Tag Archives: Mechanical watch

This Urwerk-inspired Watch has a Stunning Custom Linear Movement within its Titanium Watch Body

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For the Urwerk and MB&F fans on a budget, the MS1001-Ti does what those brands do best – it challenges the very archetype of a wristwatch on every level… but does so on a $319 price tag.

Take one glance at the MS1001-Ti watch from MECEXP and I guarantee you’ll be compelled to look again and again. The watch’s avant-garde design goes beyond its chiseled shape. Instead of one watch face, it sports two – in the form of linear windows on the left and right, with moving arrows that point at the hours and minutes respectively. The windows are separated by a metal channel that serves as branding, but also provides cover for the watch’s unique backlight, giving the entire timetelling experience a modern facelift. The watch itself boasts a titanium alloy outer casing, complete with sapphire crystals on the front… and on the inside, the entire watch runs on MECEXP’s own self-developed movement, drawing power from a lithium-ion battery that recharges using a contact-point charger like the ones you get with smartwatches. In short, there’s nothing conventional about the MS1001-Ti and that’s precisely what makes it so incredible.

Designer: MECEXP

Click Here to Buy Now: $319

I know it’s an overused metaphor but the MS1001-Ti does share a lot spiritually with the Cybertruck. It challenges existing norms, comes with a uniquely geometric design and a highly durable construction, and runs on a lithium battery. In short, it’s electric on the inside, and unconventionally edgy on the outside. The watch itself sports a machined titanium-alloy body, known for being both hypoallergenic and hyper-durable. The oddly appealing low-poly design puts the watch in a visual class of its own, while its linear time-telling experience instantly turns it into an iconic wristwatch.

The time-telling UX is a masterclass in its own right. The watch doesn’t come with rotating hands or a digital screen. Instead, it uses a screw-based linear flyback movement and a traveling arrow to help tell the time. This unorthodox experience doesn’t require a learning curve – simply put, the hour is indicated on the left, and the minutes on the right. CNC motors operate the rotating screw, which allows the arrow to travel up and down the hour or minute window. It’s an experience that just as satisfying to watch as it is easy to read. Clear, large, 3D numbers on either side make the time easy to read in broad daylight… and if you want some added flair, pressing the crown on the side triggers the watch’s blue backlight, allowing you to read the time at night too.

A lithium-ion battery powers the entire experience bridging the gap between horology and technology. The MS1001-Ti replaces the conventional spring with CNC motors, which utilize digital programming and digital tracking for time calibration. “The complicated mechanical movement of the watch is achieved through algorithmic programming, perfectly integrating modern intelligence with mechanical timekeeping,” say the folks at MECEXP. In short, this timepiece isn’t for traditionalists or purists.

The MS1001-Ti bases itself on the company’s MS1001 design from not too long ago. The upgraded variant now sports a titanium outer shell, making it more durable but simultaneously lighter than its predecessor, weighing a mere 86 grams or 3 ounces, while also boasting a marginally larger dial and display window. The display window is capped with anti-scratch sapphire crystal which also gives the watch up to 30 meters or 3ATM of water resistance. Meanwhile, fluoro rubber straps offer a classic yet sporty aesthetic with the added benefit of being water/weather resistant. The inner 270mAh battery lasts a respectable 35 days on a full charge, and a contact-based charging cable lets you recharge your watch in a jiffy.

Despite its groundbreakingly different design and movement, the MS1001-Ti starts at an affordable $319, which includes a classy packaging box, a charging cable, 2 years of warranty, and free global shipping.

Click Here to Buy Now: $319

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Hybrid watch concept puts a giant hole in the middle of a circular screen

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Smartwatches are now a staple of the tech market14, but the departure of several high-profile brands and the arrival of smart rings are making some reevaluate the wearable device. Just like with paper notebooks, there is a strong and large culture around analog, mechanical watches that find smartwatches unappealing, except for some features that aren’t totally unique to smartwatches, namely, health sensors. Hybrid smartwatches exist for this reason, trying to have the best of both analog and digital worlds, but they are not exactly that common nor are their designs well-established. There’s still plenty of room for exploration and experimentation, like this rather peculiar concept that cuts out a whole in the middle of a circular screen to make room for an elegant analog watch.

