# I'm building a nixie tube watch .. Would love some feedback



## flyinglotus1983

Hi,

I'm a new member at WUS, but I've had a long history on other DIY forums making some truly amazing projects. My grail project, for many years, has been a nixie tube wrist watch. Some people may have seen Steve Wozniak of Apple fame rocking a Cathode Corner nixie tube watch from time to time. They're not exactly groundbreaking, but they are still very much a niche item, more so than most of the microbrands common on WUS and other watch enthusiast gathering places. In my opinion, they're probably the most "out there" sort of watch one could ever wear.

This watch will make use of four Burroughs B4988 tubes, which are the smallest ever made. The Cathode Corner watch only uses two tubes, which means that it flashes the hour and minutes sequentially. Mine will display the full time, and will have some other neat complications that I'll explain later. The other difference between my watch and previous nixie tube watches is that I'm going to integrate real horological style and design into my project, so it will look more like a watch and less like a wrist computer or terrorist IED remote control (not trying to be offensive, that has been an actual concern with the Cathode Corner watch, that it looks like a bomb or bomb detonator, to non-nerds and normal people).

Anyway, I hope this is the right place for such a thread. I would include some links on the history of nixie tubes, and some pictures of my design so far. However, I'm brand new to this forum and my post count is not high enough for me to include links in my posts. I will, however, reply to this thread with URL's and pictures, as soon as I am given that privilege. In the meantime, for those that are familiar with nixie tubes and/or nixie watches, I'd love your feedback. I'm sure there will be a few people here that think this is completely stupid and ridiculous or gaudy. That's fine, it's all subjective, but at the end of the day, I don't really care if some people hate it. I will make it and wear it regardless, because that's just how I am. 

I'll post more details here in the days to come. Until then, thanks and wish me luck.


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## Chascomm

Cool stuff! I look forward to seeing how this develops.

Here are a couple of older threads about nixie tube watches:
https://www.watchuseek.com/f77/kopriso-nixie-watch-636795.html
https://www.watchuseek.com/f77/first-true-nixie-watch-concept-1482449.html


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## flyinglotus1983

Chascomm said:


> Cool stuff! I look forward to seeing how this develops.
> 
> Here are a couple of older threads about nixie tube watches:
> https://www.watchuseek.com/f77/kopriso-nixie-watch-636795.html
> https://www.watchuseek.com/f77/first-true-nixie-watch-concept-1482449.html


Thanks for the links. I've seen the Kopriso watch on Techmoan's youtube channel a while back (but had no idea he was a WUS member). It's one of the main contenders, aside the Cathode Corner watch. The second link, well, I think he's got a long way to go, but it's always interesting to see people take a crack at nixie tubes.

As for the technical details of my watch, it will be based on an Atmega32U4 processor running the Arduino bootloader, with a DS1308 real-time clock for timekeeping. I'm going with the LSM303 accelerometer+compass for sensing when the watch is at the right angle to turn the tubes on. The power supply is based on an LT1619 chip from Linear Technology, and a custom-wound transformer. Everything will be completely custom, I'm doing all of the PCB design/layout using 0402 passives and QFN and ~1/2mm pitch IC's. Will make use of flat-flex circuits and other tricks to make it fit. Will use a mineral crystal on the front and back, and custom pieces for the bezel and watch case. Intended to be worn with a 22mm NATO strap or leather band. As I said, there will be a number of horological influences in this watch, hopefully i can elaborate on that soon with some renderings and/or CAD screenshots. Will post more later, this week has been quite busy.


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## watchobs

Will be very intrigued to see how this will progress! Good luck! And contingent on how design and pricing pans out I would be interested in picking one up!


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## Medusa

I really like Nixie tube watches and am looking forward to seeing this one. 

Something that I would like to see is some sort of auto display flash option every 15 minutes similar to a grandfather clock chime. Some of the modern digital, LED and binary watches do this and its neat having the auto display as well as the manual.


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## flyinglotus1983

watchobs said:


> Will be very intrigued to see how this will progress! Good luck! And contingent on how design and pricing pans out I would be interested in picking one up!


