Analog and LCD watches are both useful designs, but ultimately mainstream timepieces. Using a binary watch as well as influencing your hacker friends to boot is an easy way to differentiate yourself as a technology enthusiast.
Such a build comes to us [vishalsoniindia], And it uses a single bare PCB designed to match directly with a traditional watch strap. The single touch button on the board is used to activate the clock, showing the current time in hours and minutes in binary-coded decimals on the watch’s LED. Pressing the button for a long time adjusts the clock as needed in setting mode.
The watch relies on an ATtiny85 microcontroller, a light weight and compact design that is strong enough to run a typical watch. It is connected to a 74HC595 shift resistor to run all LEDs from a minimum number of pins, and also has a TP4056 charging circuit on board to hold off the lithium-polymer battery.
Such a project is a great way to learn all kinds of basic electronics skills, from PCB design to SMD soldering and even working with basic logic parts like shift registers. As a bonus, you’ll get a great watch from it to boot.
We’ve seen similar designs over the years, as diverse as the ones that hackers make. Video after the break.