Designer: Priyanshu Jaiswal

Inspired by the rather divisive notch or cutout on smartphone screens, the Lunar Eclipse hybrid smartwatch concept puts a mechanical watch in the middle of that hole instead of a camera. It might have been easier to have the display as an inset or restricted to a certain part of the watch face, but that presents some challenges as well, particularly when occluding the beauty of the analog timepiece itself. As weird as it may sound, this notch-based design actually has more benefits compared to a smartphone camera cutout.

Because it is technically still a complete screen, with just the middle part rendered practically unusable and invisible, it is theoretically easier to design the user interface of the “digital bezel” around the watch face. You can have icons and text that curve around the border, and you can even have them animated to add more natural-looking visual feedback, like how notification icons can appear like they’re flowing from the center of the watch rather than just appearing out of nowhere.

This gives Lunar Eclipse nearly the same benefits as having a smartwatch but with fewer opportunities for distractions. The bezel around the watch face is still just a small space that can only fit a few words and icons. You definitely won’t be using the watch to read those notifications or, worse, type out a response. You’ll be able to still see some of your health stats, presuming the watch has the sensors to track your steps, heart rate, and other biometrics.

One disadvantage that design has is that its battery life might not be that different from a regular smartwatch. The concept could use an E Ink screen, however, to help reduce that consumption, especially since the display won’t be changing as frequently as on a normal smartwatch. Another consideration is that with the electronics and battery inside, the room for the actual mechanical components would be very cramped, detracting from the inherent beauty of these timepieces that wristwatch fans are after in the first place.

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Space-inspired titanium watch traces the Earth and Moon’s orbit around the Sun

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Although the measurement of time is mostly a human construct, it has its basis in the natural world. A day is the time it takes for the sun to rise, set, and rise again, a month is how long it takes for the moon to go through all four of its phases, and a year is how long the seasons last. All of these, including the change of seasons, are pretty much the result of the orbit of the Earth around the sun and the orbit of the Moon around the Earth. It’s a movement that happens on a regular cadence without fail, which is to say it happens like clockwork. It’s no surprise, then, to find an elegant and luxurious watch that brings all these elements together, letting you watch not only the passage of time each day but also the journey of our planet and its companion.

Designer: Theo Auffret (Complication), Olivier Gamiette (Case, Dial) for SpaceOne Watches

Analog watches are already quite complex because of the mechanisms that make the parts move, but the SpaceOne Tellurium takes that to a whole new level with additional complications for its unique complication (pun intended). Aside from the typical hour and minute hands, this titanium watch also shows tiny versions of the Earth and the Moon going around a proportionally minuscule sun in the middle. The smaller spheres don’t simply go around the watch and call it a day, though, because the movement of these miniature Earth and Moon mirror the actual rhythm of their celestial counterparts.

Connected to the watch’s Soprod Caliber P024 movement is a star wheel with 31 teeth, representing the days in a month. When the date changes, this wheel advances two small star wheels, both with 12 teeth, that advance the month and move the Tellurium complication, respectively. The Earth, and therefore also the Moon, is connected to a ring with 365 teeth, which makes it complete a revolution once a year. With this mechanism, you can accurately follow the movement of the Earth and the Moon and even predict the next full or new moon phases. Consequently, it also means you will need to adjust and fine-tune the watch every time the number of days in a month changes between 30 and 31.

The watch’s celestial beauty is complemented by its premium materials and stunning design. Grade 5 titanium gives the case and strap buckle durability and lightness while also lending an elegant appearance. Instead of the typical quarter division of numbers, the watch face is divided into three sections only, forming a triangular shape that feels more suitable for a space-inspired design. This visual is further enhanced by a black and blue color scheme, with a sprinkle of white dots to represent stars against the darkness of space.

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Get a complicated but beautiful time-telling experience with minimalist analog watch

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When looking at my wrist to check the time, I’m used to the digital interface of my smartwatch. I just see numbers (unless I’m using an analog display) so there’s no need for a split second delay in my head as I try to figure out the time. But there are certain watch designs that may be a bit more complicated but have such a well designed interface that you will forgive your brain for taking a longer time to figure out how it works.

Designer: Ressence

The Type 1° Round Multicolor is a minimalist watch with “bespoke complications” that is pretty attractive to analog device collectors. It’s actually an updated and more colored version of the Type 1 ZZ that they launched back in 2019. Its case is Grade 5 Titanium with a double-domed sapphire crystal top and an anti-reflective coating inside. It uses a patented Ressence Orbital Convex System module and has 40 jewels and 27 gears with a self-winding mechanism.

