±8 Watch
What If Time Could Be Felt?
Time is intangible, like sand that one can never hold in hands. Interestingly, a tactile perspective towards time has always been there.
We rub the photos that relate to the good old days. We touch the walls in our old houses with future revisiting wish.
Eight Watch speaks to that tangibility of time. It empowers people to feel every moment they cherish.
Work at ZJU | 2011 Teammates: Qingyuan Chen, Li Ke My Role: 3D Modeling + Rendering Skills: Product Design, 3D Modeling Tools: Rhino, Vray
Ideation
While brainstorming with Qingyuan over “wristwatch designed for the visually disabled", we first thought about designing a touchable watch (in Braille) as anyone would naturally do. But later we imagined a scenario where a stranger walks up towards a blind person wearing that watch, and asks "what time is it now?", in that case, the blind person would have to feel the time first before telling the stranger. Then the watch itself, as an interface, did not fulfill the mission of "telling the precise time" to a universal audience, as it failed to serve both blind people and the others. What if we could design a watch that is truly "universal" in that visually disabled people could feel it while others can still read it?
Modeling in Rhino
Universal Design
Every moment is displayed by digit units bulging under the soft surface.
Thus, children with no prior knowledge of reading the watch, the aged with degraded vision,
or even the blind people can recognize time accurately. ±8 watch is easy to use, and it works for everyone.
3D Time Visualization
We've been accustomed to seeing the hands circling on a clock face, the visualization of time that is limited to a flat 2D plane.
±8 Watch breaks out of the norm by bringing the visualization of time into a 3D space.
The bulging and sinking of digit units represents the lapse of time much like the ebb and flow and enriches our perception of time.
Tangible Interface
±8 watch also enables a tangible way of adjusting time.
(1) Press the button on the side of the watch, you will see all digit units bulge out.
(2) Push down the unwanted units. (3) Press the side-button again to confirm it. The whole process is easy, intuitive yet fun.
