RA analog watch with bright reflective foil

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Design submitted by Sam from Germany.

Sam says: The RA is a distant relative of Cypher and CLB – also analog watch concepts. The basic idea this time was using simple things to create a complex looking sci-fi eye candy that’s actually easy to read.

I started with a watch turned upside down to have the battery cap on top of the watch face. I don’t know if that’s feasable to have the cap for battery replacement and watch setting there but I really like the imagination of screwing around on your gadget while you wear it. It gives a certain Iron Man feeling. You would need a hexagon socket screw key (aka Allen key®) that you might want to carry with you on your bunch of other keys.

So the system access center leaves a ring for the display where I placed the watch hands – dynamically trapezoid shapes with a little gap as actual marker. As on a traditional analog watch, the one closer to the center is the hour hand and the one distant is the minute hand. The ring around the latter one has recieved indicators for exact time telling.

The hands are acompanied by a semi-transparent foil that follows the curvature of the display ring. They give the background a darker shade. The background of the display itself is a neon foil which is definitely an eye catcher. It’s not only neon and therefore super bright in daylight, but also fluorescent and therefore visible at night. Not very bright but enough to read the time.

The trapezoid hands and the semi-transparent foils are structuring the neon ring in a simple but super sci-fi manner so the RA is a watch for those who like technical arts and stylish displays as seen in many sci-fi movies.

40 thoughts on “RA analog watch with bright reflective foil”

  5. Looks great Sam! A very nice addition to the Cypher range. I love the idea of the internal working being accessible from the front, makes for a technical look. Out of the three Cypher is still my favourite but I can see this one being much easy to make. 5/Y best of luck sir! 😀

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      • Damn, I never knew the term for those 😀 Yeah, now I see it too! I’m glad that Cypher didn’t lose its charme 🙂 I’m undecided. I tend t olike the newest one most at first. Thank you for your comment and the support Peter!!

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  8. This looks simply fantastic, I have to say. Restrained styling with a mechanical flavour; it’s like it was made for me…=) I would especially like to see some suitably complex opening mechanism for the central lid, and some cool-looking controls beneath (to continue the Iron Man-esque aesthetic). Also on my wishlist would be a slightly more complex time-telling method, but it’s not really necessary, and I suspect this is quite difficult enough to manufacture as it is. Best of luck Sam!

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    • Yeah I know what you mean. Some of your designs are restrained in style and have mechanical appearances. The Scaled watch is still one of my favorites of the blog. I have a watch I’m working on and it could turn out a bit like the Scaled. Totally different time telling of course 🙂 Oh yeah, there could be things going on under the cap. Maybe not a complex mechanism but something simple that looks complex, as if really opening some serious device. Hehe, more complex time telling. I understand this wish. Maybe another time 😉 Thank you very much for your nice comment Anders!

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  10. Cool, Sam! I like how the hands are located both inside and outside. Again, one of your ideas that make me go ‘why didn’t I think of that?’. Although I am a minimalist, I think I still like Cypher more, which I just discoved this week (before I knew about the blog).

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    • Hehe, cool that you checked the Cypher. Yeah the inside-outside hands are quite a simple idea that can be made looking cool. My initial idea though was this light ring that changes its shape thoughout the hour. The opposite hand positions developed after sketching some nice shapes and thinking about how to achieve them. So much fun 🙂 Thank you Chris for the comment!

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  11. I love it. Its fantastic. I would definitely wear this watch if this became a design I’d probably get more than one 😉

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  12. For me, this is easier to read than Cypher or CLB, and I prefer that (although I do like both of those too). Looks great, cyan being the best colour here.

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  14. Just make it already, I’ll get it the moment its out! The best I’ve seen so far, two thumbs up. Well done Sam 🙂

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  15. I like the overall look. I like the idea to use a socket screw key, or mini-screwdriver, instead of a crown, to adjust the time. ( On watches, I’ve seen it twice, on expensive models. 1 was a mini-screwdriver used to adjust the calendar. The other was to wind it, like old clocks, with a mini power drill ) I like that this one is on the face of the watch. I like the idea to put the battery cap on top. I like that the glass doesn’t cover all the space.

    I would buy the red. 5*.

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    • Woah thanks Makk! Cool you like all of it. Just to make sure it’s seen right: my idea was having the setting buttons under the cap and you just need the key to open it, no to set the watch. That would be cool too but it’s already hard enough to do it like this I think. I cross my fingers 😉

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      • “just to open it” would work for me. & it would be easier to have the buttons around the battery. If it was like I thought it was, you would need 4 small battery (electronic calculator size) around the “crown” hole & you would use your fingers to remove the cap, like with med bottle.

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      • Hehe yeah, those are cool. Oh a crown… I have an analog watch here from Casio that works with buttons so I somehow imagined such for the RA. I think the “conduit” after a button can easily be redirected if TF would find a Quartz movement module and use it. Redirecting or recreating the mechanism of a crown would be a tough task. But actually a traditional crown is a work-around because the setting has to happen on the side of the case and not in the movement layer of all the gears which RA would give access to… I don’t know, I just babble hehe. Actually a battery-less watch with winding-up and setting under the cap would be nice too. If it works, why not. Makk, thanks for thinking this through. If TF think about it, they come here and read it 😀

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      • Oops. You are right. On digital watches, the buttons can be placed everywhere unlike mechanical watches. However, to redirect the crown setting there is a possibility : they could end the crown bar, inside the case, with a gear going like that /| & use a big hollow gear ( like that | |/ ) which would leave room for the battery in the middle. I’ll draw a diagram & sent it to you via fb. Meanwhile you can research “marc jenny” watches.

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  17. Whew this was fun. Thanks so much for all your comments and your support! Wish us luck and stay tuned! I keep it up guys and girls 😀

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