Initially I'll be building one, to prove out the design. I've no idea if there would be a demand for them or not (although going by the Kopriso facebook page, there is to some extent, and he's not able to meet demand currently).

The only thing that would keep me from building more than one would be availability of the tubes. Burroughs B-4998's are extremely rare, and sought after. I've managed to obtain four so far, that's it... I've got boxes and boxes of other less-desirable (larger) tubes, but I'm not sure they would work for a watch. IN-12's are cheap and plentiful, but the watch would be huge. The 4998 tubes are so small that I believe that can 100% pull it off.. if only for one watch. If there's demand, I could always make a v2 with a more common tube. I'll keep that in mind and see what kind of obtainable tubes I could come up with, that would be a good fit. I'm really partial to the idea of using four tubes, rather than the 2 or 1 used by Kopriso and CathodeCorner. It's certainly harder, but if it were easy, everyone would be doing it, haha.


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## flyinglotus1983

Medusa said:


> Something that I would like to see is some sort of auto display flash option every 15 minutes similar to a grandfather clock chime. Some of the modern digital, LED and binary watches do this and its neat having the auto display as well as the manual.


100% doable, I've already got software running on an Arduino clock that does this (using WS2812B RGB LEDs instead of tubes). I'll make that an option for sure.. might impact battery life, but not a problem if it's an option that can be enabled and disabled.

BTW, I think I've finally got 10 posts now so I think I'm able to post links and / or pictures now.. I'll give that a shot here in a minute.


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## flyinglotus1983

First up, some inspiration. All pictures are copyright their respective owners.

*Horological Influences:*

*Lum-Tec Super Combat B2 and Combat B16*
http://wornandwound.com/2012/02/29/lum-tec-combat-b16-super-combat-b2-side-by-side-review/



















*Lum-Tec Combat B19 Bronze*
http://wornandwound.com/2014/04/29/look-lum-tec-combat-b19-bronze/



















*Shinola Runwell Coin Edge 38mm*
http://www.shinola.com/shop/new-arrivals/the-runwell-edgecoin-leather-band-watch-s02108.html










*Hanhart Pioneer*
http://wornandwound.com/2015/06/10/hanhart-pioneer-monocontrol-review/



















*Bremont MBII*
http://wornandwound.com/2014/05/07/bremont-mbii-review/




























*Nixie Tube Influences*

*Cathode Corner nixie watch*
Nixie Watch by Cathode Corner



















Early version:
Nixie Watch History - Part 1










Steve Wozniak, sporting the Cathode Corner nixie watch









*Kopriso nixie watch:*






















































*Jeff Thomas, B4998 based design:*
Nixie Watch Redux

http://i.imgur.com/EWPK74j.jpg

"I didn't cheat and use a microprocessor. Although I did use seven very small TSSOP packaged IC's." - Jeff Thomas

Well Jeff, I'll be cheating my ass off, if by cheating you mean use a microprocessor. Shamelessly.



















*From some video game, probably:*


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## flyinglotus1983

Here are some pictures of my progress so far. Keep in mind that I'm still at the planning stages at this point. CAD renders, schematic capture, and so forth. I've not actually made anything yet, and likely won't for some time, this will not be a project with a set schedule, rather it's something I will enjoy taking my time on and doing right.

*Watch face, 3/4 shot*









The four nixie tubes are prominently mounted, symmetrically, in the center of the watch. They're placed in an extremely intuitive manner, similar to all of those LED alarm clocks I've used in the last 2-3 decades. Two tiny RGB LEDs make up the colon dots. I'd have gone with neon here, but neon is just too big, at least from what I've found. And SMD /SMT neon glass tube would be amazing, but unfortunately, I do not think that they exist.

There is some intentional symmetry between the microprocessor (top, 45 degree, center) and the hole that exposes the big inductor (bottom, 45 degree, center). I may have found a clever way to get rid of this hole. No matter what, I do want to expose and show the main switching HV supply coil, but it's so big that it's hard to do. What I plan on doing will be a bit clever but will hopefully work without any issues, and be a bit prettier than the current hole through the board. The rest of the switching power supply electronics will also be displayed prominently on the bottom half of the PCB. This will be a skeletonized quartz watch, if you will.

