I've always been fascinated by both interesting ways of telling the time and binary code. It's amazing the amount of information can be stored in simple ON/OFF signals. I knew I wanted a new wrist watch so why not combine binary code with a wrist watch, and do it as an awesome DIY project?

This is the kind of idea that lodged itself in the back of my mind. Always present and constantly evolving until it reached a saturation point where the project had to be done!

There were several challenged that had to solved to make it the watch of my dreams. Most of these challenges can be traced back to the small area of a wrist watch. It would have been easy to make a big or ugly watch, but that's simply not what I wanted from this project.

I will take you through the process from idea to making your own binary wrist watch you can wear with pride.

Let's get started!

PARTS

Electronics

• 13 x 0603 LEDs

• Choose the color you want! I used red LEDs

• 1 x 8 MHz ceramic resonator

• 1 x Atmega328P-AU microprocessor

• 2 x 0.1uF 0806 capacitors

• 1 x 4.7uF 1206 tantalum capacitor

• 1 x 10k ohm 0806 resistors

• 1 x DS3231 RTC

• 3 x 51k ohm 0806 resistors

• 1 x CR2032 SMD battery clip

• 1 x CR2032 coin cell battery

• 1 x 4.5 mm push button

• 4 x 200 ohm 0806 resistors

• Choose values according to LED color. I had success with the red LEDs with values between 39 ohm and 2k ohm

• Custom PCB. 0.8mm thich, produced with a black solder mask or the color of your choice

  
  

Watch Body

• 1 x 20 mm watch band

• 2 x 20 mm watch band spring bar

• 1 x 38 mm wide watch crystal glass

• 5 cm (2 in) of thin wrapping wire or similar

• 2 x M2 6mm flat head screws

• 2 x M2 hex nuts

TOOLS

• USB to TTL adapter

• Soldering iron

• Solder

• Liquid solder flux

• Rubbing alcohol

• Flush cutters

• Tweezers

• Small torx screw driver

• Access to a high quality 3D printer