[HN Gopher] ./watch
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./watch
Author : shrx
Score : 285 points
Date : 2025-10-18 09:55 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (dotslashwatch.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (dotslashwatch.com)
| davydm wrote:
| Very cool. Keep on keepin on.
| EarthIsHome wrote:
| If you like quartz watches that expose their circuitry, you'll
| definitely enjoy some of Accutron's watches:
| https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/introducing-accutron-314
|
| While usually not on display, the quartz movements of Grand
| Seikos are beautifully finished:
|
| * https://i.imgur.com/sJXfmg1.jpeg
|
| * https://i.imgur.com/BucSW15.jpeg
|
| * https://i.imgur.com/xVd04BM.jpeg
|
| * https://i.imgur.com/wuRSif1.jpeg
| Topfi wrote:
| Accutrons and tuning fork watches are amazing. They have an
| incredibly unique sound/hum due to the tuning fork oscillating
| at 360 hz and the most smooth glide you'll ever see in a watch.
| Recommend a ESA 9162 or ESA 9164 over a pure Accutron for
| beginners though, a bit more resilient and far more affordable,
| though they don't have the exposed dial.
| briansm wrote:
| I believe this is why all modern digital watches use a
| 32768.0Hz crystal resonator, it's a power-of-2 frequency
| above the 20Khz top end of the range of human audio
| perception, to avoid the whole 'tinnitus on your wrist'
| thing.
| namibj wrote:
| Also a tuning fork cut for a lower power-of-two would be a
| bit bulky for a compact wrist watch.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| I have an Accutron 214 and I swear it sounds higher pitched
| than 360Hz (sounds to my ear higher than A440, which I'm very
| familiar with). Maybe I'm hearing an overtone?
| goopypoop wrote:
| you could measure it.
|
| using an app with a Fast Fourier Transform (e.g.
| https://github.com/woheller69/audio-analyzer-for-android ),
| you can visually compare the sounds of your watches
| scientism wrote:
| imgur makes me sad these days :( https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-
| us/articles/41592665292443-Imgu...
| alpenbazi wrote:
| Interesting concept. Bigger screen less casing would be nice, but
| very good concept
| ricardobeat wrote:
| It's hard to achieve a good screen/case ratio in DIY projects.
| The screen components are bulky and it's difficult to fit
| everything in small enclosures without producing custom boards,
| mass produced hardware has a ton of advantages there.
| wkjagt wrote:
| It would be cool if someone made a mass produced "watch"
| that's all the hardware but none of the firmware. So a tiny
| computer on your wrist that doesn't do anything out of the
| box, and you can make it do whatever you want. Maybe a watch,
| maybe something else. It just provides the housing,
| microcontroller, battery, screen, etc., and an SDK.
| Y_Y wrote:
| On that point, I see an awful lot of code that uses dotslash as
| if it was necessary for files in the current directory.
|
| _You only need to prepend dotslash to a filename in order of
| disambiguate invocations of executables in the the current
| directory (and not a subdirectory)._
|
| This is because bare commands will be looked up in $PATH, rather
| than among executable files in $PWD.
|
| It strikes me as weird copycat (without understanding)
| programming to just have it wherever you're referring to a local
| file. In fact I prefer to invoke `bash foo.sh` rather than `mv
| foo.sh foo; chmod +x foo.sh; ./foo.sh`. (This assumes that I
| don't need to rely on something special in the shebang line.)
| This also lets you use tab-completion as normal, as well as
| adding flags for bash like -x.
|
| (I know you could use it for clarity when an argument could look
| like a string or a file, but I don't think that's usuaully the
| purpose.)
| mjw1007 wrote:
| It makes tab completion work.
| jagged-chisel wrote:
| At the start of a line? So you want to run a script or
| executable in the current directory. PATH doesn't contain .
| and ./ is necessary.
|
| As an argument in a line? My shell offers completion from the
| current directory without ./ just fine.
| aidos wrote:
| ./<tab> completes nicely. Ambiguity is removed. There's no
| chance of accidentally running the wrong executable.
