A DIY Watch You Can Actually Wear

oritron•19 minutes ago

I like a good smart watch and I appreciate open source, but an ESP32 isn't a great pick when low power consumption is important and the device is going to be communicating regularly. I'm surprised LILYGO went that direction in a watch form factor.

smlacy•5 minutes ago

What would you suggest instead?

jblezo•about 1 hour ago

That's more a programmable watch than a DIY one :-)

I build mine from scratch, including the PCB and a 3D printed case.

For sure, that's not at all the same level of customability, programmability, capacity, nor quality. But It is really a DIY one.

For anyone interested: https://github.com/jblezoray/hpdl1414-watch

gitowiec•29 minutes ago

This device looks capable of a lot of features and possibilities. Unfortunately nothing comes to my mind because I'm not good with diy hardware (once connected raspberry pi zero with led strips). Could someone tell examples of interesting and/or useful projects one can implement with this watch?

Retr0id•about 1 hour ago

It's cool that the firmware is hackable but I think "DIY" is an imprecise way to describe that.

HardwareLust•2 days ago

LILYGO site shows pre-orders of all 3 versions are sold out unfortunately.

jwr•41 minutes ago

This does look very cool. Every peripheral one could think of, even LoRA!

gamerslexus•about 1 hour ago

s/Watch/Smartwatch

Regular DYI watches aren't big news...

(I would be over the moon for a DIY smartwatch with zero AI and e-ink screen.)

stackghost•about 1 hour ago

I would consider a DIY mechanical/analog watch to be far bigger news/more impressive than a smartwatch.

gamerslexus•41 minutes ago

I thought so too, but after quick research apparently there are kits. For various values of "DIY", I guess...

bloggie•about 1 hour ago

To be honest there is not much to it, you buy the movement, put it in a case, and put the hands on it. you can get everything from aliexpress. it's easier and often cheaper to just buy a normal watch if you need one.

Avicebron•44 minutes ago

It's impressive you start with a lathe and make the movement yourself!

NooneAtAll3•about 1 hour ago

buying movement is like buying whole PCB

DIY analogy would probably be about acquiring individual gears

ck2•about 1 hour ago

have wished for decades now there was an open-source Garmin on the level of Cyanogenmod / LineageOS for Android

not sure if it will happen this decade but definitely next decade

proper running/cycling metrics are hard as demonstrated by how many well-funded competitors are somewhat close but not there 100% yet (Coros, Amazfit, etc)

someone once hacked and decompiled older Garmins but newer ones are encrypted/signed/locked-down

rjsw•about 1 hour ago

Have you looked at the specs for the upcoming PineTime Pro [1]?

[1] https://pine64.org/2026/03/28/pinetime_march_2026/

mghackerlady•about 1 hour ago

I have a garmin from the late 90s and am saddened by the lack of FOSS software to even sync a new map onto it

ck2•about 1 hour ago

not sure if this will help you but there is a neat website that allows you to build free maps for older Garmin models that didn't have them at first like Fenix5

https://garmin.bbbike.org/

1990s is going way back though, they didn't even have mass-storage mode then, it was their proprietary "garmin mode" for usb which only things like BaseCamp can talk to

A DIY Watch You Can Actually Wear

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Discussion (19 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews