Old School Tube Watch #WearableWednesday

Some people are just big old electronics lovers; they are naturally attracted to garage sales and things that make a hum. Actually that would be most of my friends, and that is how the best learning happens. So, when I saw this watch, on Make, I had to just chuckle at its old school charm. Inventor, Johannes, uses Numitron tubes for telling time.

Numitron tubes are cut-down version of Nixie tubes, but instead of having a wire-mesh anode with a cold-cathode display, uses a seven-segmented indicator commonly found on digital meters and clocks.

The tubes were soldered at 90 degree angles on PCB boards and then placed in a 3d printed PLA housing. Although some might think the PLA color choice is a bit lackluster, I immediately thought of the gritty colors that Han Solo sported in Star Wars. Sure enough, if you go to details on the project, you will find a Star Wars reference (in German, of course). So, that certainly explains why the PLA isn’t bright green.

So, Jedi, you have the chance to make your own watch, too. Just head your Landspeeder to our Times Square Watch 3D Printed Case tutorial. You’ll have a mod design with an old school flair, perfect for your next cosplay event. You can even select your own fatigued color of plastic, just like Johannes.  May the PLA be with you!


Flora breadboard is Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!


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