Hourglass e-paper watch simulates the sands of time.

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Design submitted by Heather from the USA.

Heather says: In an attempt to “change the way I think about time”, I pondered ways of telling time that could be different.  In doing so, I thought about an hourglass, which led to the creation of rounded digits that could appear to fill an hourglass.

This display is intended for mono-color epaper, which will allow for the curved shapes, and can be always on.

To imitate the functionality of an hourglass, I thought about including an accelerometer, as in Kisai Online.  When you turn your wrist to look at the time, you can see the hours and minutes displayed, but when your wrist is face down, the display turns upside-down (as an hourglass can turn upside-down), showing digits counting in seconds. This concept assumes that the refresh rate for epaper will allow for this.

This is a unisex design for awesome people.  If you’re awesome, you should want this watch. 😉

This is one of my easier-to-read designs, but I still feel it looks cool and stylish enough to be presented here.

19 thoughts on “Hourglass e-paper watch simulates the sands of time.”

  1. Nice Design, Heather! I like the creativity in the idea of an hourglass watch. The time is also not too hard to read and wouldn’t take long. 5 and Yes 🙂

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  3. Some good inside the glass thinking there Heather (please excuse the joke, once I’d thought of it I felt compelled to make it). Definately better than my half-baked thoughts on the hourglass theme, anyway… Your design, I mean, not my joke…=)

    I wonder if it would be possible to have the top and bottom numbers on single lines, and animate the height as each hour passes, to deepen the illusion. Not all the way, I realize that’d make it unreadable, but just a little something. Also, It’d be interesting to see some variations on the case, I feel there’s potential there.

    Nice work!

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    • Thanks, Anders. Your joke’s not so bad – I giggled a little inside. 😉
      I’m not sure I understand your suggestion for animation, but I did suggest the seconds counting function as a way to introduce movement, thereby adding to the illusion.
      Thanks for your support!

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      • Glad to hear it wasn’t as bad, a silent giggle is pretty much the best I could’ve hoped for…=)

        Looking at it again, my explanation wasn’t very clear… The basic idea was to (over the course of each hour) reduce the height of the top numbers, and increase the height of the lower ones. To simulate the sand running from the top to the bottom. It might be too much baa for not enough wool, if that’s even a metaphor, I just thought I’d put it out there.

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  6. I like the look of this one Heather. The only issue for me is that there have been other hour glass inspired designs before. This feels a bit to similar to one I have seen on the net unfortunately. Which is why I have hesitated in using this inspiration in the past. I think this is still support worthy so 5/Y and best of luck!

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    • Hey, Pete. I know people have come up with hourglass ideas before, but I had not seen it done this way before, so I thought it was new enough. Hopefully it’s not too similar to anything else already done. Thanks for the comment and vote!

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  7. Heather, nice work, stylish (your 3D is improving day by day)
    I do not know if this is possible and readable, but when hourglass empties, the trough is located in the center (not rounded), is it possible to have a concave version, by curiosity?
    All this deserves 5 ​​* / Yes, no problem.

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    • Hey, Patrick. Thanks for the compliment! I’ve been working on my 3D skills – I figure the best way to improve is to get more experience working with it. 😉
      I’m sure the top digit could easily be adjusted to have a concave surface. I was looking at it from a 3D view, so the part that curves up is not the center, but the way the back edge looks with perspective. (I’m not sure I explained that well)
      Merci beaucoup for your comment and vote! 😀

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  10. I like the funky numbers on this. The best one here is the one with the light blue screen and black body, in my opinion. I gotta say, Heather, I am SO tempted to buy your wooden Stencil. I always wanted one of those, but the wooden one looks ultra cool!

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