Beside the central-top microprocessor, you can see the 8 MHz crystal (top immediate left), the accelerometer (top left), 32 KHz RTC crystal (top immediate right), and the RTC DS1308 (far right).

* Overhead shot*









The watch was designed around a 22mm NATO / ZULU strap, however it will also accept leather straps and other conventional stuff.










This is not an ultra-thin watch, by any means (those titles will stay with Vacheron Constantin, Arnold & Son, Piaget, etc). It's necessarily thick because the nixie tubes, albeit the smallest in the world, are still quite large in the realm of wrist watch components.

Unfortunately, I don't even think that I can say this is the smallest Nixie tube watch in the world, or the thinnest. That's because I'm using tubes that are meant to be viewed from the top instead of the side. That's OK, I'm not going after supurlatives, I'm making a watch that I want to wear, I'm not chasing metrics.

*Bottom 3/4 View*









*Bottom 3/4 View, Sans-Wrist Strap*









I will use a mineral or sapphire crystal display back in the bottom of the watch case. This accomplishes a few things. It looks cool, it helps me explain and display the watch, and it also happens to be an insulator (important when there is ~175 volts a few millimeters from your wrist).

The reddish-orange-colored stuff on the tubes are custom flat-flex PCB that I am designing. More on these in a bit.










This shot shows one of my more favorite parts of the watch. The blackish part in the picture is a printed circuit board, with flat black solder-mask, with immersion gold electroplated finish. The idea here is to do with a pick-and-place machine, what a watchmaker would normally do with a sheet of brass and finishing techniques. I'm using an array of 0402 passive components and 0603 LED's for a chapter ring. I don't think anyone has ever done that before. I believe that I have a way to make it extremely artistic and aesthetic without it looking too dorky or like a busy circuit board. The layout will be extremely clean and symmetrical, without the usual white outlines of silkscreen and reference designators that has become the status quo of pcb design.

*Bronze Coin Edge Inspiration*









I've been playing around with a coin edge, similar to the inspiration pics above (Lum-Tec, Shinola, etc). I can't say I'm 100% happy with it yet, and it won't be as easy to machine as the beveled edge. This piece would likely be lost-wax casted from a 3D printed model, in bronze, via Shapeways or similar. However, I don't have a good way to attach this to the center rings at this point.. Time will tell if I go this route, or the simpler route.

*Hirose Connectors for the Tubes*








Just a quick picture of the mounting connectors for the tubes. Each tube is modular, and can be replaced (albeit the flat-flex PCB will be attached to it, but I'll take that over un-soldering it from a board any day. I find this design extremely elegant. Being that pcb-mount pins don't exist for pin spacings this close, the tubes won't be removable without a soldering iron. I'd rather modularize them than solder these old tubes onto a single PCB.

Thoughts? Am I crazy? [ Y ] / [ N]


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## Chascomm

I like the coin-edged bezel. I know that is hardly the most important part, but it does serve to soften the 'geekiness' inherent in a nixie watch. It takes it from a mere science project to an unusual horological device. If you do go with the bronze bezel, please also consider the tactile elements of the user interface (crown, pushers) and how they will relate to the bezel. If you could work the bezel into the user interface in some way, that would be even cooler.


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## flyinglotus1983

Chascomm said:


> I like the coin-edged bezel. I know that is hardly the most important part, but it does serve to soften the 'geekiness' inherent in a nixie watch. It takes it from a mere science project to an unusual horological device.


Good to know, I'll take that into consideration. I like it (the coin edge) more, and so does my supportive girlfriend. My only reservation so far, and the reason why the bevelled / chamfered version is on there, is that it's a bit easier to machine and put together (the socket-head cap screws holding it together). What was inferred but not directly stated is that the two black rings that make up the watch body are anodized and knurled aluminum rings, that I had laying around from another project, that happened to be the right size. However the coin edge is done, it would have to attach to those. I do like the knurled aluminum (as pointed out by the Bremont MBII above), as it gives a juxposition of textures, and although there's not a lot of watches out there that use aluminum knurled bodies other than the Bremont, I do think it's aesthetically pleasing and worth the effort, even if it's harder to water-proof.



