Retro-inspired nixie display with custom features lets you see the time, weather, stock prices, or your TikTok followers

Posted on 06/03/2023 by Sarang Sheth

Designed for people who simultaneously love living in the 80s and the 2020s…

Culture is cyclical. It’s 2023 but retro music is trending again, vintage designs and themes are making a re-emergence (just look at the new Burberry logo)… and even though our tech is futuristic, it has a significant retro flavor with companies looking to harness the power of nostalgia in their new products. Minimalism is dead, retro is cool, and the Nextube is totally riding that wave. Designed as a vintage-inspired tabletop display, the Nextube comes with 6 nixie tube-like screens docked within a wooden base. It wears its steampunk aesthetic on its sleeve but comes with modern tech under its hood. The six mini displays look like Nixie tubes, but are, in fact, LED screens that can be customized to showcase anything from the time to the weather, music visualizations, crypto prices, or even a subscriber count for your YouTube or TikTok page.

Designer: James Wong of Rotrics

Click Here to Buy Now: $148 ~~$188~~ (21% OFF) Hurry! Limited time offer

The 1970s and 1980s were far from minimalist. The music was loud, the fashion was bright, cyber-synthwave was popular, and one could argue that it was in this very era that technology first flourished. Nixie tubes were somewhat the predominant display type of this era, turning them from tech components into symbols of pop culture. Sadly, nixie tubes fell out of favor in the 90s as technology advanced (along with the fact that a bulk of nixie tubes were made in the USSR, which fell into disarray around the time). Designed, however, as a cultural throwback, the Nextube celebrates its ancestor in a wonderfully whimsical way. A portmanteau of ‘Next’ and ‘Nixie Tube’, the Nextube uses a set of mini LED displays encased in vacuum glass tubes. Complete with a neat walnut wood base and brass trims, the Nextube looks like a steampunk gizmo from an 80s laboratory on your desk. It comes with the signature Nixie tube-inspired font too, although it offers a few other retro-style fonts and themes to choose from, giving you custom control over your tabletop display.

The Nextube’s bank of fonts and styles lets it be the display you want it to be

The six individual displays create a unique constraint that’s fun to work with. You can view the time, date, weather, and a wide variety of data-points on the Nextube in a way that’s charmingly vintage. Each tube does a remarkable job of looking rather close to actual Nixie tubes (with a matching glowing typeface too), while consuming a mere 5V of electricity as opposed to the 12V that regular Nixie tubes consume. The LED displays are rated to last for 100,000 hours too, compared to the 5,000 hours that most Nixie tubes last.

View weather details at a glance

Track your YouTube subscriber count

Or view your online shop’s PayPal balance in real-time

Or even let the Nextube be your reliable time manager

The Nextube’s open-source firmware means you can customize it to display anything from inspirational quotes to calendar alerts, email notifications, or even miniature images from your camera roll. Three small buttons (sitting flush against the wooden body) let you toggle between the Nextube’s various functions, while the device itself can be connected to your laptop/desktop to fine-tune how your Nextube device behaves and what metrics it displays.

The Nextube’s six display units are also accompanied by RGB LEDs located on their rear, which create an ambient backlight that can be customized to suit your needs. Each Nextube also comes with a built-in spectral analyzer that responds to music, turning your retro display into a Winamp-style visualizer that responds to music in real-time!

The Nextube allows you to access a whole slew of built-in functions, or even tinker with its companion software Nextube Studio to create your own custom styles and preview them on the device, or even share them with the Nextube community.

Occupying 7 inches in width and standing just under 2.4 inches in height, the Nextube makes for a perfect compact accessory to any worktable. It comes with a walnut wood base, brass trimmings, and 6 LED displays that sit under their own individual glass tubes. The Nextube doesn’t have a battery of its own but comes with a USB-C port that lets you plug it into your power strip or directly into a port on your laptop/desktop/multiport hub. It works offline, providing basic functions like the clock, timer, or music visualizer, and can even connect to 2.4GHz WiFi networks to access metrics like the weather, your camera roll, or even stock prices and follower counts from various social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok.