What makes it stand out though is how it tells you the hours, minutes, seconds and even day of the week. The main dial points to the minutes while the yellow satellite tells you the seconds. The green section tells you the hour while the pointer within the red section indicates the day of the week. You get the 3 biaxial satellites inclined at 3° for the hours and 4.75° for the seconds and days of the week. It’s pretty cool how everything works together although it might take you some time how to figure things out but once you get the hang of it, your watch will become a conversation piece as well.

In terms of colorways, it seems to have just a white one since the satellites are already colorful enough. You get an ardillon buckle and a 20mm rubber strap to put them on your wrist and it is 42.7 mm in diameter and 11mm in thickness. It has a 36 hours power reserve and you get 28,800 vibrations per hour. It’s a pretty nifty watch to have, that is if you have around $19,000.

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This striking mechanical watch is a fusion of modern design and ancient Egyptian mysticism

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Some things seem to inspire awe and marvel just by their very nature, probably because of their sophisticated appearances or their otherworldly concepts. This list of things ranges from the mundane to the mystical, from the intricate machinery behind mechanical watches on one end to myths and legends of ancient cultures on the other. In most cases, these two opposite ends of the spectrum don’t exactly mix, except perhaps in some fictional setting. But when they do mix, they create a visual experience like no other, generating a unique aesthetic that enhances the sense of mystery and wonder behind ancient symbols and civilizations, just like this one-of-a-kind timepiece that feels like it’s calling forth the power of the gods to expose the mystery behind time, turning each tick and movement into a magical moment.

Designer: Jason Jiang

Click Here to Buy Now: $199 $269 (26% off). Hurry, only 3 left!

If you’re in any way familiar with fictional stories involving treasure hunters who try to unlock ancient mysteries, you might have imagined or even seen how those long-forgotten sites would sometimes have mechanisms that seemed far too advanced for their ancient cultures. It’s this combination of mechanical marvels and ancient mysteries that has always captured the fancy of people for ages. It doesn’t matter if they’re historically inaccurate, it’s the power of story-telling that inspires and elevates the mind, almost like gazing at another plane of existence.

Triangle Seconds Hand – It resembles the Eye of Horus, an emblem of protection, luck and rejuvenation drawn from ancient Egyptian mythology.

It’s this kind of potent imagery that the Eye of Horus watch from the CIGA Design X Series tries to harness, blending Egyptian mythology and modern craftsmanship into a mesmerizing timepiece. The Eye of Horus has always enjoyed a special place in ancient Egypt and contemporary symbolism, representing power, luck, and rejuvenation, among other things. Embedded inside a triangle that also serves as the seconds hand, this powerful symbol becomes the visual and spiritual center of the watch, creating an air of mystery and spirituality, regardless of your beliefs.

Majestic Obsidian Crown – A unique and powerful symbol of transformation and healing properties.

Luminescent Glow – Makes the hands and indices glow mystic green bringing the Eye of Horus to life in the dark, and the diamond cuts on the dial offer a reflective shine from all angles in the light.

The watch’s back-to-front transparent design accentuates the timepiece’s otherworldly character, giving a 360-degree view of all the intricate machinery for everyone to see. The X-shaped skeleton perfectly complements the Eye of Horus, providing not only structural stability but also a path to guide the eyes towards the center of the watch where the mystical Eye sits. The black case, strap, and obsidian crown seemingly fade into the background, making the sophisticated machinery and design really pop out. Luminous green elements in the hands, scales, and the Eye give off an eerie glow that not only emphasizes the otherworldly character of the watch but also makes it effortless to tell the time in the dark.

Precision Crafted Automatic Movement

Of course, the Eye of Horus watch isn’t just a work of art, it’s also a reliable timekeeper as well with a movement frequency of 21,600 times per hour. The automatic mechanical movement offers long-lasting precision, thanks to CIGA Design’s first-ever custom-created Caliber CD 01 Movement that deviates for as low as 15 seconds every 24 hours and boasts a reserve power of approximately 40 hours. As a member of the X series, it incorporates a self-finding movement that recharges automatically as you wear it. Even with this kind of precision, the Eye of Hours barely makes a sound, but hold it close to your ear and listen closely to hear the mechanical song it creates deep within.

