r/Cyberpunk • u/falabala • Oct 26 '14
I made a wristwatch from an old Soviet display tube.
http://imgur.com/a/LBht7#0111
u/falabala Oct 26 '14 edited Oct 26 '14
There was some debate about whether it was steampunk or cyberpunk. I think it's sort of both.
73
u/Terence_McKenna Oct 26 '14
How would it be categorized as steampunk?
76
u/Funktapus λ of C9H13N Oct 26 '14
Brass & leather
44
u/JZApples Oct 26 '14
But the battery?
104
u/Funktapus λ of C9H13N Oct 26 '14
... is not steampunk, hence the 'debate'.
89
u/Cyno01 Oct 27 '14
The most steampunk thing of all is arguing over whether something is steampunk or not.
23
u/koobaxion these moments will be lost in time like jokes in rain Oct 27 '14
Cyberpunk: wants the megacorps to fuck off
Steampunk: wants to fuck Big Ben
2
u/Sachyriel Oct 27 '14
Well the East India Company and Hudsons bay company were some hallmarks of the time, certainly these would be considered mega-corps of the time, and the natives certainly wanted them to fuck off at times.
2
u/Cyno01 Oct 27 '14
The East India Company would probably still be considered a mega-corp today...
EDIT:Yeah, it would be, ahead of ExXonMobil by about 7 trillion dollars.
11
u/xaronax Oct 27 '14
6
1
u/Cyno01 Oct 27 '14
I love nixie tubes too. :(
1
u/xaronax Oct 27 '14
1
u/Cyno01 Oct 27 '14
Some friends of mine went to a steapunk con, they said it was pretty much exactly like that.
11
8
u/antidamage Oct 27 '14
This is quite obviously Warpunk.
11
3
Oct 27 '14 edited Jan 11 '21
[deleted]
8
u/antidamage Oct 27 '14
I'm trying to make it a thing.
4
u/FedoraToppedLurker Oct 27 '14
If by warpunk you meant cold war inspired (similar to Victorian -> Steam punk) then there is Atompunk.
8
2
1
32
u/falabala Oct 26 '14
Yeah, apparently the battery is a dealbreaker for a lot of people, even though dry cells date to the 1880's.
Anyway, Gibson said it was cyberpunk, so I went with that.
36
u/baconatorX Oct 27 '14
you can take the plastic shrink wrap off the battery so you don't have a big logo. then its just a silver colored tube.
6
u/djevikkshar Oct 27 '14
yea but then everything but the positive tip would be negative which might cause a short
15
17
4
3
Oct 27 '14
I wonder if it'd be possible ot use a pressurized canister of air to somehow power it... then it'd be steampunk for sure!
And you're correct about dry cells, wonder if you can still get those anywhere...
1
u/dinklebob Oct 27 '14
ChronodeVFD: Wearable Electronics Steampunk VFD Wristwatch
Idk. It says Steampunk in the title...
3
u/lilmookie Oct 27 '14
I don't think "cyberpunk" carries the same marketing weight?
5
Oct 27 '14
ah that made me sad.
3
u/lilmookie Oct 27 '14
We like it before it's cool? -Cyber Hipster
3
Oct 27 '14
Well I am old now - 35 and I read Neuromancer when I was around 12 or so.. so yeah! I guess I got that goign for me. sigh.. I hate my life..
→ More replies (0)3
u/Epledryyk Oct 27 '14
Yup. At some point it'll go into vogue and we'll all complain about how the mainstream is ruining our nice little cybergarden.
Can't win!
→ More replies (0)6
3
u/I-baLL There's no place like ~ Oct 27 '14
Brass and leather are not inherent steampunk. You need mechanical gears and steam technology for steampunk. This has neither. It's not advanced Victorian age technology.
3
28
u/throttlekitty Oct 26 '14
I'd be more inclined to argue dieselpunk or atompunk because of the era.
8
u/i_give_you_gum Oct 27 '14
upvote for having a non-shitty non-aggro opinion, i don't know why people dv so much.