> If you do go with the bronze bezel, please also consider the tactile elements of the user interface (crown, pushers) and how they will relate to the bezel. If you could work the bezel into the user interface in some way, that would be even cooler.


Right now, my thinking is, two pushers (as shown in pic 1 and 2), and the crown may likely not have any function at all, instead being vestigial. There's not a lot of space between the far right nixie tube and the crown, so it might be more of a 'as is tradition' type thing of keeping it there, with no real function. I was planning on making the charging happen via Micro USB plug, similar to an Android phone, with the USB D+ and D- going right to the Atmega32U4, which makes it easy to boot-load and upload settings and firmware. I'd be more OK with setting time and functions from a GUI and a USB port than coming up with hard-to-remember button pushing interfaces. Personally, anything more complicated than a Chrono (as every nixie watch/clock ends up being), a pair of buttons becomes quite difficult to commit to rote memorization. I still haven't memorized the button menu of my IN-18 Dream Clock, nor my smaller IN-16 clock. I wouldn't be able to memorize the CathodeCorner or the Kopriso interfaces either. I'm also not super crazy about going with rotary encoders or wheels at this point.. I don't want the scope to get out of hand with crazy features. I have added a capacitive controller to the schematic and PCB, and that could work well for a few buttons or even an ipod-style scroll wheel if I were able to figure out how to pull that off. They were put there to hook the pushers up to, which is very similar to how the Kopriso watch works.. little touch-points rather than mechanical pushbuttons.

Would be interested in hearing your thoughts about this .. UX is admittedly one of the most important parts of the project, and I don't want to let it be an afterthought.


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## dspt

I think, that if the pushers and the crown have no function - don't put them on the watch. I, as a watch owner, would be really embarrassed to tell someone that this pushers are here for decoration only.


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## flyinglotus1983

dspt said:


> I think, that if the pushers and the crown have no function - don't put them on the watch. I, as a watch owner, would be really embarrassed to tell someone that this pushers are here for decoration only.


No, the pushers would have a function. The crown would not provide input to the watch, however, I did have clever use for it, that I would not be embarrassed to show off. I was actually thinking about putting the micro USB port where the crown goes, and then using a custom molded micro USB dongle in the shape of a crown stem, with a bit of knurled metal to grab onto. Hard to explain, but basically it looks like a crown, but when you pull it out, you can plug a micro USB cable into the watch for charging and any of the specific settings of the watch like 24-hour/12-hour, the methods in which the HVPS starts up to display the digits (precise angle in 3 axes, and a tolerance, light sensor, and/or minute repeater).. All the things that would be better done from a GUI than via the two buttons. Obviously you could change time or start the chrono via the pushers.. but that interface would be pretty simple.

Now the real crazy part would be, if I could fit an ATTiny microcontroller in the micro USB crown, with a rotary encoder. That would be best of both worlds, I would be really happy with that, and believe it or not, it's actually something I might be able to pull off, and it doesn't delay me in getting the watch itself built, as it's something that plugs into it.

Admittedly I might be the only one that thinks this is really cool, I might be crazy or whatever. As always, I would love some input on all of this, the feedback does help, and it's great to get it this early in the development cycle.


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## Medusa

Super extremely double kick ass cool. I'm very impressed. Thanks for sharing


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## Chascomm

flyinglotus1983 said:


> No, the pushers would have a function. The crown would not provide input to the watch, however, I did have clever use for it, that I would not be embarrassed to show off. I was actually thinking about putting the micro USB port where the crown goes, and then using a custom molded micro USB dongle in the shape of a crown stem, with a bit of knurled metal to grab onto.


That would be pretty cool...


> Now the real crazy part would be, if I could fit an ATTiny microcontroller in the micro USB crown, with a rotary encoder. That would be best of both worlds, I would be really happy with that, and believe it or not, it's actually something I might be able to pull off, and it doesn't delay me in getting the watch itself built, as it's something that plugs into it.