All those intricate components are housed inside a bioceramic frame, a material famed for its lightweight durability, and topped by a heat-hardened mineral glass that can easily withstand scratches and accidental bumps and drops. The skin-friendly silicone strap brings unparalleled comfort and durability, combining practicality and style in perfect harmony. And with a 3 ATM water resistance, the Eye of Horus can stand the passage of time and the wear and tear of daily life, achieving near-immortality like the Egyptian deity it is named after.

The watch’s exquisite mechanics are available in three color options of Black, Silver, and Rose Gold, letting you chose the style that best suits your tastes. With a body that’s only 47.3 x 48.0 12.1 mm small (without the crown) and weighing only 67.4g (with the 20mm strap), it feels as if it’s simply gently resting on your wrist. Timeless both in function and form, the CIGA Design X Series Eye of Horus watch lets you tell your hero’s story through a stunning timepiece that harnesses the power of myths and design.

Click Here to Buy Now: $199 $269 (26% off). Hurry, only 3 left!

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Montoir Dive Watch makes Swiss-made timepieces accessible to all

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The adjective “Scandinavian” carries a lot of weight in the production and design industry. The term “Swiss-made” is a distinction given to products that have achieved a high degree of quality and craftsmanship thanks to the spirit and practices embraced by denizens of Switzerland, characteristics best embodied by the mechanical timepieces hailing from that country. Unfortunately, that same level of quality and elegance has made these products well beyond the reach of most people, which is good for their image but bad for spreading the appreciation of Swiss-made products. Fortunately, there are brands that strive to cast their nets wider, and this handsome mechanical watch is a glowing example of a well-made Scandinavian product that isn’t just a beautiful fashion accessory but also a loyal companion for all occasions and environments.

Designer: Montoir Watches

Click Here to Buy Now: $375 $750 (50% off). Hurry, less than 72 hours left! Raised over $85,000.

It’s almost as if Switzerland itself was created to embody the traits of good design. From the majestic peaks of the Swiss Alps to the breathtaking landscapes of the French Riviera down south, everything about the place serves as an inspiration for designers and makers across the globe. But unlike these natural galleries of beauty, Swiss-made products, particularly watches, have traditionally been kept behind expensive walled gardens accessible to only a few. Worse, many of these glamorous timepieces seem to be made to be worn only on very special occasions, limiting the enjoyment of their external and internal beauty to a very small number of opportunities.

The Montoir Dive Watch, however, breaks down those walls to wrap the spirit of adventure inspired by these locales in a beautiful Swiss-made timepiece and make it available to more people around the world. The watch bears a contemporary yet clean design, hallmarks of the famed Scandinavian minimalism, that make it look quite at home in any setting. The Swiss-made classic Sellita SW200-1 Automatic Movement provides the accuracy, reliability, and ease of servicing that you’ve come to expect from such luxurious watches.

Making a timepiece accessible for all isn’t just about price or location, either. It’s about making sure it can stay on your wrist wherever you are, whether it’s in a boardroom meeting, a raving party, or even a quick dive in a pool. With a brushed 316L stainless steel body topped by a top hat double dome sapphire crystal glass, the watch exudes both elegance and durability at the same time, while quick-release recycled FKM (fluoroelastomer) straps enhance the watch’s resilience in any environment. It also boasts a 20ATM water resistance of up to 200 meters in depth, and Superluminova BGW9 markings allow you to tell the time even in the darkest depths or the blackest nights. On the back is an embossed relief of a diver in old yet iconic equipment, emphasizing the watch’s all-around usability even in places where most Swiss-made watchers would never dare tread.

We’ve gone past an age when high-quality products are things that only the elite can afford. Good design, after all, is something everyone can enjoy, and this Swiss-made watch embodies that goal to perfection, with a super early bird VIP price of $375. Available in five colors, including Black, White, Blue, Cyan, and even Orange, the Montoir Dive Watch puts a beautiful reminder on your wrist that the spirit of adventure calls anyone and everyone, and this timeless watch is the perfect companion for those exciting and memorable journeys.

Click Here to Buy Now: $375 $750 (50% off). Hurry, less than 72 hours left! Raised over $85,000.

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Interstellar LUNAR1,622 watch lets you carry a piece of the moon in style

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The night sky is full of beauty and marvel, but nothing evokes images of romance and mystery more than our faithful companion, the Moon. A celestial body that has given birth to many myths and legends since ancient days, the Moon has always been a source of fascination for both artists and scientists alike. Thanks to recent space explorations, interest in the stars has been at an all-time high, whether it’s just traveling in space in luxury or setting up colonies on the Moon and Mars. Space and beyond is no longer just science fiction but a part of our history, and what better way to preserve and honor that history than with a timeless watch that puts the elegance and mystery of the moon on your wrist.