A perfect tabletop accessory for any tech enthusiast, the Nextube starts at $148 with global shipping and a 1-year warranty.

Click Here to Buy Now: $148 ~~$188~~ (21% OFF) Hurry! Limited time offer

The post Retro-inspired nixie display with custom features lets you see the time, weather, stock prices, or your TikTok followers first appeared on Yanko Design.

This retro-punk Nixie wristwatch actually uses authentic nixie tubes to tell the time

Posted on 17/08/2022 by Sarang Sheth

There are only a finite number of functioning nixie tubes in the world after their production was stopped in the early 90s, and it’s honestly incredibly hard to get a hold of them just because of their low supply. The Nixiea puts this fascinating retro technology on your wrist, using authentic IN-16 nixie tubes to tell the time in glorious retro-punk fashion.

Styled after the classic smartwatch aesthetic (albeit with a thicker body thanks to the nixie tubes), the Nixiea is arguably more fascinating than any smartwatch you can find. For starters, it has actual, limited-edition vintage technology on the inside from an era gone by. It isn’t too often that we come across nixie tube products just because sourcing them is a headache – but the technology still remains one of the most sought after, thanks to its strong collector fanbase. In fact, we’ve seen attempts at making watches with ‘nixie-style’ displays, but they’ve never used actual nixie tubes. The Nixiea watch uses two tubes that count down the hours, with an auto-wake function that switches the watch display on when you tilt it towards yourself. The wristwatch even charges wirelessly, giving you the best that retro and modern tech have to offer!

Designer: Zonis Team

Click Here to Buy Now: $99 ~~$169~~ (41% off) Hurry! Only 40 hours left!

The Nixiea comes with what’s best described as a ‘thicc’ body, rivaling even the thickest G-Shock you’ve seen. It measures 44mm wide, 68mm in length, and a whopping 19.5mm in thickness (or a little more than two iPhones stacked one above another). The top of the watch comes with a sapphire-coated crystal that’s scratch-resistant, while the body of the watch is made from a tough but light aluminum alloy. The watch also comes with TPU straps, completing that wonderful smartwatch-esque illusion, and if that somehow wasn’t enough, it’s also built to be IP67 dust and water-resistant and can be submerged up to 5ATM (50 meters).

The Nixiea watch uses authentic IN-16 Nixie tubes

The characteristic feature of the nixie tubes in the Nixiea is that they come with this wonderful red glow that allows you to read the time even at night. The watch uses the 24-hour time-telling format, with the number updating every hour. It isn’t the most accurate if you’re looking for something that tells the minutes or seconds, but the appeal of the Nixiea clearly isn’t its accuracy, it’s the retro tech that sits underneath.

The Nixiea draws power from 380 mAh battery, which sounds rather insignificant, but it can power the watch’s display for up to 1 hour continuously – which should last for days considering nobody stares at their watch for an entire hour (not even if it’s running on incredibly cool nixie tubes). The watch has a standby time of an entire year, and comes with its own 25W wireless charging pad that can also charge your AirPods and smartphone. The Nixiea comes in three colors – black, silver, and space-grey, with four strap colors to choose from. The watches ship globally, starting December 2022 – although that’s partially due to the fact that assembling these watches with nixie tubes has to be done almost entirely by hand.

Click Here to Buy Now: $99 ~~$169~~ (41% off) Hurry! Only 40 hours left!

The post This retro-punk Nixie wristwatch actually uses authentic nixie tubes to tell the time first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Nixie tube tabletop clock adds a retro-punk flavor to your otherwise boring smart home appliances

Posted on 06/09/2021 by Sarang Sheth

If you’re the kind of person to simultaneously live in the 80s as well as the 2020s, the Nextube may be just the perfect little desktop accessory for you.

While I love what Apple, Google, and Amazon have done to uplift the home and bring it into the 21st century, one could posit that their devices were designed more to blend in than to stand out. A Nest door camera doesn’t scream for attention, the doorbell itself looks decently sophisticated, and the smart speaker inside your house is almost always a neutral color and form, so it ‘becomes a part of your home’… just as intended. These accessories add features and functionality, but rarely do they add character. That’s a school of thought that eludes most design/tech companies, because they want to build a product that fits beautifully into all sorts of homes – but predominantly Euro-American homes which are increasingly moving towards adopting minimalism. The Nextube, however, was designed for the flashy, retro-loving maverick.

