Design submitted by Anders from Sweden.
Anders says: What’s cooler than a hologram? Four holograms! That is basically the design ethos behind this concept; Wormhole.
Seriously though, the basic idea started as an observation that some people like to wear their watches on the inside of their wrists. It gave me the idea that it might be cool to separate the hours and minutes into two displays, so that they are on either side of the wrist.
Wormhole is actually a bog standard analog watch, or perhaps two. One display shows the hours and the other the minutes. Additionally, both displays shows the seconds to give a bit of movement and interest to the watch. When looking at the images it’s worth noting that the hour display is rotated 180 degrees relative to the minute display, in order to show the hours the right way up when the wearer flips his or her wrist.
I considered a few possible styles, but it wasn’t until I came up with the idea of some sort of portal from one display to the other that the design really gelled. Then I had the brainwave of using holograms for the hands and I knew I had to make something of it. The space theme came very naturally once I’d gotten that far.
After a few false starts I realized that the best option would be to make the hands as simple as possible, to let the 3D effect of the holograms really shine. But I also couldn’t resist making a fun, slightly gimmicky version; enter Toky the astronaut and her space shuttle. An umbilical cable runs from the shuttle through the wormhole and connects to the space suit. The astronaut’s right hand points to the current minute (the left one gives a thumbs-up), and the nose of the shuttle points to the current hour.
The seconds are the same in both versions; a nebula-like funnel that has an inward marker in the hour display, and an outward one in the minute display. The idea is that the second hand has already been sucked into the wormhole, and the nebula is some sort of energy signature. Or something. Another detail is that the domed glass over the displays dips in the middle, as though it’s being drawn into the gravity well.
The bottom of the display is littered with small white LEDs, for that starry night feel and to make the display more interesting than a flat black.
The one thing this design hinges on is the holograms, and that they are layered. I’m actually not sure if this is possible but I think I’ve seen pictures of holograms on transparent plastic somewhere. Assuming the manufacture and use of the holograms work, then the only things separating this from any old watch is the dual display, which might be connected through the link strap, or alternatively simply use two separate standard movements. The problem with that is of course that it would be tricky to set the displays to be in time with each other, but it shouldn’t be impossible to get around one way or another. Perhaps the unused hand on each display has an LED that only lights up when the watch is being set?
People who like fun and unusual watches should get a kick out of the slightly 60’s space look, hopefully the ones who find the simple hands too boring are charmed by the astronaut version and vice versa. The styling is a little bit unusual, but I’ve tried to keep it sober enough not to alienate those people who (like me) don’t want to stand out too much. At least not at first glance.
Tokyoflash Japan 
Great. I have to give this top marks. It is an excellent concept of thinking outside the box. The astronaut is a fun touch for that wormhole effect.
Hologram, wormhole, 2 watches (through your wrist) ~ very strong elements all working to compliment the theme as a whole (hole)
Being analogue, how do we sync the two watches? Perhaps it isn’t a big problem: if you set the 2 sides ‘on the hour’ (12:00) then you can be reasonably sure that they sync within seconds. It may require some slight tweaking when you first get the watch, but then they should run in tandem.
BTW, the video is excellent. Lovely work Anders!
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Thanks very much for posting this, and for giving it such high praise! =)
I agree that unless there’s some electronic connection between the watches then setting it at (for example) noon would be the best option. If there’s a recharge function then it shouldn’t ever have to be reset. Unless the watch travels at some appreciable fraction of lightspeed, of course…
Glad you like the animation! I made good use of some new software at work, and it came up a treat.
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I am slipping…into the void! Great animation.
5y
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Thanks dz! Just make sure you have your space suit done up properly, don’t talk to any bug-eyed monsters adn I’ll catch you on the flipside…=)
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Fantastic design, Anders.
I used to wear my watches on the inside of my wrist, but had to be careful not to bump the watch face on desks etc. When I started wearing TF watches they were too thick for this, so switched to back of wrist. Hopefully this watch would not be so thick and would not have that problem with the inner component.
Minor point, but I would want the buckle on the far edge of my wrist to avoid having to look at it all the time, but would want the hour on the inside. Your examples would give me the minutes on the inside. Maybe strap orientation could be a selection option when buying the watch.
Anyway, if TF can overcome the syncing challenge, then this looks like a winner.
Definitely 5*/Y and good luck.
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Cheers Nev! =)
Being analog, this could hopefully be made fairly slim.