Designer: Sebastien Colen

Click Here to Buy Now: $599 $849 ($250 off). Hurry, less than 72 hours left! Raised over $420,000.

The Moon is our lone satellite and the closest celestial body to our home planet, yet there are still many things about it that beguile and confound scientists. The dark side of the moon that we never get to see from Earth has always been a source of mystery and even omens, especially considering how much the Moon can actually influence life on the planet. Still, the Moon feels near yet so far, but this luxurious watch puts it right on your wrist, with a small yet significant nod to history and a tribute to mankind’s achievements, both past and future.

Meteorite Moon Dust – Their meteorite, with the ID#NWA11515, was found in 2017 and provided by MSG Meteorites, a British company specialized in certified space rocks and licensed by the IMCA (International Meteorite Collectors Association).

Lunar1,622 Watch with Integrated NASA Logo – The project respects the necessary permissions and aligns with NASA’s guidelines.

Named after the surface gravity on the Moon, the LUNAR1,622 is a handsome mechanical watch that goes beyond simply putting the face of the moon on the timepiece. Just like the previous Mars-inspired Interstellar timepiece, it holds a relic of the moon, specifically a small amount of moon dust at the three o’clock position (the standard model gets the footprint shape of Neil Armstrong instead). This moon dust was taken from rare lunar meteorites, specifically the Moon Meteorite ID# NWA11515 that was found in 2017 in Northwest Africa. The back of the watch also boasts the official NASA logo, which would delight space exploration fans even more. There will only be 2025 Premium editions made, in honor of the next lunar mission Artemis 3 in that year.

LUNAR1,622 commemorates Neil Armstrong’s iconic words, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

On the edge of the dial all the way around it, you’ll find all successful Apollo missions numbered. All missions that landed on the moon are marked in gold.

Commemorating the historic Apollo 11 mission, this timepiece features the mission’s name, date and Neil Armstrong’s initials.

Of course, the Interstellar LUNAR1,622 isn’t just a one-of-a-kind science collectible, it is also a piece of horology craftsmanship as well. Both Standard and Advanced models bear the famed Miyota automatic movement, while the Premium variant boasts a Swiss Sellita automatic movement, both delivering the precision and reliability expected from high-quality mechanical watches. Sandblasted 316L stainless steel cases (titanium for the Premium model), in classic Black or stylish Silver, give the watch both durability and finesse, while the black leather strap accentuates its luxurious character. The LUNAR1,622’s subtle elegance perfectly embodies the timeless beauty of the Moon, captivating without being overwhelming.

NFC Technology

Whether you’re a space buff, a horology connoisseur, or an avant-garde collector, there is perhaps nothing more beautiful and mystical than having the moon on your wrist, quite literally even. Inspired by lunar expeditions and carrying a pinch of authentic moon dust inside, the Interstellar LUNAR1,622 is more than just a beautiful and historic timepiece, it is also a testament to humanity’s ambitions to reach for the stars and our perseverance to make that dream a reality.

Click Here to Buy Now: $599 $849 ($250 off). Hurry, less than 72 hours left! Raised over $420,000.

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“World’s Lightest Mechanical Watch” clocks in at a Stunning 8.8 Grams in Weight

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Billed as the world’s lightest mechanical watch, the MING LW.01 boasts an impressive weight of just 8.8 grams (0.31 ounces) for the manual variant and 10 grams (0.35 ounces) for the automatic variant. For reference, that’s lighter than one AirTag… or about as much as two AirPods WITHOUT the case.

The LW.01 takes the idea of minimalism a little bit further by going beyond just the visual sense of the word. “We wanted to push the envelope further than we – or any other brand – has ever done,” the folks at MING said. This includes some brilliant design hacks, the use of novel materials, and basically removing everything non-essential. In short, the folks at MING Marie Kondo-ed the hell out of this watch… and the result definitely sparks joy.

Designer: MING

The watch itself is a work of art, featuring a dial that’s as minimal to look at as its bill of materials. In fact, there isn’t a dial at all. The LW.01’s minute hand sits on a disc that obscures the movement, while the central portion comes with a gradient print that hides the skeletal view of the watch, while also having the watch’s minimal markings on its periphery. Every part of the watch is art and engineering combined to its nth degree, creating something that really stands at the intersection of great design and immaculate engineering.