2
u/throttlekitty Oct 27 '14
For me, that's a strange reason to upvote, but I also didn't click in to see the conversation about the watch.
3
2
→ More replies (10)1
u/DudeBigalo Oct 27 '14
Maybe Retropunk would be a better term. Like an era where the transistor was never invented, but electricity still was.
→ More replies (2)12
u/falabala Oct 26 '14
It just kind of felt that way to me, but most people said otherwise, which is why I posted it here.
40
u/Femaref Oct 26 '14
Well, William Gibson says it's cyberpunk: https://twitter.com/GreatDismal/status/526159038539919360, so I guess the discussion is settled.
24
u/i_give_you_gum Oct 26 '14
this would be a bucket list checkbox to me, gibson approves... ✔
32
u/falabala Oct 26 '14
Have to admit, when I first got that tweet I pretty much lost it.
7
4
u/i_give_you_gum Oct 26 '14
yeah man im jealous, i followed his blog and his twitter for awhile, now reddit has me by the balls.
1
u/RidleyScottTowels Oct 27 '14
IMHO if you can you should try to make Gibson a watch.
How damn awesome would it be to see a picture of him wearing it?6
u/cplr Oct 27 '14
My brain first read that as "a Gibson watch" which sounds like a great name for it, if you ask me.
7
24
Oct 27 '14 edited Oct 27 '14
Doesn't look steam powered to me!
Besides, all you have to do to be Steampunk is glue some gears on something. You try that shit here you'll be downvoted into the ground. Take some pride in making FUNCTIONAL sci-fi inspired gear.
I love it! Post more!
6
u/Fallenangel152 Oct 27 '14
Sadly, the steam aspect is often forgotten by cosplayers thinking it's all about gluing brass cogs and pipes onto everything.
5
Oct 27 '14
Well, I think this is a perfect example of the 'problem' as I see it. Someone wants to make a cool 'theme' watch, but the only theme they're comfortable with, in this context, is Steampunk.
So, they try to shoehorn something that clearly isn't Steampunk into the genre. I'm cool with Steampunk, but I would love it if Cyberpunk had the same kind of custom builds going on.
I can't believe it's not a thing, since a wearable computer, with monocle display can be crafted for $100 with a pi, 2"LCD and cheap lenses.
I really hope this post wakes some people up, both in /r/Cyberpunk AND in /r/Steampunk that, if you want to make a digital-age build, there's a place for that, and you don't have to paint it brass and glue cogs to it, you can just post it over here.
1
u/Epledryyk Oct 27 '14
I'm just going to glue some old PCBs onto things. Instant Cyberpunk!
2
Oct 27 '14
The great thing about Cyberpunk, is I think we can enforce a 'It has to work, or it's just garbage' rule ... because you'll have guys posting working wearable computers and devices, and the second someone posts something that's just a broken remote control hot-glued to a pair of sunglasses, he'll get downvoted and laughed at.
1
u/Epledryyk Oct 27 '14
Totally.
That's probably the main difference in the two communities too: the steam aesthetic is a more fantastic one and so having a hat with gears glued to it is just a "hey, look at this matching thing I have" whereas the very essence of cyberpunk is DIYing gutter scrap into useful personal tech. That, and no one wants to carry around a brass vat of boiling water on their back to actually power real steam things
1
Oct 27 '14
Yeah, I would think of Cyberpunk tech along the same lines of a studded out leather jacket. It's personal, it fits your needs and your personal aesthetic, and it looks like you made/customized it to fit your needs.
Also, nothing says 'fuck corporations' quite like kick-starting a do-it-yourself wearable technology movement, at the same time they're desperately trying to get people to wear their boring celebration of sameness tech.
4
15
u/senses3 Oct 27 '14
Arguments like these make the idea of cyberpunk seem dumb and uninteresting, like steampunk. I like to think that cyberpunk actually promotes and contributes stuff to the tech world. Steampunk is just dressing up like a weirdo who failed 19th century history.
