary clock and one of those nifty persistence-of-vision displays, Nate's device even packs in a super-bright flashlight mode. You can follow his instructions to make your own, or if your soldering is as bad as mine you can buy a pre-built one for $189, and one lacking the enclosure for $89. [cre.ations.net via BoingBoing]

Watch Concept Gives Hearing-Impaired People a Fire Alert

Kit Eaton — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:27:09 EST

This new watch concept from Nikita Golovlev is designed to give a visible warning to hearing-impaired users if something dangerous is going on nearby. Dubbed AlarMe, the watch has a bunch of omnidirectional microphones and does some intelligent listening to sense if anything audibly important such as a fire alarm is happening. It then gives the alert visually and by vibrating, sending "caution" alerts when something more benign happens.

We suspect a lot of processor power may have to be squeezed into a watch to give the caution function any usefulness, but as a design touchstone it's pretty neat and is a step toward medical devices that look good as well as help people. [Yanko Design]

Insulin Watch Concept Gives You Your Fix and Tells the Time

AddyDugdale — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:01:29 EST

Sufferers of Type-I diabetes will appreciate this concept insulin-delivering watch from Germany. Piezoelectricity generated by the wearer's movements drive the insulin-delivering pumps in the watch body, which contains enough of the drug for two to three weeks. The idea is to make life a little more normal for diabetics rather than have them wrestle with syringes each day. Jump for more info.

A student at Braunschweig University of Art called Nicole Schmeidel came up with the idea after watching a film of an 8-year old kid using a clunky insulin pump. Her device, named COR, combines a better delivery system with wrist-watch styling that she hopes will improve the quality of life of diabetics. Multiple piezo-electric transducers, originally designed for European satellites, turn the movements of the wearer into electrical current, which is then stored and used to drive pumps that deliver insulin intravenously.

Nicole intends it to look "like a watch and not a medical device," so its display switches to watch mode when the pump is not operating. The design won an award at the recent Design Technology Student Awards at the Materialica trade fair in Munich, so she is hoping to get COR into production and onto the wrists of diabetes sufferers as soon as possible. – Kit Eaton
[ESA via Eureka]