Nothing says tech addict quite like the wearing of a binary watch — and we say that as tech addicts ourselves. However, many of the homebrew binary watches we’ve seen don’t just look nerdy because they are showing the time in binary. They are nerdy because it looks like someone strapped an Arduino to their wrist. Not so with [APTechnologies] “Ultimate Binary Watch.”
While creating a binary clock is not amazing in of itself, we were highly impressed with the look of this watch. The 3D printed case and the use of surface mount LEDs makes a great looking package. We wondered how it would look with a colored plastic cover like you’d find over an old LED clock. On the other hand, the exposed LEDs do have a certain charm to them.
In addition to liking the aesthetics of the watch, we also liked the design process. The first order of business was defining the requirements:
- Binary RGB interface
- Time display (with very accurate timekeeping)
- Date display
- Stopwatch functionality
- Alarm functionality
- Long battery life
- USB charging
- Software easily customizable by the user
- A clean and simple design
The PCB is in Altium Designer, which is a bit pricey. You might be able to open it in CircuitMaker, though which is a little easier to obtain.
We are more accustomed to watches that look like [Parker’s]. No offense — that watch was optimized for low cost and a fast turn around design, so it has its own, but different, kind of charm. If you are tired of binary watches, try building a smartwatch.
Source: BINARY WATCH LOOKS GOOD