|
| So I think you and I differ on this one, but none of this is a
| hill I care to die on.
| lynx97 wrote:
| For executables, it is actually necessary to prepend ./ iff .
| is not in $PATH. And . is usually not in $PATH for security
| reasons.
| teddyh wrote:
| Similarly, many people needlessly append a slash to every
| directory name.
| BoredPositron wrote:
| For me it's because of rsync.
| chuckadams wrote:
| It's handy when the directory might not exist, happens all
| the time in git checkouts. Raise your hand if you've ever
| moved something to tmp and created a file called tmp.
|
| Usually it's tab-complete adding the slash though, I don't go
| typing it in.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| Makes it clear you're naming a directory and not a file.
|
| I also alias 'ls' to 'ls -F' so that directories have a /
| appended, makes it easier to understand the output.
| Bleibeidl wrote:
| I'm pretty sure most people use it to make clear it's a
| relative path. It takes mental load off the one reading the
| code. That's why I pretty much always use it, not only when
| executing things.
| amonith wrote:
| I use it for autocomplete... e.g ./f<tab> and enter. If I don't
| do it the terminal literally hangs for a split second and gives
| me a lot useless suggestions. I rarely type full words.
| PhilippGille wrote:
| One issue is when the path is not interpreted by the shell but
| by a program which plays by different rules.
|
| For example in Go: $ cd /path/to/go/repo
| $ go run cmd/myapp package cmd/myapp is not in std
| (/usr/local/go/src/cmd/myapp) $ go run ./cmd/myapp
| Hello, World!
|
| And then people don't want to think about when your path is for
| the shell and when it's a CLI param and how the CLI treats it,
| and just use the version that always works.
| Y_Y wrote:
| Thanks, this is the first good reason I've seen! Seems crazy
| to me that the go tool does that, but maybe I just lack
| sufficient unix-nature.
| zahlman wrote:
| This allows it to disambiguate between system path syntax
| and the language's syntax for symbolic names.
|
| Similarly, package installers can use this to disambiguate
| between "install the local file with this exact name" and
| "look up a file on the index for the named package".
| umanwizard wrote:
| This is one of the papercuts of go that I find way more
| annoying than is rational.
| catlifeonmars wrote:
| That's because cmd/myapp is not a local path, it's a
| universal path. It makes more sense when you type go run
| github.com/user/name/cmd/myapp
| amelius wrote:
| Why isn't the silicon die visible? :)
| blankx32 wrote:
| We need Ken Shirriff to build one
| projektfu wrote:
| Because light would affect its function.
| amelius wrote:
| It's an interesting design-constraint though.
| comrade1234 wrote:
| Yeah the watch command is pretty sweet. sudo watch sensors
| 7373737373 wrote:
| I learned the term for such mechanical watches is
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeleton_watch
| jsheard wrote:
| I disagree with Wikipedia's definition covering any design
| where the guts are visible from either side, in my experience
| "skeleton" always refers specifically to the dial being
| hollowed out or transparent. When the dial is opaque but the
| rear is transparent it's usually called an "exhibition
| caseback" instead.
| bashinator wrote:
| Agreed, and also most skeleton watches have the actual
| movement routed out to remove much of the material from
| bridges and plates, to expose as much gearing as possible.
| simonjgreen wrote:
| Swatch make some delightful and affordable skeleton watches
| dvh wrote:
| Display HS096T01H13 almost fits inside F91-W (1mm too wide) but
| have much smaller bezel.
| bogdan_r wrote:
| What is the battery life?
| bogdan_r wrote:
| Looks awesome! What is the battery life? How much of the power is
| used by the screen?
| HelloUsername wrote:
| Change title to "STM32-based OLED digital watch"?
| skrebbel wrote:
| What's wrong with the current title? It's a title, not a
| summary.
| HelloUsername wrote:
| It was unclear for me at least. First I thought it's about a
| live folder/directory trick, then I thought a video streaming
| service. I didn't guess clock.