“We set ourselves some ‘conventional’ constraints, though: the watch had to be a wearable size, and retain certain tactile qualities such as the texture and thermal transfer of metal,” MING’s team mentioned. “More importantly, it would have to be practically wearable and not technically compromised purely for the sake of lightness. As it turns out, it would take us a couple of years longer than expected and an exhaustive amount of metallurgy and testing.”

Those constraints, however, don’t in any way diminish the end product. The watch has a spectacular body that’s crafted from a special metal alloy that’s lighter than carbon but has the premium feel of metal. The lugs are turned into bars that allow the strap to through without any additional elements (which would add to its weight), and the face isn’t layered with sapphire crystal. Instead, it opts for equally resistant Corning Gorilla Glass – similar to the slim glass sheet found in smartphones, but with a separate hardening treatment done by UK-based Knight Optical.

“We explored a wide range of ultralight materials including carbon fiber derivatives and hollow-core 3D printing, but ultimately found that AZ31 Magnesium-Aluminium-Zinc-Manganese alloy from Smiths High Performance was both lighter than carbon (1.77g/cc, vs ~2g/cc density), more consistent to produce than hollow 3D printing, and more importantly retained the feel of metal,” MING mentioned. “It is further surface treated by plasmaelectrolytic oxidation by Keronite for corrosion resistance and biocompatibility, with a further composite protective layer.”

Every element of the watch, including the screws made of PEEK composite, the hollowed bezel, and the angled case buttressing, was meticulously optimized to achieve the perfect balance between durability and weight. The crown, crafted from anodized aluminum, ensures durability and smooth threading. To ensure overall torsional rigidity, finite element simulation was employed to assess the watch case. The fixed integral bars, machined from the same billet as the case, not only enhance rigidity but also weigh less than traditional steel spring bars.

As a result, the watch boasts an impressively lightweight head, weighing just 8.8 grams with manual winding, 10.8 grams with automatic winding, along with an additional 0.6 grams for the matching AZ31 buckle and 1.2 grams for the ‘record’ spec Alcantara strap. This translates to a total weight of 10.6 grams or 12.6 grams for a fully assembled, ready-to-wear timepiece… but don’t expect all that innovation to come cheap. The “World’s Lightest Watch” may be lighter than an AirTag, but it’s half the cost of a Tesla Model Y. With a brain-imploding asking price of 19500 Swiss Francs ($21,623 USD), you’re kind of better off buying a Patek Philippe instead.

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How One Crazy YouTuber Built The World’s First “Mechanical Apple Watch” from E-Waste

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While tech companies spend more time designing the future rather than reminiscing about the past, YouTuber NanoRobotGeek decided to flip things around by taking a cutting-edge smartwatch and turning it into an analog timepiece. Say hello to the first-ever Apple Watch powered by an automatic movement… or more accurately, the first-ever Apple Watch that works without needing to charge!

Barely a year since Apple launched the Watch Ultra, Jack Spiggle (who goes by NanoRobotGeek on YouTube) decided it was time for the smartwatch to perform a blast from the past too. The project started with sourcing a Gen 1 Apple Watch, which would serve as the perfect outer shell for the project – Apple stopped supporting the Gen 1 Watch in 2020, and most of the first-generation Apple Watches have extremely poor battery life, rendering them useless. Jack bought a handful of second-hand watches off eBay for a couple of hundred bucks, mainly for their stainless steel chassis and sapphire glass. The idea was deceptively simple – to build a mechanical Apple Watch with a functional crown and button.

Designer: NanoRobotGeek

The 25-minute-long video at the beginning details out Jack executes this hefty build. The inside of the watch features a reliable Seiko NH38 movement, but it isn’t as simple as slapping a mechanical movement inside the watch and calling it a day. Analog timepieces are HIGHLY intricate works of art and engineering, and the YouTube video above just makes one appreciate the science of horology even more. The conversion exercise can basically be split into two phases – cleaning out the Apple Watch, and then assembling the mechanical timepiece inside its hollow shell. The former was understandably easy, but required a fair amount of care because Jack didn’t want to risk breaking the glass or any other parts.

