SD pocket watch takes on the surreal.

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Design submitted by Peter from the UK.

Peter says: This is “SD” a design inspired by the famous painting “the persistence of memory” by Salvidor Dali. The painting featured a series of wilting clocks, this image is what inspired the shape of this design.

The time is told in a traditional analogue format utilising a regular analogue movement.

The “twist” in this case, is the is the “twist” in the case! The case is curved like the wilting clocks are in the painting. The hands are hinged and mounted to hubs which in turn mount to the analogue movement. This hinged joint allows the hands to follow the curved face of the watch. The two hands are guided and seperated by a glass divider so they can never get tangled or trapped. The hands feature a plastic conical end to keep friction to an absolute minimum.

This design as per its inspiration should hopefully appeal to artistic people and fans of unusual products. The time telling is conventional enough for the main stream with the technical “twist” for the non-conformists.

The curved face and hinged hands set this design apart from others.

28 thoughts on “SD pocket watch takes on the surreal.”

  1. Wow–Pretty crazy, Pete! Beautiful renderings as usual. Wouldn’t the hands wear a trail in the face, especially the one against the glass? Seems like they have to be spring-loaded, so as not to rotate towards the glass if it were to lean forward. Anyway, awesome concept and fitting tribute to Dali. Good luck!

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    • Hi Xian, I figured the hands would just loosely pivot in the hubs and be controlled by the face and dividing glass or lens and dividing glass. That way only the weight of the hand (which would be minimal) would creat any friction. The tips of the hands are conical plastic so only the smallest of contact areas is touching at any point and the plastic creates minimal friction and doesn’t mark. If you imagine the hands of a conventional analogue being loose and being able to touch the face of a watch or clock it wouldn’t stop the watch/clock working because they have practically no weight. Cheers for the feedback and interest sir! 😀

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  2. Brilliant! I had an idea with the same inspiration (wonderful, those clocks…) but I had a much more complicated solution (telescoping hands, which I ended up using in another design).

    This looks all kinds of do-able to me, and in some funky styling to boot. Good choice with the pendant/pocket watch design, I feel it wouldn’t work quite as well with a strap….

    If I have a niggle, it’s the shape of the hands… I get the friction-reducing thought behind it, but the shape doesn’t quite work for me. But that’s a small detail. Great work, and good luck sir!

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    • Hi Anders, yeah u started off with a more complicated idea and in the end pared it right back to what is hopefully a feasible concept. The hands could be all sorts of shape as long as they have a minimal contact area and minimise friction and weight. Cheers for the GMTA and support sir! 😀

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  4. What a cool idea Pete. Really really!! Just when I thought about the feasability you provide a solution: the dividing glass. Very nice! 5*/YES and I bet this hits up the external blogs quickly!!

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  5. There are clocks that are placed along the shelves, with exactly the same shape as those the painting of Dali, it’s a genre.
    I admire the work in 3D, but this watch is not for me, sorry Pete.
    5 * and Yes for 3D.

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    • Hehe yeah I know the clocks you speak of. We have them in shops over here too. They are novelty items which are kind of fun. They rely on a large amount of clearance inside the dial for the hands to travel in one axis. Hopefully my version is more dynamic if not to your taste. Cheers for the support in light of this! cheers 😀

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  7. This is an awesome Surrealist pocket / fob watch that i could see Salvidor Dali himself wearing. It would certainly allow the owner to standout from the crowd & appeal to anyone of a more artistic nature.

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  10. I am not normally interested in pocket watches,but this would be an exception, if it didn’t have a strapped alternative. Looks good, but for the pocket version I’d like it better if the back was curved too, so the whole watch would be distorted the same way (looks a bit odd with the back being normal). If a USB charged battery was used, it wouldn’t need opening for years, so that would work.

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    • Cool! Nice to convert someone to the dark side! 😉 Yeah would look cool with a curved back. I did consider it but figured it might add extra depth. It only needs to be thick in the middle where the movement is. The outer areas could be quite thin. Could be kinetic or automatic, then unless it went wrong it would never need opening 😀 Cheers for the mighty fine feedback sir! 😀

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