Science Meets Style In This Cathode Tube Watch

scope-n-SHOUT writes "The Nixie Watch displays the time on nixie tubes, a cold-cathode tube filled with neon, a little mercury and argon at a small fraction of atmospheric pressure. Nixies were used in many early electronic desktop calculators, including the first: the vacuum tube-based Sumlock-Comptometer Anita Mk VII in 1961. This two-digit wristwatch is designed for everyday use, being water-resistant and rugged, not to mention looking really retro-future cool. The watch requires no button pushing to operate - it shows the hours, minutes and seconds in sequence at the flick of the wrist. For the hardcore code tweaker, a programming adapter allows the GPL'd PIC firmware running the watch to be hacked up at will. The Nixie Watch is being sold in very limited edition, with each piece individually numbered and engraved."

Too bad these weren't around in 1984...

[Tsar]

Terry Gilliam would have loved to have had these in Brazil [imdb.com]!

Back in the day...

[boomgopher]

When I was in the military some years back, we were still using some test equipment with these tubes as displays. The subtle beauty of them is when the digits would cycle through a sequence, you'd notice the position/depth change as it changed to a new digit. Coupled with the fadeout of the deactivated digit, it was a fascinating to watch.

Re:Skip it, thanks...

[Anonymous Coward]

I discovered the scope clock on my own some time ago. Now -that- thing is cool. It draws the numbers using vectors, not scanning and looks awesome. He's been sold out for quite some time but now that he's slashdotted, he oughta put the thing back on the market.

Science meets style?

[Flying pig]

Obsolete engineering meets design disaster area.

Seriously, years ago I actually encountered a Geiger counter (don't ask) which used transistors to drive Nixie tubes. In those days there were no high voltage transistors, so it worked around the idea that the Nixies turned off at a certain voltage, therefore the VEBO of the transistors did not need to exceed the difference between the high voltage rail and the Nixie cutoff voltage.

Did you notice the words "Geiger counter" there? Yes. Of course, if the radiation reached a level sufficient to ionise the gas in the tubes, they stayed conducting. So turning a small gamma source on the tubes themselves blew all the output transistors.

$395 too!

[commodoresloat]

If I wanted to buy a watch that guaranteed I would never get laid, I certainly wouldn't have to spend [thinkgeek.com] that [thinkgeek.com] much [thinkgeek.com] on it.

Re:Why a watch?

[Detritus]

A 7-segment display needs a 7-segment decoder to drive the appropriate segments for each digit. That's a fair bit of extra circuitry and expense when your logic circuits are built from discrete components.

Some older equipment used displays that were like miniature slide projectors. Each digit had a small rear projection screen. Behind that screen was an assembly of miniature light bulbs and optical slides. When one of the light bulbs was turned on, its light passed through an optical slide that had an image of the desired digit. It produced a very readable display, better than Nixies or 7-segments. This display was designed and manufactured by Industrial Electronic Engineers, Inc. starting back in the late 1950s, and amazingly enough is still alive and in the display business.

I have one

[HWguy]

I have one of these. It may not be for everyone but I bought it because:

- It uses nixie tubes. I think they are the nicest of all digital display technologies. I like the fully formed numbers and I like the 3-dimensional movement as the digits change.
- It was designed and manufactured by one person. I think that is quite an accomplishment and makes for a much more personal and unique timepiece.
- The designer released the firmware under the GPL. This is the only watch in the world that I know of that can be reprogrammed by its owner. The designer put a lot of neat features into the firmware and given the uC is a PIC this is no small feat. I'm surprised more ./ers don't really appreciate this.
- It is a fairly complex design including a 180 volt power supply and an accellerometer to trigger the display. There are several PCBs assembed together in 3D in this watch which I like.
- It is large and not for everyday use. However the size and quality of the case make it stand out. I wear watches to be noticed and this one certainly is. I added a gel sheet to the watch which accents the display and obscures the battery making for a better display.

I've looked at most of the mass-produced "geek" watches and retro LED watches (ok so I did buy a Zeon) but most of them look and feel cheap. And there is nothing special about their design or function.

This watch is like an expensive two-seat sports car and can be appreciated as such. You take it out on the weekends for a fun. You don't take it to work everyday.