Jack’s mechanical Apple Watch features an exhibition back with a visible custom-made oscillating weight with an Apple logo

The mechanical Apple Watch kept beside a functioning Gen 1 Apple Watch

A Seiko NH38 proved to be the perfect mechanical movement for using in the watch. It’s an affordable automatic movement that doesn’t need winding, and relies on an oscillating weight inside the watch to translate hand movements into stored energy that then powers the watch. The NH38 also has a power reserve of 41 hours, which means if you wear it everyday, it should run smoothly for the foreseeable future, making it the only Apple Watch that NEVER needs charging!

Once perfectly optimized and aligned, the Seiko movement was then mounted on a plate and prepared for modifications.

While the entire process involved optimizing and modifying the movement to fit perfectly into the Apple Watch’s stainless steel chassis, perhaps one of the most interesting parts was the creation of a custom oscillating weight for the watch. Visible through the back, this oscillating weight would serve the purpose of charging the watch through minor wrist movements. Jack took an existing weight and modified it by laser-cutting the Apple logo into it as well as etching the movement model number and jewel count onto it.

The movement was then mounted behind a zirconium plate with a small cutout on the front to let you see the watch’s flywheel. As promised, Jack actually made the crown and button functional too – pressing down the button and simultaneously turning the crown would let you set the time. Given the crown’s ability to be turned easily by accident, Jack designed this unique failsafe to prevent the watch from changing the time unintentionally if it brushed against a surface.

Finally, the sapphire glass was mounted onto the front, along with a rear disc-shaped glass unit. Even though the entire process was a sheer pleasure to watch, the fact that Jack attached the stock silicone strap to this magnificent piece took away from its luxurious charm… However, in a later YouTube Short video, Jack shows off the watch with a set of leather straps and I have to say, it does look fantastic. Here’s to hoping someone can make a simple DIY kit so that enthusiasts can recycle old Apple Watches and turn them into fantastic forever-timepieces!

The post How One Crazy YouTuber Built The World’s First “Mechanical Apple Watch” from E-Waste first appeared on Yanko Design.

This striking cyberpunk watch concept is ironically analog at heart

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Thanks to a certain video game and its recent animated Netflix tie-in, the cyberpunk style has become trendy again. Industrial designs mixed with glowing neon colors portray a vision of the future that is a little too bleak for comfort but almost realistic in its probability. As a genre, cyberpunk is set in a dystopian future where technology has advanced significantly but has left human morality and evolution behind in its dust. Many product designs and concepts today that tap into that style try to convey the spirit of this age through various gimmicks, many of them as advanced as the technologies they try to represent. This watch, inspired by the Cyberpunk 2077 game, however, bucks the trend and embraces one of the oldest yet most sophisticated ways to tell the time.

Designers: Michael Szczególski, Bartosz Wyżykowski, Piotr Blicharski, and Jacek Morawski

If you were to design a cyberpunk-themed watch, you would most likely try to implement it through digital and electronic components, perhaps even as a smartwatch. After all, it’s so much easier to style screens, implement advanced features, and even emit sounds using modern components. In stark contrast, this Cyberpunk 2077 watch concept doesn’t have anything digital, an ironic idea yet almost perfectly fitting considering the confusing mix of old and new that cyberpunk is famous for.

Instead of an LCD display, the watch works pretty much like an analog watch, except it trades typical hands for rotating discs that have marks for seconds, minutes, and hours. Its beating heart is a real-world 9015 Miyota automatic caliber, whose ruby movement is used to represent the cybernetic eye of an emblem on its back. The watch wraps around your wrists using silicone straps that, while mundane, are more faithful to the fictional world of Cyberpunk 2077 than more “advanced” materials.

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Since the watch is pretty much a mechanical one dressed up in a cyberpunk style, its personalization options are limited. Instead of changing watch faces as you would on a smartwatch, you can only swap out interchangeable fronts and backs to match different characters from the fictional franchise. That still leaves the door open for plenty of customization, especially when you consider these parts can be 3D printed easily.

Unfortunately for Cyberpunk 2077 fans, this watch remains a concept, even if it was designed with the game’s creators’ input. It’s definitely an attractive and unique twist to the typical cyberpunk-themed timepiece, one that could potentially satisfy even lovers of mechanical watches. It does show that just because it looks cyberpunk doesn’t mean it has to be complicated, though the beautiful simplicity of this watch’s design is itself almost contradictory to the usual mess of the genre.

The post This striking cyberpunk watch concept is ironically analog at heart first appeared on Yanko Design.