Modifying the SparkFun BigTime Watch Kit:
Making it more socially acceptable

Hi fans!  Glad you're back for another lesson in simple, yet very effective do-it-yourself tomfoolery.  I ventured outside of home improvement projects and purchased a watch kit from SparkFun.  Looked pretty cool from the pictures online, plus I thought it might give me a bit of engineering credential amongst my peers if I showed up to work one day with a watch that I built myself.  I was really excited when I got the box in the mail,

then really disappointed at the size of the thing.

It's enormous!  No self-respecting adult would ever wear this thing in public.  I quickly realized this was for kids.  So, in avoidance of ridicule from my wife, I quickly devised a plan to make this thing more grown-up approved.  The enclosure is made of 1/8 inch fiberglass, 4 pieces high, so it's obnoxiously huge.  I first tried to cut it down to a more appropriate size,

but it broke into a million pieces.  I tried cutting it with a dull hacksaw, and as expected, it didn't work.  Just so happens that I work in a machine shop and have ready access to a laser cutter and unlimited amounts of stainless steel.  So I drew up a quick CAD drawing, mirroring the dimensions of the SparkFun BigWatch mainboard, and came up with the following design:

Bent up the edges to mold around the 7-segment displays.

Assembled everything as instructed in the SparkFun tutorial and I must say, it looks pretty awesome.

It's still really big and now it's really heavy since I used 22 gauge stainless steel, but darn it, it looks cool and it's a great conversation piece.  A word to the wise--this watch, while super-cool, is not in any way water-proof.  In fact, if you bump it on something, the memory will reset and you have to set the time again.