Designer: James Wong of Rotrics

Click Here to Buy Now: $149 ~~$189~~ ($40 off). Hurry, for a limited time only.

The 70-80s were the farthest thing from minimalism. The music was loud, the fashion was colorful, cyber-synthwave was all the rage, and it was arguably the birth of modern tech, with video-games and computers becoming household objects, and the Nixie Tube increasingly becoming a signature element in sci-fi pop culture. Nixie tubes gradually died out in the 90s-2000s as the technology around cathode-ray tubes, and then LCD and LED displays began developing. However, unlike tech (which progresses linearly), culture is cyclical, and retro-tech is making a comeback. The Nextube is a product of that cultural throwback but relies on today’s tech. It mimics the raw, retro appeal of nixie tubes, but given how rare these tubes are (since they stopped production in the 90s), the Nextube uses a clever set of mini LED displays encased in vacuum glass tubes. Complete with a neat walnut wood base and brass trims, the Nextube looks like something from an 80s laboratory on your desk. The steampunk gadget comes with 6 individual displays that tell the time as well as the weather, in that gloriously vintage nixie-inspired glowing font.

A clever play on the words Next and Nixie-tube, the Nextube is a little retro and modern mashed into one gloriously steampunk device. Its primary function is that of a tabletop clock and alarm, however, the 6 mini displays can be programmed to display practically anything, from the weather to your YouTube subscriber count, the price of your favorite cryptocurrency, or even a countdown clock for a pre-set date/time. The Nextube’s mini displays aren’t limited to the Nixie-tube font either. Outfitted with LED panels, the Nixtube’s mini displays come with an array of retro-inspired fonts, including dot-matrix, seven-segment display, flip-clock, and a variety of cyberpunk-inspired fonts and themes.

Your reliable time manager.

Monitor your sub counts in real-time.

Know the weather at a glance.

Dance with your favorite music.

Track your primary tasks.

The digital IPS screens can bring endless possibilities.

Armed with open-source firmware, you can practically program the Nextube’s mini-screens to display anything, from motivational messages to calendar alerts, email notifications, or even tiny pictures from your camera roll. Small buttons in front of the tubes allow you to toggle between the Nextube’s various functions, and a spectral analyzer built into the Nextube’s body even lets you turn it into a music visualizer, with dancing bars that respond to any music that’s playing.

While it does look exactly like the kind of product you’d see in the background of a YouTuber’s setup (we’re thinking on the set of MKBHD’s Retro Tech web-series), its versatility means you can place the Nextube anywhere, from your work-desk to your bedside table, kitchen counter, or even living room coffee table. Wherever you put it, the Nextube’s commanding presence and wonderfully nostalgic retro-vibe instantly make it an eye-catching centerpiece – which easily sets it apart from the other ‘boring-looking’ smart-home appliances you may have lying around your place. The IPS displays ensure incredible visibility no matter what angle you view the Nextube from, and all you really need is a power source to connect the device to. The Nextube is available on Kickstarter for $149 – it comes bundled with a USB-C cable, charging brick, and Nextube’s open-source software; and ships globally with a one-year warranty.

Click Here to Buy Now: $149 ~~$189~~ ($40 off). Hurry, raised over $425,000.

