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Pocketwatch Phone

 Does exactly what it says on the tin
  (+16)(+16)
(+16) 		  [vote for,
against]

I'm bored with wearing a watch. I always seem to be taking it off - I take it off if I'm working with machinery at work, I take it off at home when I'm in the kitchen. I don't want to wear it. That's okay, though, because I have a phone which tells me the time. I can carry that around with me and hoik it out when I need to know the time.

Except... it looks like a *phone*.

So I need some modern-day Hooke to create a thoroughly modern pocketwatch. Silver casing, big analogue clockface wih elegant Roman numerals - something of quality, something which can become my grandchildren's inheritance. The mechanism will have to be rather simple, though, because we're going to jam a basic phone into the back. Don't see a problem - strip out all the cameras and other gubbins that modern phones are weighed down by, and we can't be far off having something so small that it could fit in a case like this. Old pocketwatches unfolded so you could wind them up, so a clamshell design is a shoe-in.

Something beautiful, solid, simple. Obviously it would be fabulously expensive, but what an object.

—moomintroll, Nov 17 2005

(???) Pocket Watch Phone http://www.flextron...ellphone_design.asp
Take a look at the Dial Analog Phone design on this page for the Flextronic Design Team's approach to creating a pocket watch phone. [jurist, Nov 17 2005]

Xelibri Fashion Phone http://www.gsmarena...s_xelibri_6-552.php
I imagine it would look similar to this, except this one is based on a makeup compact design.... [shinobi, Nov 20 2005]

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       I love it. I want one.
—Worldgineer, Nov 17 2005
   

       How about phones in general that don't come with the hoo ha?   

       How many aging people want tiny digits, tiny screen with Madonna on it, internet connectivity and three thousand gmaes and fun-tones, just to speak to someone else?   

       Simple tech doesn't mean stupid.   

       Pocketwatch or brooch, this is very, very possible and overdue.   

       Motorola, you listening?
—subflower, Nov 17 2005
   

       As long as it comes with a gold chain and fob, and you keep it in your waistcoat pocket, yeah!
—DrCurry, Nov 17 2005
   

       I imagine mobiles will soon come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. some weird person will probably want a tin of baked beans phone.
—po, Nov 17 2005
   

       My god, [jurist], those phone designs are repulsive. (Oops... no offence if you're implicated, er, responsible, er, no, if you can be credited with them). The materials are grotesque. Looks more like a sports stopwatch - but I guess it's aimed at a different market. The Pocketwatch Phone would be a much more elegant beast, made in a tiny shop in the Alps by elves under the eyes of vicious Witch Queen Quality Control, while the watchmaker was asleep. A *gentleman's* watch. Phone. Thing.
—moomintroll, Nov 17 2005
   

       True. I have to admit that the design I was pointing out reminded me a little bit of a woman's diaphragm case with a stopwatch on the cover. Perhaps the designers were really trying to evoke the concept of a "biological clock". Yours would be a far greater pleasure to possess.
—jurist, Nov 17 2005
   

       I wish mobile phone manufacturers had chosen go down the path of making phones smaller and smaller, not more and more gimmicky.   

       However, is there a limit whereby a phone becomes too small for the user to use it and remain masculine?
—Texticle, Nov 17 2005
   

       No. You then start talking about how many MHz it has.
—DrCurry, Nov 18 2005
   

       I manufacturer called Xelibri make these sort of funky things (linked). they are knows as fashion phones, but none to my knowledge are based on the oldschool pocketwatch design.
—shinobi, Nov 20 2005
   

       [Pa`ve], evidently we also need crappy cameras, web browsers, games, music, video etc. At least that's what the consumers are telling the manufacturers.   

       This ever-increasing list of 'features' holds the phone back from reaching its optimum functional design.
—Texticle, Nov 20 2005
   

       I think a face that used a digital ink display would be a perfect addition to this great idea.
—talldave, Mar 22 2008
   

       [+] May I recommend a rotary dial? (or buttons in that style). The lid could be a detachable bluetooth earpiece.
—afinehowdoyoudo, Mar 22 2008
   


 

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