...but this would be even cooler :-!

I agree with dspt that and buttons/knobs/pushers/crowns must have _some_ function even if not for user interface, but the use of a rotary controller (crown) would be a beautiful homage to some of the pioneering electronic watches of the 1970s.


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## flyinglotus1983

Chascomm said:


> That would be pretty cool...
> ...but this would be even cooler :-!
> 
> I agree with dspt that and buttons/knobs/pushers/crowns must have _some_ function even if not for user interface, but the use of a rotary controller (crown) would be a beautiful homage to some of the pioneering electronic watches of the 1970s.


I was thinking about it more last night. I think that I can pull it off. Basically the crown would be a standalone, USB-powered, USB client that connects to the watch. I believe that I can even find a rotary encoder that has the additional push-in and/or push-out functionality, or a pushbutton at the very least. This would take a bit of custom machining to enclose it all, but it's doable.


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## nixiebunny

Hi. I like what you're doing with this design! 

I do have some thoughts about the electronics and electronics packaging. I've built more Nixie watch circuit boards (>1300 watches, and over a dozen different PC board designs) than anyone else on the planet, so I might know what I'm talking about. 

First, I think that you have a nice design of watch case and tube layout. The tube placement looks great. I think you might want to reconsider the PC board arrangement, though. Two important things: 

1. Don't hide the tubes! The opaque board at the front face of the watch obscures the tubes' three-dimensional qualities. I designed a square watch a few years ago, then redesigned it recently with a window twice as big, just because everyone wants to see the tubes in their entirety. 

2. Don't use flex boards unless they are absolutely necessary! They are not needed in this watch. I built a project, the Video Coat, using flex boards. Expensive, hard to do layout for, a general nuisance. The existence of a flat plane at the back of the watch for a standard FR4 board means that flex is a big waste of money and effort. There are Mill-Max socket pins that will add no thickness to the watch, even with a rigid board at the back. I can supply details on request.

Also, I have bunches of parts that would make your job easier. 

3. I can provide you with a lifetime supply of the same transformer that I use in my watch. 1/4" cube, tested in 10 years of shipped products. 

4. I bought hundreds of those 4998 Nixie tubes a couple months ago, but don't have the watch case design chops to do that part of the project. Wanna work something out?

Send a note to david at cathode corner dot com if you want to chat more privately.


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## flyinglotus1983

nixiebunny said:


> Hi. I like what you're doing with this design!
> 
> I do have some thoughts about the electronics and electronics packaging. I've built more Nixie watch circuit boards (>1300 watches, and over a dozen different PC board designs) than anyone else on the planet, so I might know what I'm talking about.
> 
> First, I think that you have a nice design of watch case and tube layout. The tube placement looks great. I think you might want to reconsider the PC board arrangement, though. Two important things:
> 
> 1. Don't hide the tubes! The opaque board at the front face of the watch obscures the tubes' three-dimensional qualities. I designed a square watch a few years ago, then redesigned it recently with a window twice as big, just because everyone wants to see the tubes in their entirety.
> 
> 2. Don't use flex boards unless they are absolutely necessary! They are not needed in this watch. I built a project, the Video Coat, using flex boards. Expensive, hard to do layout for, a general nuisance. The existence of a flat plane at the back of the watch for a standard FR4 board means that flex is a big waste of money and effort. There are Mill-Max socket pins that will add no thickness to the watch, even with a rigid board at the back. I can supply details on request.
> 
> Also, I have bunches of parts that would make your job easier.
> 
> 3. I can provide you with a lifetime supply of the same transformer that I use in my watch. 1/4" cube, tested in 10 years of shipped products.
> 
> 4. I bought hundreds of those 4998 Nixie tubes a couple months ago, but don't have the watch case design chops to do that part of the project. Wanna work something out?
> 
> Send a note to david at cathode corner dot com if you want to chat more privately.


Hey, thanks for your feedback  Didn't expect to see any OG's like yourself stop by here un-announced. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I've been an admirer of your work for years.

