{"id":485482,"date":"2026-02-19T14:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/485482\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T14:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:39:09","slug":"this-incredible-diy-pocket-watch-uses-an-arduino-under-the-hood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/485482\/","title":{"rendered":"This incredible DIY pocket watch uses an Arduino under the hood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/p>\n

This Victorian cyberpunk pocketwatch comes with a custom sci\u2011fi UI and a 466\u00d7466 AMOLED on an ESP32S.<\/p>\n

It uses a 3D\u2011printed stainless steel case\u2014designed in Fusion360, with a future hand\u2011forged metal remake planned.<\/p>\n

Packed features: six\u2011axis IMU, RTC, mic, speaker, microSD, and Arduino\u2011based open source smart\u2011watch UI.<\/p>\n

I think one of the coolest elements of the DIY community is how determined they are to make something from fiction come to life. Does the main character in a movie use a cool device? You can make that cool device. Always wanted your own Pip-Boy from Fallout? Well, you’re in luck; people have taken several tries at recreating the post-apocalyptic hardware in the modern era.<\/p>\n

So when I caught wind that someone had taken a sci-fi pocket watch inspired by The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, I knew I had to give it a shout-out. Because there’s only one thing better than bringing fiction to life, and that’s bringing it to life and making it look awesome at the same time.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tThis beautiful e-paper alarm clock is the perfect Raspberry Pi bedside companion
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Never wake up angry again.<\/p>\n

This amazing pocket watch looks like something out of a Victorian cyberpunk world<\/p>\n

And I want one dearly<\/p>\n

This amazing project was the idea of Math Campbell, who posted their project on the Arduino subreddit and got in touch with Hackaday<\/a> about the project. We could just jump right into the tech specs of this beauty, but I do urge you to check out the pictures above and see it for yourself. It really does look stunning.<\/p>\n

Once you’re done soaking it in, here’s how Math describes this project:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always wanted a sci-fi style pocketwatch (ever since I read The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson)<\/p>\n

None exist aside from a few people cramming a smartwatch into an antique case.<\/p>\n

So I got a development board from waveshare that has a screen and motherboard (esp32s3 with a 466×466 amoled screen), and programmed a UI that looks suitably sci-fi for my gaudy tastes.<\/p>\n

Then added a battery and designed this case in Fusion360 and had it 3d printed in stainless steel. <\/p>\n

Yes, you read that right: 3D printed in stainless steel. Math didn’t have the hardware to do that at home, so they had to send the Fusion3D files to a specialist. However, Math is a silversmith, so they’re planning to actually recreate this with a more expensive metal later down the line. Just when you thought it couldn’t get cooler.<\/p>\n

If you fancy making one for yourself (and I really don’t blame you), head over to the Smart Watch v5 GitHub page<\/a> for all the source. Hackaday notes that the pocket watch comes with “a six-axis IMU, an RTC, microphone, speaker, and micro SD card reader,” meaning it has the potential to be a real Swiss army knife of features if you get everything working properly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary This Victorian cyberpunk pocketwatch comes with a custom sci\u2011fi UI and a 466\u00d7466 AMOLED on an ESP32S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[49,48,195,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-485482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-gadgets","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}