Long story short — this device is a small round full-color LCD screen attached to a microcontroller, which connects to Wi-Fi and update the time from NTP (Network Time Protocol) server every hour. You can find the full technical details, wiring diagram and open-sourced code (Arduino C++) in the Hackster post above.
The watch is named “Saiko(u)” (Japanese さいこう, superb/the best), which is intended as a pun for Seiko, since the watch face design is based on the Seiko 5 Sports SRPK33K1 model. I don’t own one but I do have a black Seiko 5 Sports flieger, which uses the same 4R36 caliber.
The diver-styled watch face is drawn and updated every 1/6 seconds. Almost all elements are drawn live with code using basic shapes. Needless to say, the hour and minute hands are the most tricky part.
Since the screen resolution is not that high, angled lines cannot be drawn accurately. Still, it looks good enough from an arm’s length.
The second hand on Saiko also moves 6 times per second like the 4R36 movement (which operates at 3 Hz or 6 vibrations per second). However, I decided not to recreate the date rolling feature, since this will be way too complicated and not necessary on a fake mechanical watch.
To complete the illusion of a watch, the LCD is placed on a cushion in a paper gift box, and have steel bracelets (from one of my dad’s cheap watch) tied around it. The whole setup — with the microcontroller tucked behind the gift box — is stuffed into a wooden box with glass panels. It actually looks like a real watch from some distance away.
This currently sits on my office desk as my work clock. I think it’s the best looking Internet clock I’ve ever made… 😊
Code
secrets.h
Saiko_IoTomatic_Clock.ino