Authentic, rare nixie tube watch is the most cyberpunk object you can wear on wrist

Posted on 14/06/2021 by Sarang Sheth

A symbol of an era that was relatively uncomplicated, Nixie tubes are a bit of a rarity now (the last set of nixies were produced in the 90s before being permanently suspended), but they’re indicative of a time period when tech products were hand-made, intricate yet consumer-friendly, and built to last… a heavy contrast when compared to today’s throwaway-tech-culture. The NIXOID VFD Watch debuted in 2018 as an homage to the Nixie tube. With its steampunkish design, the wristwatch came with a nixie-inspired dial that was designed to be the very antithesis of consumer tech, by celebrating something that isn’t mass-produced anymore. In 2021, the watch series is back with the NIXOID NEXT, a slimmer, more durable, and more efficient version of its first iteration fitted with incredibly rare Nixie VFD lamps that were produced and stowed away 25 years ago. Aside from housing this incredibly rare hardware, the NIXOID NEXT comes with better battery life, an accelerometer that lights up the VFD tubes when you tilt your wrist towards you, and a magnetic charging feature that lets you recharge your rare, retrofuturistic timepiece!

At the very center of the NIXOID NEXT is its crown jewel, the watch face with rare VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) tubes that emit a warm orange glow as the numbers light up to tell you the time. These tubes were discovered sitting in a warehouse untouched since the days of the USSR (an Easter egg that makes it to the video above too), making the watch practically a historic limited-edition collectible. The numbers are encased in air-tight glass tubes with a vacuum inside them, and come with blue lights fitted on the base that gives it an incredible visual contrast. The NIXOID NEXT is also the world’s first dual-core watch, with one core dedicated to keeping the watch running, and another core for powering the watch’s built-in accelerometer. The integrated accelerometer allows the watch’s display to light up when it’s tilted towards you, helping conserve the VFD tubes’ lifespan (each tube has a lamp-life of 20 years). However, using the accelerometer does consume the watch’s battery. With the accelerometer running, the watch can run continuously for up to 10 days (while preserving the life of the VFD lamps); switch the accelerometer off and the watch’s battery life bumps up to a month. Charging the watch’s battery is rather simple too, thanks to contact points on the back that let you easily magnetically snap the NIXOID NEXT’s proprietary charger in place.

The NIXOID NEXT’s rare VFD lamps and hardware sit within a durable machined aluminum alloy case, capped off with a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal for clarity. The watch’s case measures 16.9mm in thickness, a pretty remarkable feat considering how bulky Nixie tubes can be. After all, these tubes are extremely fragile too and aren’t easy to come by, which warrants the extra protection. The NIXOID NEXT watches come in 4 colors, Deep Black, Polished Classic, Mars Red, and Military Green, with rubber straps to match. Each watch sports a knurled button at the 3 o’clock position for setting the time and additionally comes with an engraved back featuring a unique serial number and backer number… that’s aside from the fact that the timepiece also contains incredibly rare and limited Nixie tubes on the inside, quite literally making the watch one in a million!

Designer: Nixoid Lab

Click Here to Buy Now: $240. Hurry, free shipping! Raised over $100,000.

NIXOID NEXT – Next Generation VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) Watch

The NIXOID NEXT is the world’s first dual-core nixie tube wristwatch. With one core dedicated to keeping the watch running, and another core for powering the watch’s built-in accelerometer.

NIXIE lamps have not been produced for over thirty years, and every year it becomes more difficult to find untouched lamps that can display the time. The team searched for a long time and found an untouched warehouse of lamps from the times of the USSR, and the project became possible.

Materials

The watch is made of durable weapon-grade aluminum alloy by milling from one piece of metal using high-precision CNC equipment. As a result, the watch is light and thin (16.9mm thick).

The top of the watch is covered with a sapphire crystal, with a hardness of 9H. The glass has a high hardness and can’t be scratched.

The magnetic connector on the back cover is convenient and gives magic in using the watch.

The Tilt Function

See the time by pressing a button or by gesture. The watch does not respond to accidental hand movements. All movements of the watch are processed by a separate core, to see the time you need to turn your wrist away from you, and then back, towards you. This gesture is programmed intentionally, and several times reduces false actuations, which has a good effect on the battery life.

– The autonomy of the watch with the accelerometer on is up to 10 days in everyday use
– The autonomy of the watch with the accelerometer turned off is up to 25-30 days in everyday use
– With the accelerometer disabled, the watch can be stored for up to two months in sleep mode

The watch comes with a specially milled keychain with laser engraving to enable or disable the tilt function. You can attach it to your keys, and it will always be with you.