| andrewrn wrote:
| Super awesome and fun project! I'm jealous
| tatjam wrote:
| Love how clever the logo is! I wonder why the RTC has the
| resonator exposed? I cannot find anything on the datasheet that
| explains its purpose
| jsheard wrote:
| Maybe they laser-trim the embedded crystal in situ after the
| chip has been fully packaged? It might be more difficult to
| keep it in spec if they trim it earlier and then pass it
| through more manufacturing steps afterwards.
| Arch-TK wrote:
| Seems unlikely it would fall out of spec by that much just
| during manufacturing. These things drift due to temperature
| (or even vibrations) anyway, and when it comes to using them
| in an RTC you have drift adjustment registers for any major
| drift from the factory.
| blahgeek wrote:
| > taking inspiration from command-line interfaces
|
| IMO the take away from command-line interfaces is compact,
| precise and minimal design. In a transitional shell prompt like
| #~$, each character has its meaning. Merely copying these symbols
| to a watch face is the exact opposite spirit of command like
| interfaces.
| goncalomb wrote:
| Cool project, but I also noticed the weird choice of #:~$ as a
| prompt, it uses almost half the width of the clock screen. And
| isn't # normally used to denote root shells? I don't think I
| ever saw it together with $.
|
| My favorite prompt is >: as a callback to the Swan computer in
| the TV show Lost (not sure if it's also used in early Apple
| computers).
| miohtama wrote:
| Good news it's an open source project so you can customise
| your prompt (:
| dhosek wrote:
| If I remember right, > was the prompt for Integer basic, ]
| for Applesoft Basic and * for the monitor.
| Angostura wrote:
| Yup.
|
| 3D0G to start basic from the Monitor
| OJFord wrote:
| `date +whatever` right arg for the output would also make more
| sense than `./t` if there's room
| jsheard wrote:
| Interesting idea, but the generic green PCB is a bit of a missed
| opportunity. Some manufacturers now offer transparent solder
| masks which emphasize the copper traces and can look really cool
| with a clean PCB layout.
|
| e.g. https://hackaday.io/project/194683-plasma-toroid-sky-
| guided-...
| nitros wrote:
| It's also becoming possible to have transparent rigid PCBs as
| of quite recently:
| https://www.pcbway.com/blog/News/Transparent_Rigid_PCBs_Laun...
|
| Naturally it does mean you can't have a ground pour, so the PCB
| needs to be designed to look nice with it.
| llbbdd wrote:
| This sounds sick, I looked for a photo and couldn't find one
| that seemed to be this specifically, just lots of the
| flexible ones, do you know if there's a photo ref somewhere?
| chias wrote:
| Worth noting that it's nine times the price (according to the
| link you posted)
| fsflover wrote:
| PineTime has a similar watchface,https://blog.krafting.net/wp-
| content/uploads/2023/09/2023071...
| xrd wrote:
| I don't really get a sense from the repo and the very sparse
| readme how and at what cost I could build one of these. There
| isn't a pricing page so I'm assuming this is diy, build it
| yourself, right?
| lloydatkinson wrote:
| The electronics section is a nice read but the software/firmware
| section is very barebones.
| floppyd wrote:
| Great hardware design, awful watchface design. The pseudo
| terminal interface looks like something I'd design right after
| discovering Linux at 13yo and making it my whole identify for a
| while.
| bigyabai wrote:
| It looks fine. The readout is digital and static, you know
| exactly where to read what you need. I doubt passersby are able
| to read what the screen says anyhow.
| ninalanyon wrote:
| > Great hardware design,
|
| Really? It looks like it would be uncomfortable to wear with
| those screws on the back sitting proud of the surface. Why
| aren't they countersunk?
|
| Or were you referring only to the electronics?
| Rendello wrote:
| I don't understand everyone's harsh reactions. I too would've
| loved it at 13 during the same phase, so what?
|
| The retro(-style) Casio community lives for retro-future
| kitsch. I guess it's a matter of taste.
