CW&T’s Clever Solid State Watch
Housed inside a permanent resin case, the watch features no buttons or knobs and can never be adjusted
Funding on Kickstarter now and already beyond its goal, Brooklyn studio CW&T‘s Solid State Watch emphasizes the fact that the passing of time is one of life’s few constants. Using the “guts” of a Casio F-91W watch, Che-Wei Wang and Taylor Levy (CW&T’s founders) construct a timepiece without buttons, knobs, or the layers that typically form a face and case. Instead, the two encase the Quartz movement, battery and screen inside a transparent 32 by 40 by 10mm resin case, rendering it forever (or at least until the 10 year battery runs out) adherent to the user’s desired time zone (which the two will set before finalizing each buyer’s face).
“This project begins as a celebration of the Casio F-91W wristwatch,” the pair state on the Kickstarter page. “Initially released and unchanged since 1989, this affordable, reliable and accurate timepiece is a beautiful feat of engineering. You seriously can’t find another piece of technology that’s so ubiquitous and does what it is supposed to for as long as it does without any intervention.”
The amalgamation adds to the product’s final allure—the process of casting it; the intangibility of it; the odd, almost space discovery-like appearance. Plus, each and every step is done in CW&T’s Brooklyn space. The team uses a Form 3 3D printer to print the case, and then they cast, heat, vacuum and UV cure the movement. This central piece is then added to the case, which is then filled with resin. Subtle imperfections may arise from timepiece to timepiece, a natural occurrence because of the handmade nature of the product.
Finished with a custom Hook Strap Elastic Watch Band by Nick Mankey Designs, the nearly monochromatic model features a few pops of color afforded by an orange dot designed to cover the date—the watch cannot accommodate leap years and would thus eventually be wrong. The resin also dons a blueish tinge over time, to its benefit.
Images courtesy of CW&T