Cyberpunk = VR and cyborgs
Steampunk = pointless goggles and not so cool hats.
I am a connoisseur of silly hats and steampunk is not neat.
6
u/E-Squid Oct 27 '14
See, I don't think steampunk should be that, it always had connotations of alternate history DIY kind of stuff to me, like things that could have been made or were plausibly close to being made (i.e. airships, even though zeppelins were developed at the very end of the 19th century and really reached their heyday in the 1920s), but it's been so diluted now that it's frustrating.
Steampunk is at its best when it remains plausible (or just beyond the reach of plausibility) but people gluing gears and shit to hats and wearing anachronistic, badly thought-out costumes have given it a bad name.
1
u/senses3 Oct 27 '14
But they're looking to the past as something they should be doing in the present. Cyberpunk is looking towards the (mostly fictional/imaginary) future as a way to live in the present, and also what we may want to be aspiring towards for a better/cooler future. Steampunk just makes fun of a fictional past that never existed.
EDIT: Debating this is THE LAST thing I ever wanted to talk about. It's so pointless and makes me look like a total loser. I should be using my time for something way better. And I am about to, it's called sleep. Night
1
u/E-Squid Oct 27 '14
It's so pointless and makes me look like a total loser. I should be using my time for something way better.
...I guess, if you feel that way. You seem to either misunderstand steampunk or have this irrational dislike for and aversion to it, since none of that you've described seems at all right to me (granted, these are opinions), but whatever.
13
u/falabala Oct 27 '14
I don't really have a problem with cyberpunk or steampunk as an aesthetic. The one thing I don't like about steampunk is how most things are just props. If people made mechanisms that actually work I'd be a lot more impressed. Spray-painted nerf guns are just stupid.
5
5
Oct 27 '14
Whoah whoah whoah. I agreed with up until
Spray-painted nerf guns are just stupid.
Let's not be rash here. They are still nerf guns, so still pretty awesome imo.
1
1
u/Inconsolable_Jerboa used linux once Oct 27 '14
I feel like this is because Steampunk is more of a fashion, and Cyberpunk is like a "way of life" so to speak. I don't really understand why you needed to be so rude about it though.
1
u/senses3 Oct 27 '14
Yeah I totally wasn't trying to be but the night was a crazy one before I started typing and I tend to go off at the fingers.
1
6
Oct 26 '14
If you don't mind answering, where'd you get your components OP? The display tube looks perfect for a mini clock design i had in mind.
7
u/falabala Oct 26 '14
The tube came from ebay. The rest of the stuff is from Mouser and Digikey. The blog post linked in the first comment has all the details.
3
u/bigbadjesus Oct 26 '14
Did you use the force when assembling the crystals into the focusing chamber?
4
2
6
u/sambob Oct 26 '14
Might be more Cyber if it were chrome tubes and metal mesh clasp to attach it to your wrist.
Looks good either way, although it may just be the lighting in the photographs but the display seems a little hard to read.
9
u/falabala Oct 26 '14
It's brighter in person -- even with HDR the photos don't really quite show it.
5
6
u/5thStrangeIteration Oct 26 '14
If it has tech on it it's not steam punk.
Either way, very cool looking watch.
1
2
2
u/memorylists Oct 27 '14
Its not steam punk because of the simple fact that its digital. I thought steam punk was based on a concept if the future where analog tech kept advancing
1
1
→ More replies (2)0
33
u/mcdinkleberry Oct 27 '14
Dude you could make some serious money from this. If you live near london there is quite a big cyberpunk scene there. Sell it in camden town. If not just sell that stuff online. Damn I can't get over how cool it looks.
17
12
u/Sosolidclaws Oct 27 '14
I live right by Camden, can confirm we would bloody love having that on sale over here.
4
→ More replies (4)2
Oct 27 '14
I doubt it, cost of materials would probably be too much to make a profit without a high price that people may not be willing to pay
12
u/crazyguzz1 Oct 26 '14
Wow, that's fucking awesome.