| themafia wrote:
| > looks like something I'd design right after discovering Linux
| at 13yo and making it my whole identify for a while.
|
| Was this sentence designed to make you look more mature and
| developed than this imagined 13 year old? It fails to do so.
| stack_framer wrote:
| I couldn't disagree more. I laughed out loud at it!
| const sense = new Sense() sense.humor(true)
| jgrahamc wrote:
| If the idea is this: " _Many quartz watches do their best to hide
| away any electronic components from view. The design concept for
| this watch was to embrace those digital components instead [...]_
| " then I'd argue this watch that I built fulfils the requirement
| better: https://blog.jgc.org/2022/12/the-rogers-watch-retro-
| display-...
| riazrizvi wrote:
| Very cute. If Casio bought you guys out and combined their retro
| design aesthetic, this would sell like hot cakes IMO.
| mxuribe wrote:
| I'm not a watch enthusiast, but i do like the what i'll call
| old school look and appeal of Casio watches. If Casio hasn't
| already done so, it feels like they have chances to tap into
| both nostalgia audiences plus geeks audiences...and this watch
| - if they were to acquire it - would be awesome! Casio has its
| decades of manufacturing, distribution and marketing
| experience, and they get these novel, innovative ideas from
| others...and if they keep tapping into these geek topics, they
| could really be that niche maker for geeks - like what Apple
| products historically have been for creative types...sort of a
| default purchase for such an audience. (Again, i don't follow
| this stuff, so its possible they already do this.)
| Retr0id wrote:
| > The RV-2123 is an RTC with a glass top that allows you to see
| the quartz crystal itself inside the component.
|
| Very cool
| jazzyjackson wrote:
| There's also the DIGIduino, an atmega128p design with segmented
| display. I like the variety of attempts and showing off the
| circuitboard like the complex movements of mechanical watches.
|
| I do want to dig into how much a battery can be obviated here,
| there's one watch called the Pulse-o-matic that uses an automatic
| movement (that is, self-winding) to power an LCD display and
| associate 'tronics. I am charmed by the idea of wind up
| electronics now that we have microchips with deep sleep modes and
| ePaper displays that only need a blip to update.
|
| https://theprintablewatch.com/collections/digital-watch-part...
|
| https://www.hamiltonwatch.com/en-us/h52585339-pulsomatic.htm...
| incanus77 wrote:
| Very impressive. I love this kind of project (by me or anyone
| else) -- learning whole new areas of tooling that you're
| unfamiliar with, following a passion to make something that you
| can hold in your hand. Kudos.
| yohbho wrote:
| .\t
|
| seems useful on it. can you run
|
| watch -n '.\t'
|
| on it? /jk as that would make it a dedicated watch watch
| Rendello wrote:
| Maybe it updates every minute via a Cron job!
| Neywiny wrote:
| The RTC doesn't seem much better than a 32k Crystal that the stm
| could use internally. Which is odd because there are better RTCs
| around. Maybe it's just for having the window to the crystal. And
| that's fair. Artistic choice
| one_more_q wrote:
| Reminds me of my pebble watchface created 12 years ago:
| https://youtube.com/shorts/Zv4h8Uyyg1Q
| codazoda wrote:
| Nice design.
|
| I've been wanting a larger watch than most companies make. I'd
| like a traditional digital watch. Since I can't find what I want,
| I've been thinking about building my own. I want to go to about
| 60mm for the case (across my wrist).
|
| I purchased a Casio G-Shock GA-010 last week but its size is
| smaller than I anticipated. It's 52mm.
|
| I've also been drafting a document about how I'm using a digital
| watch to increase my productivity while limiting distractions.
| tamimio wrote:
| I loved it all, software and hardware, thanks for sharing it!
|
| > I had never done any PCB design before and downloaded KiCAD
| with no idea how it worked.
|
| I saw similar lines among many people who designed great things,
| take a note, companies, just because an engineer doesn't have 10y
| of experience in XYZ doesn't mean they won't do great in the job.
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