Click Here to Buy Now: $240. Hurry, free shipping! Raised over $100,000.

Hyundai’s latest EV looks like retro dynamite! (And it has a real nixie-tube dashboard)

Posted on 21/04/2021 by Sarang Sheth

In popular mythology it’s usually the phoenix that’s reborn from the ashes of its past self… but it looks like Hyundai is carrying that metaphor over to the Pony. By reimagining its first-ever mass-produced car as a new, electric-powered hatchback, the Hyundai Pony Heritage Series electric concept feels a lot like a rebirth of sorts, with a more contemporary yet equally retro-punkish design that’s difficult to ignore!

The Pony was Hyundai’s first-ever production vehicle, making a grand debut in 1975 and being available all the way till 1990. Paying a fitting tribute to the very car that put Hyundai on the map, the Pony Heritage Series EV is a modern reinterpretation of the classic affordable hatchback, with an electric beating heart. There’s something undeniably retro about the Pony Heritage Series EV, and it wears that distinction proudly on its sleeve. The car’s design, proportions, and even details are wonderfully vintage, albeit with a few modern upgrades on the outside as well as the inside. On the outside, the EV’s headlights and taillights feature a pixel LED pattern that can also be seen on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the 45 EV. The rims sport a machined finish that has a retrofuturistic vibe, while the car’s side-view mirrors, located all the way on the front fenders, sport cameras instead.

The insides feel like a modern time machine, with concealed LED lighting on both the doors, leather-wrapped bucket seats, and a brushed-metal dashboard. Within the dashboard sits an all-new steering wheel, featuring a three-spoke design with PONY script in the center and a physical voice control button on the left. However, its spotlight is stolen by the incredibly impressive nixie-tube setup in front of it. Designed mainly for the appeal (since this is just a one-off concept), the dashboard acts as a numeric speedometer, lighting up with the different numbers to show what speed your car is traveling at.

The one-off retrofuturistic Pony Heritage Series electric concept was unveiled as a part of Hyundai’s ‘Reflections in Motion’ exhibition, being held from April 8th till June 27th, 2021. The Heritage Series Pony is on display at Hyundai’s Motorstudio in Busan, South Korea.

Designer: Hyundai

If Nikola Tesla Made a Watch

Posted on 02/03/2017 by Sarang Sheth

No matter how cool your watch is, whether it can answer texts, or use google maps, or even read your heart rate. It’ll never be as cool as the NIWA. Simply an amalgamation of the words Nixie and Watch, the NIWA is a wrist-watch that literally uses nixie tubes to display the time! The NIWA puts one of the most delightful elements of retro onto your wrist, giving you a strong vintage vibe that’s most definitely cooler than any smartwatch you’ll wear.

The NIWA is styled with a kind of aesthetic that makes it look like a mad-scientist’s creation. With two incredibly tiny (IN-16) nixie tubes at the center, and glowing blue arc-reactor-ish coils (IV-15) on either side. The tubes light up to display the time, with the blue coils glowing in the background. This entire setup fits right into a 55mm housing (that’s pretty small for a nixie tube!). A sapphire glass* sits atop this dial, providing an immaculately clear view of the time, while also protecting your watch from impact and scratches. Honestly though this watch is such a beauty, you won’t stop staring at the time!

Making nixie tubes is an art and making them this small is nothing short of a masterpiece. These two tubes come with an illustrious history of nixie tube craftsmanship that’s slowly dying as LCD screens take over everything. The nixie tubes aren’t power intensive, so will need charging once every 4-6 days. The NIWA comes with a MicroUSB port, allowing you to use any regular smartphone charger to juice it up. With the NIWA, you also get to choose what strap you want around this neo-vintage beauty. You can choose between silicone, leather, and metal straps, available in various designs. Along with the NIWA, you also get two extra IN-16 nixie tubes for repairs, a charger, a set of magnets (that allow you to set the time on the NIWA), and an exquisite looking dock for displaying your stellar time-piece from a parallel steampunk-loving universe!

Designer: Alexander Avramenko

BUY IT HERE: $420.00