I’ve always found the vibrating watch to be a fascinating invention; it allows you to discern the time just by feeling it.
This blog will focus on the vibrating watch, detailing my experiences with it, how I modified a conventional watch into a vibrating one for my brother (Part 1), and how I eventually started to build my own vibrating watch from scratch. This series will be divided into parts to cover more details.
Many watches nowadays have a vibrating function. When I was younger, the Casio LDF-10 was my favorite. I think I owned about 3; every time one broke, I would buy the same model again. Then, at some point, I bought myself another Casio model, the W-735H-8AV. Both are great watches, but now I don’t have the habit of wearing them.
Casio LDF-10
Casio W-735H-8AV
The feature I appreciated the most was the hourly alarm (either sound or vibration) that gave me a sense of time, no matter what I was doing. Sometimes, it served as a subtle reminder during my busy days to plan my time for different tasks.
However, since the advent of the smartphone era, I’ve stopped wearing watches. My phone can do everything: setting a stopwatch for my laundry, timing my fitness routine or baking, but I sometimes miss the hourly alarm! (Especially during work.)
Then recently, my brother asked me to build a custom PCB for him as an add-on module for the Casio F-91W. He had seen a post titled “MAKE IT VIBRATE – Vibrator Module for Casio F-91W” and asked if I could make it. The creator had also uploaded the Gerber file for the PCB; it seemed like an easy job, so of course, I did it!
The idea for this add-on module is to use the signal from the watch’s buzzer, along with a MOSFET (acting as a switch), to activate a small pulse for the vibration motor. So, when the watch is supposed to BEEP, it also vibrates. The board also includes an extra CR1225 coin cell battery, so the vibration only drains this battery and not the one in the watch.
I ordered 5 pieces of the board from JLCPCB, and after about one and a half weeks, I received the mail.
I then started my soldering; here is the result:
In the end, I made 5 of them and sent them to my brother, who was quite pleased with them! 🙂
Thank you for reading this post. Do you have any experience with vibrating watches? Please feel free to leave a comment!