Actually, the buckle (and flexible strap) are meant to be on the outside if you wear the minute display on the top of your wrist. The images aren’t very clear in that regard, unfortunately.
It shouldn’t matter however, as you could just turn the watch 180 degrees and use the 6 position as the 12 position when you set it since the hours and minutes aren’t linked like in a standard watch and there are no numbered indicators.
There are ways of getting around the sync problem, perhaps a hidden LED that only lights up when setting, so that you can see the hours, minutes and seconds in both displays…
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Never, my guess is that you can see the time using either face.
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In the examples shown you can’t, but it could easily be done. Either by adding another hologram to each display, which would sort of make the split display redundant, or by using my proposed solution for ease of display synching: An LED mounted on a minute/hour hand (depending on which display) behind the display bottom that can light up in some colour other than the ‘stars’, to make it readable. If that is included then there’s no reason it couldn’t be left on so you’d get the whole time in each display, yet slightly hidden.
Many ways to skin a cat, as the saying goes…=)
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Anders, you could have the option of hours and minutes displayable on both faces. That way if you were in an astronaut mood you could have that face up; if you were in a space shuttle mood you could have that face up.
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Good thinking! That option hadn’t occurred to me…
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Hi Anders, for me, it will be with the astronaut!
I love crazy ideas.
A milky way of stars and a big Yes.
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Merci Patrick, glad you like it! I supposed the look of it would be a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it thing, but so far enough people seem to like it. =)
Thanks very much for the support!
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Very fine work Anders! I was lucky enough to see a preview of this concept before it hit the blog but I didnt fully appreciate the concept before seeing the submission in its entireity. Loving the fact the time is spread across two faces, I would prefer the hour hand on the top one as this feels more intuative to me.
I think that the profile could be kept pretty low with the right analogue movements.
I dont think sync-ing is really an issue with analogue, if it were digital then it could be confusing near to the hour changing. As long as the mins are within a couple of mins you wouldnt notice. As the hour hand is constantly travelling its always going to be the correct side of the appropiate hour in relation to the minutes. The only time you would notice is if the seconds are out of sync, so I would suggest that only one dial has a seconds marker (hand for want of better terminology) and the other is just animated, that way you would never know. The only detail I would change would be the colour of the wormhole to the blue end of the spectrum, and this is purely a personal preference thing so 5 very spacey stars and a make it so! 😀
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Also if the hologram element proved to be an issue I think the design would still work with printed discs as long as the images used could maintain the feeling of depth. 😀
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Cheers mate!
Interesting thoughts on the seconds indicator. Maybe the one which doesn’t show anything could rotate counter-clockwise, just to avoid any confusion…
The colours are very preliminary, I’m actually not even sure why I made it red… Probably to go with the red/yellow-ish look some holograms tend to have…
Simple printed discs would certainly work mechanically, it’s been done after all. I suspect it might be a bit too far from the original concept to justify it though. If that was the only way then I’d prefer to make some other, less three-dimensional display to replace this one.
Thanks for the support and thoughts!
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Great Idea Anders! i wouldn’t personally buy a watch like this but the idea and the tech behind it are incredibly innovative.
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I know it’s impossible to please everyone, but that’s not so much of a problem when the ones you don’t please still appreciate it. Many thanks for the support Lewis! =)
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I’ve gotta say this is an awesome idea!! I never would’ve thought to use two displays for the time and in such a way!! Great concept and awesome animation!!
I just hope it will be light enough and fairly slim if made. 5Y
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Thanks for the kind words Justin!
Hopefully a production version shouldn’t be very bulky or heavy as it’d basically be two standard quartz watches with discs for hands…
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This concept sucks you in because of its highly creative futuristic twin display faces. Well done.
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Thanks for the support Andrew!
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Very iconic watch here monsieur!!
The tension coming from having a tunnel through the wrist is super cool! Needing to turn the wrist to tell parts of the time is a logical concequence and definitely not a flaw. The shuttle and the astronaut are a bit to toy-ish for my personal taste but also a very fitting idea to the basic theme. Hm… Maybe Earth on one end and an alien planet on the other end? Ah there are several things possible here. I agree with Toky(oflash), there are strong elements combined into this concept. Outstanding! Many many stars/yes/good luck Anders!!
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Cheers Sam! =)
I see what you mean about the astronaut, I was a little worried that it’d be too gimmicky, but so far it doesn’t seem so bad…=) As you say there are any number of options, but the nice thing about the current combo is the hose connecting the shuttle and astronaut, which I think adds a certain something.
Many thanks for the stars and support!
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