Square Nixie Watch

The Cathode Corner Square Nixie Watch is the perfect way to show your retro-geek cred. It is a two-digit wristwatch using Nixie tubes, a forty-year-old display technology that is delightfully easy to read.

The watch requires no button-pushing to operate. Just tilt the watch to your preset viewing angle, and the hours, then the minutes, will appear in perfectly-formed, 14mm tall, glowing orange digits.

The Nixie Watch is sleek and rugged. The case is machined from aircraft aluminum and anodized to handle years of abuse and still look great. It is sealed against water ingress, although I'm not enough of a watchmaker to give it a depth rating.

The square Nixie watch is available in a variety of bright anodized colors as well as black. Current offerings are red, orange, gold, green, blue, violet, black and metal.

The watch is 48 mm wide x 53 mm tall, and only 16mm thick. This is 6mm thinner than the round Nixie watch. Setting the time is accomplished with the two buttons on the side. The tilt angle is also set this way. Both 12 hour and 24 hour modes are provided. The standard Micro USB port makes it easy to charge the battery. It will run for 2-4 weeks between charges. You will know when it's time to recharge the battery, because the minutes display will flicker, but still be readable. The watch will stop displaying the time when the battery is nearly drained, but will still keep time for another week or so.

The rear of the case is hard anodized to survive years of daily wear on your wrist. When the watch enters production, each unit will have a unique serial number engraved on the rear.

The watch is powered by a lithium-ion polymer battery, charged via a special waterproofed micro USB port on the side. The circuitry is nearly the same as that of the round Nixie watch that has been sold to over a thousand happy customers, all over the world. Only the battery management circuits have changed.

The schematic diagram and source code are available for your enjoyment.

The microcontroller and high voltage transistor arrays are visible here. They are hidden from view in the watch case, but the Nixie tubes, power supply and battery are nicely displayed. The Nixie tubes are held in place with foam pads to prevent breakage, in case you drop your watch.