I will take your advice to heart, and just sent you an email off of the forum. Re: the flex boards, I get a pretty good deal on the flex PCB's they're actually quite cheap and work decently well, although I will concede that standard FR4 PCB's are certainly cheaper and easier to work with. I may just redesign it to eliminate the flex PCB's, but I will say that if it doesn't fit because of room issues, I'll likely keep them. Flex PCBs are quite in fashion when it comes to wearables and high tech mobile electronics, it's certainly a way to save space and in most cases, it saves you from needing a custom cable or crazy board-to-board connector.

As for not hiding the tubes, I do have to agree with you there, I'll see what I can do. What I did want to do on this design was to show off the power supply and the microcontroller prominently, on a custom PCB with flat-black solder-mask and minimal silkscreen, gold immersion plating, possibly with a custom pantone color on the silkscreen. These are a bit more expensive, but they look amazing when pulled off correctly. The idea is to have a few elements or hints of a dress watch, with the raised hour markers and other design elements, but using SMT components instead of the custom metal bits. It's something that I won't be able to explain until I have it in my hand, I'm confident that it will look amazing, but I do agree that I don't want to hide the tubes if I don't have to. Since my original post, I've been playing around with a few other variations, some of which are a bit more 'skeletonized', but I've not posted any of them yet, they're more ideas than finished stuff that I could show. This watch is something that I'd like to have some nice proportions and aesthetics, so I'm taking my time and going slow, and will definitely be taking your advice to heart.

Thanks again,

Neil


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## watchobs

flyinglotus1983 said:


> Initially I'll be building one, to prove out the design. I've no idea if there would be a demand for them or not (although going by the Kopriso facebook page, there is to some extent, and he's not able to meet demand currently).
> 
> The only thing that would keep me from building more than one would be availability of the tubes. Burroughs B-4998's are extremely rare, and sought after. I've managed to obtain four so far, that's it... I've got boxes and boxes of other less-desirable (larger) tubes, but I'm not sure they would work for a watch. IN-12's are cheap and plentiful, but the watch would be huge. The 4998 tubes are so small that I believe that can 100% pull it off.. if only for one watch. If there's demand, I could always make a v2 with a more common tube. I'll keep that in mind and see what kind of obtainable tubes I could come up with, that would be a good fit. I'm really partial to the idea of using four tubes, rather than the 2 or 1 used by Kopriso and CathodeCorner. It's certainly harder, but if it were easy, everyone would be doing it, haha.


Reads like the making of a blissful and perhaps win/win collaboration ;^)


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## The Guvnah

flyinglotus1983 said:


> Now the real crazy part would be, if I could fit an ATTiny microcontroller in the micro USB crown, with a rotary encoder. That would be best of both worlds, I would be really happy with that, and believe it or not, it's actually something I might be able to pull off, and it doesn't delay me in getting the watch itself built, as it's something that plugs into it.


Could you use a rotating bezel to provide the encoding/scrolling input?


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## flyinglotus1983

The Guvnah said:


> Could you use a rotating bezel to provide the encoding/scrolling input?


That would be cool, no doubt. If I get my 4-axis CNC up in the next year or two, maybe I'll start looking into that.


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## timefan44

Looking good! Think the lugs need to be wider


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## nixiebunny

timefan44 said:


> Looking good! Think the lugs need to be wider


 I get that a lot. If you make the lugs wider than the watch, then no one will ask you to make them wider still.


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## dadog13

Wow..this is one really cool project! Looking forward to read about your next update..


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## LF78

flyinglotus1983 said:


> This is not an ultra-thin watch, by any means (those titles will stay with Vacheron Constantin, Arnold & Son, Piaget, etc). It's necessarily thick because the nixie tubes, albeit the smallest in the world, are still quite large in the realm of wrist watch components.


Case and lug shape determine the perception of size more than actual diameter/height:


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## flyinglotus1983

For anyone wanting a status update, this project is turning out to be an exercise in yak shaving, which basically means that in order to build a watch, I'm going to need a CNC mill and a lathe and some electronics prototyping equipment. And in order to make a precise-enough CNC mill and lathe (because I can't afford a $7000 Tormach and another $7000 of accessories for it), I'm going to have to get my non-CNC'd larger milling machine working so that I can machine some of the parts for it. And in order to get my large milling machine setup, I'm out in the garage building an 8' workbench, and while I'm at it, I'm adding pegboard and shelving and lighting and all that. But before I could even get that far, I had to clean my garage which looked like an episode of Hoarders: Buried Alive.

