I hate going to the ThinkGeek website. Not because it is bad, but rather the opposite. It is actually really good. Okay, fine, it is good for me, but bad for my wallet. This website is a veritable treasure trove of geeky and nerdy paraphernalia, from your simple t-shirts to some freakishly cool stuff. Stuff you didn’t even know existed, but now that you have seen it in the flesh, you just can’t bear not having it in your life.
This is one of those times, and one of those things: this weird yet cool steampunk wristwatch created as a tribute to the great inventor Nikola Tesla. It only features a winding key for setting the time, but two vacuum tubes on top with LEDs that can be activated with a switch. While these features may not add much functionality to a watch, the same could be argued about reading emails from your wrist.
Of course, vacuum tubes played a significant role in Nikola Tesla’s electrical research and were a large part in his creation of the first Telsa coil. At the same time, Tesla was not the only person to use him in his experiments, so it is more a steampunk item in general than strictly a Tesla concept. ThinkGeek is smart about advertising, though, and know the steampunk crowd would very well not get behind the Thomas Edison Watch.
The stainless steel case measures 1.6 inches in diameter, with the watch face being 1 inch, and the total with the tubes being 2.7 inches. The “ornamental winding key” as it’s called is used to set the watch’s time, while a smaller dial on the upper left ticks off seconds. There’s even a little loop on the wristband that the key tucks into when not in use.
The vacuum tube-style LEDs are controlled with the sliding switch on the top of the case. You can even leave them on all the time without worry of it draining the power, as the LEDs and minutes/hour hands each use their own battery. Just be careful when wearing the Tesla Watch, as those tubes make the timepiece very non-water resistant.
The Tesla watch is priced at an affordable $59.99 from ThinkGeek. Be the first on your block to drive a Tesla while wearing your own personal Tesla watch. Magic decoder ring not included.
“vacuum tubes played a significant role in Nikola Tesla’s electrical research and were a large part in his creation of the first Telsa coil.”