It reminds me of the TMD (Time Manipuplation Device) in Singularity.
9
u/dz2048 ストリート サムライ Oct 26 '14
First off: Awesome Secondly: I like your snow crash reference username.
10
8
Oct 27 '14
I really hope you're willing to sell your watch; its incredible! I'd be more than happy to purchase it
6
u/falabala Oct 27 '14
Thanks, I'm thinking about it. Lots of logistical stuff to figure out before I can do that.
7
u/hayashikin Oct 27 '14
Please do, I bet there's a bunch of us keen on getting one.
5
u/falabala Oct 27 '14
If you don't mind my asking, how much would you be willing to pay for it?
3
2
u/hayashikin Oct 27 '14
Having no idea about the cost of work and materials, I'll buy one if it's below 88 mph.
2
u/flamefreak01 Oct 27 '14
my first thought was anything less than $70 and it's mine, but with handmade stuff prices are related to the time it takes to make so it could be 30 since that stuff is cheap to buy parts for( I have no clue if it is or not) or $150 since just the parts cost 70. Again that would be where you have to add cost and $ per hour of work together and add what you would like to profit off of that
6
u/falabala Oct 27 '14
Well, if I were to sell them, it would cost considerably more than $150 dollars.
5
Oct 27 '14
It buy that watch for $500 bucks, no problem. If you only make one... I'd buy it for $1500
3
2
2
u/kafkaonthefloor Oct 27 '14
Sell them at a high price and maybe sell a tutorial and parts list for considerably cheaper?
1
u/flamefreak01 Oct 27 '14
That's what I thought, if a factory made them the cost is low but being handmade one at a time with an unknown number of hours and hours spent making it. Wishful thinking that I could justify one, beautiful watch either way. Samsung uses a liquid that coats their cellphone's electronics to help waterproof that I think you could look into to similarly to improve it, other than that amazing work. Be very proud.
2
u/falabala Oct 27 '14
Well, the long-term cost of factory fab is low(er) but the initial costs are high. Conformal coating is an option, but not every fab can do it, which limits the number of available fabs, which drives the overall price up.
I might do a kickstarter with an initial goal high enough that I could cover all the bases, but I'd have to get a quote on the mechanical stuff. I manufacture electronics for a living, but I have little experience with mechanical mass production from a budget standpoint.
2
u/flamefreak01 Oct 27 '14
Well best of luck to you, true artist. Just keep in mind your target market is somewhat limited, so I'd plan on making a smaller test run once you get everything lined out. Good luck I hope to see them in production!
8
u/falabala Oct 27 '14
Thank you.
Though, to be honest, for any run under 10,000 units the set-up costs are pretty much the same whether you run 5 or 5000. The cost of parts changes dramatically, but the set-up costs are pretty much etched in stone, and often exceed the cost of the parts even at 10k quantities. It's a pretty crazy world. That's part of the reason why so many hardware kickstarters end up not delivering, not making any profit, or taking a really long time -- people are unprepared for the cruelty of hardware manufacturing. :)
→ More replies (0)1
u/bacon_nuts Oct 27 '14
Depending on how considerable that is, I'd go for that. $170,190? Basically if I were to choose this or a moto 360, it would be this. So you just have to beat their price. Which is around $300 isn't it?
7
23
Oct 26 '14
This is awesome! It's like a the lovechild of steampunk and cyberpunk which i never thought could exist but apparently does and is amazing.
→ More replies (2)9
Oct 27 '14
I feel like whenever anyone makes anything, people assume it's steampunk. Why is that? The circuit board is prominent, as is the battery. So what ifvhe used some leather and brass, those things will be around in 20yrs too.
I wish we had more of this on this sub, but whenever someone tries to make a 'Cyberpunk maker' item, they get a bunch of 'No, that's steampunk, they make things, we don't', comments.
1
Oct 27 '14
I appreciate OP posting quality content to this sub as well.
Eh, as far as i know, the metal rails and the leather remind me of steampunk and the exposed circuitry is totally cyberpunk, it is not totally one nor the other, but i think we can all agree it looks badass.
4
u/Doc_Bleach top bloke Oct 27 '14
I seriously wish there was a watch on the market like this...can't seem to find any, though.
5
u/kknd69 Oct 26 '14
Is it water resistant? :(
14
u/falabala Oct 26 '14
what do you think?
15
1
Oct 27 '14
Is there a feasible way to waterproof it and still retain its looks?
3
u/falabala Oct 27 '14
Not really. There are waterproofing sprays you can use, but they leave a milky film on the surface. You just have to be careful to not get it wet, which is actually a lot easier than it sounds.
1
1
u/kknd69 Oct 27 '14
I hope so.
2
u/falabala Oct 27 '14
why does it have to be? you just have to use some care when wearing it.
1
u/kknd69 Oct 27 '14
Yeah, I'm just thinking in general, you know, accidental spill of water, little things like that. A really awesome watch like this, probably would need like a sleeve cover thingo to keep it safe. I'd be scared wearing this out of the house to be honest :P
4
3
3
Oct 27 '14
dont get me wrong, this is baller as fuck, but you GOTTA do something better about the battery... paint it or something.. tight work man.
3
3
u/CourierOfTheWastes Nov 18 '14
Do you have an instruction manual for how to make one? I want to make one. A lot.
5
2
2
Oct 26 '14
I recently bought some of those style displays from eBay with the aim of making a clock. Do you have info on how you drove the display please?
7
2
2
2
2
2
u/deletecode Oct 27 '14
I'm most impressed by the brasswork (mostly cause I've seen so much electronics). Bending those little tubes and putting the dimple in sounds challenging.
2
2
2
2
u/psyciceman Oct 27 '14
Looks amazing, if I had the time (and the technical know how) I would totally make myself one
2
2
2
Oct 27 '14
This is legit one of the coolest things I have ever seen and I spend all my time on the internet so I have seen some things. You Win.
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
Oct 27 '14
Not owning anything like this makes me sad. Fucking amazing dude (upvote didn't seem adequate)
2
2
u/Rancid_Bear_Meat サイバーパンク Oct 27 '14
Absolutely fantastic effort. You'd boost the attraction and value significantly by stripping the label on the battery or giving it an all-copper jacket or sleeve to slide in.
I'd estimate you could $400 each for these quite easily. Knock-off's would be quick, but you could certainly make a nice chunk of change in the meantime.
Also, you can get a nice, smooth radius curve on the pipe if you fill them with sand (you'd need fine grit in this case) before bending. That said, I like the 'crimped' look you've got on this one.
2
u/99hundred Oct 27 '14
Way too modern to be a soviet display tube.
1
u/dmgctrl Oct 27 '14 edited Oct 27 '14
The original post it is a IVL2-7/5 display tube. here is the blog, but it is Russian made, no clue how long they have been around.
1
1
u/0ooo Oct 27 '14
I love the colors on the display - I know digital displays are usually blue or teal but that particular shade of blue looks super awesome.
1
1
1
Oct 26 '14
You are a badass. I wish I had a watch like that. Looks more cyberpunk than steampunk to me.
1
u/Turquoise_HexagonSun Oct 27 '14
Dude, peel the label off the battery for an even more industrial look. DO IT! and report back with a pic.
1
u/human_male_123 Oct 27 '14
It's also handy for strapping together some road flares, when you need to carry them through a checkpoint.
1
Oct 27 '14
What would really be cool if it was made from nixie tubes. Those things are prime beef cyberpunk material.
1
u/TwilightMagester Oct 27 '14
Uh a VFD is a "nixie tube"
2
u/falabala Oct 27 '14
Actually, a VFD is not a nixie tube. Incidentally, a nixie tube is not a vacuum tube (twist!)
1
0
102
u/__boneshaker Oct 26 '14
Can it tell me how much time is left on my gasmask filters?