So, yea, *yak shaving*.

No real progress on the watch per se. This is a long-term project, and the kind of project where the journey is as important as the end goal. I might start posting updates of the tooling I'm building (along with explanations of how it differs from traditional watchmaking tools). However I think that would be a bit more relevant in the watchmaking sub-forum, than it would be here.


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## flyinglotus1983

LF78 said:


> Case and lug shape determine the perception of size more than actual diameter/height:
> View attachment 7948058


That's a decent point, I think my next step is to get my old 3d printer working again and print out a few rough shapes to see how they feel on the wrist. Basically one as-is, one with a bit of a taper per your picture, and maybe a few other ways to change the perceived shape / height.


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## nixiebunny

flyinglotus1983 said:


> For anyone wanting a status update, this project is turning out to be an exercise in yak shaving, which basically means that in order to build a watch, I'm going to need a CNC mill and a lathe and some electronics prototyping equipment.
> So, yea, *yak shaving*.


I understand that problem. As an electrical engineer with no desire to go down the CNC rabbit hole, I've paid other people a lot of money to make Nixie watch cases for me. I end up with nothing to show for it but a lot of sales and a shop that's not full of time-draining CNC equipment. If only I could time-share on a CNC machine that wasn't owned by someone who was trying to earn a living from it. Hmm... the local hackerspace could get one.


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## freshprince357

Keep up the hard/good work! It'll all be worth it 


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## flyinglotus1983

I know it's been a while since I've posted in this thread, but so far, I've managed to get my 3D printer rebuilt from a pile of parts after being cannibalized last year, I've picked up a Sherline lathe, I've completely rebuilt it and cleanded it, and am in the process of converting it to CNC. And I'm also in the process of converting my Grizzly G0463 milling machine to CNC (a longer-term project, probably the single-most expensive piece of equipment I'll end up owning). I'm also working towards a few other prototyping techniques that I'll try to cover in detail later.

One thing that turned out pretty interesting is that the ridged bezel actually 3D prints very well. So well that the first version is probably going to be printed out of bronze-metallic colored PLA from PushPlastic, rather than actually trying to machine it on a 4-axis mill or a lathe with indexing jigs. The caseback printed OK, but I wouldn't consider it strong enough to actually wear on a daily basis. But, getting a stainless steel 3D printed version from Shapeways would only be 20 bucks. So I might be going this route.

I've managed to 3D print mockups of most of the mechanical pieces to get a feel for how big and bulky the final watch will be. To put it bluntly, it's too big, by any sane metrics of what a wrist watch should be. However I don't really see this holding me back. I've got good looking watches that are the right size, for when I need to dress accordingly. This is more of a 'why not' project than a fashion statement.

Short-term, I'm going to be making a first mockup that forgoes any of the nixies tubes and high-voltage stuff, it will only contain a set of QDSP6064 seven-segment arrays. The reason there is that if I can't get those to work in a low-power, always-on configuration, then I've got no business making it even more complex. Keep in mind that getting the power down to micro-amps to run a very small battery is already a technical challenge. This should at least separate the project into two steps. Get a decent platform developed that keeps time and is low-power. Then, I can go back and add the nixie tubes and high-voltage power supply. The iteration time between the two might be pretty short, but again, it all depends on the unknowns.

No pics at this current time, but expect some in the near future.


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## flyinglotus1983

dupe post, my god this forum and its outdated PHP antics. smh.


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## vese

Interesting concept I hope you get it done. Would definitely be unique.


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## dtrain

Beautiful renders, looking forward to seeing the finished project!!


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## dadog13

How is this proceeding? From the 3D I would increase a little bit the strap width, compared to the size of the case looks too narrow..


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## pegasuswatches

Great watches, really awesome 

Best,
PW


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