Wooden faced wristwatch

I have a thing for watches, and nicely figured wood, sadly I've only been able to find a couple of wood based watches. It sounded like a lovely weekend project to fab up a new face for a regular watch, so I went for it.

Flickr set of the whole process

You'll need:
a) Some wood stock with a figure that you like. I went with Cocobolo from InternetLumber, their samples are dirt cheap and the perfect size for this project.

b) A donor watch to mercilessly shred to pieces. A bigger face certainly helps to show off your work later, so keep this in mind when shopping. I would also tip any watch you are considering to use at an angle and make sure there is a little room between the hands an the face (the less space now, the more sanding later to make everything fit back together). I settled on a Zane from Fossil.

c) A few common and specialized tools. Outlined within, don't worry, you can fake most of the uncommon tools.

Step 1: A bit of prep work

First a little shopping list:

Things you'll need to buy/dig out of your junk drawer

• Base watch (see intro for my source)
• Wood stock - 2"x2" (see intro for my source)
• Sandpaper (100, 200, 400, 800 grits)
• Masking tape
• Spray high gloss lacquer
• Fine toothed saw
• Double sided tape
• Cardstock for face template
• Clean work surface with a bright light so you can track down tiny piece when then spring from your hands and clatter to your bench

Specialty tools you can fake

• .75mm center punch I chocked a hardened nail up in my drillpress - read: ghetto lathe - and filed it to size
• Watch hand setting tool Taking the guts out of a mechanical pencil and sanding the lead guide off the tip will open a hole the perfect size
• Movement pad A soda bottle cap with a hole drilled in it served well enough for me, but something with a little more grip would be ideal

Specialty tools you are better off buying

• Watch hand puller - on eBay for a song

Disclaimer - There are easily sourced 'proper' tools for everything listed above, but in the spirit of DIY I picked the roll your own route. Just keep in mind that your cobbled together toolkit has a higher than average chance of causing a little damage to your work in progress. I narrowly missed putting deep gouges into the finish of my more than once of twice when a tool slipped

Rough Prep
I couldn't find a saw with fine teeth or most of the sandpaper I would need, so I ran out to Home Depot. The sandpaper was no problem, but they didn't have a saw at a price I was willing to pay, then I remembered that they had a station set up for people to cut their own molding. A few minutes and improvised jigs later I had my stock cut to rough size.

Comments

[carlo$]

you must have lots of patience

[dylanmeanttosay]

Great project! made me think of this..http://we-wood.us/

[paqrat]

Beautiful job but I think leaving the second hand off gives it an unfinished look.

[paqrat]

Did this watchband not have a catch with a spring bar? Surely it would have been easier to take the spring bar out?

[dougturnsy]

veneer = a 1/4 of the time used.

[mojo13]

First thing the went through my mind!

[building king]

That was what I was thinking!

[muiftikhar]

thats great

[Schokokeks]

I took an olive wooden teaspoon to make the veneer. Doing this project was fun! Thank you for this instructable!

[Schokokeks]

[davidjbrock]

This is very nice. A different look , but very elegant. What wood did you use?

[Schokokeks]

Thank you. I used the wood of an olive tree.

[PreCast]

Oh men beutiful watch.....

[ludesigned]

beautiful, great job

[hottamaleindustries]

I wonder... Could one combine this instructable with http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-An-Infinity-Mirror/ and make an infinity mirror watch? Obviously, I would need to buy a bigger watch.

[Evan606]

Yeah you could but the hard part would be being able to get the light casing small enough. You would also have to cover the back of the clock mechanism or else it would show in the mirror.

[carpe_noctem]

i used to "work" at this furniture art program thing (it was a city sponsored program, long story) and we had wet sand paper that went up to 20000 grit, no joke. The finest of it feels like soft leather. Using it i was able to get a mirror shine(no exaggeration) on a piece i was working on. This stuff would be perfectly suited to this, as the wood is safe from abrasion behind the glass. Also, i don't think the kit is very expensive, and can also be used to polish out scratches on ipod screens or whatever. I heard the original use of it was for aircraft windshields.

[wangdong798]

That's cool.I'll have a try.

[sukinmaru]

My brother has that exact same watch!

[pchalita]

Great Instructable!!! can´t wait to do it myself... +1000

[skelly7447]

how much, no seriously. like not as a joke

[hivoltage]

 Finally got around to doing this project!  I used Padauk for the face.

[TopherWiles]

That's gorgeous! You guys have convinced me that it's time to do a woodgrain!
TopherWiles
http://www.helpsonline.net

[wobbler]

Maybe you could apply the double sided tape first to the back of the wood to hold it together more as you sanded? The light wood has an interesting grain. Nice job!

[imjasonc]

looks classy

[tofu4tortoise]

 instead of sending it down all the way like that, why don't you just buy veneer instead? veneer is cuts of wood 1/64" thick or less, made for this purpose

[KnexFreek]

 Cool!

[KnexFreek]

 5stars

[CrLz]

Beautiful wrist watch.

[forgetmenot5106]

i tried to go to the internetlumber website, but only got a listing of lumber providers, can you give exact web address, i want to get wood samples.

[superdude4agze]

InternetLumber.com has/had many complaints as scammers against them and have since gone out of business. You will need to source a different lumber supplier.

[nitrox027]

if you have a would burner you should burn 12, 3, 6, and 9 nicly into the wood

[MikeDoucet]

I am a wood worker myself and this is nice, great watch great job on the wood. Im gonna do something like this as well... EPIC

[liljrab]

Anyway that you could sell me one of these babies?

[bpantell]

This is freakin awesome. I'm so going to try this!

[atrus713]

woulnt it be way easier to just buy the veneer?

[V3ritas]

I was thinking the same thing. . . could probably get a free sample of some nice veneers somewhere online.

[nobelium106]

veneer is easier, but real good cocobolo blows veneer away, it has this depth to it, (can also check out rosewood, same family)

[oniony]

Having just sanded all of the skirting, architrave, picture rails and radiators in our house I just could not face this step. So I am now the proud owner of the world's first wristwatch with a 3cm thick wooden watch face.

[rayked]

show me

[gerry_49]

Very nice!

[trogabird]

A flat bottom PVC cap about 1 n in diameter would work good in place of the coke cap. Cut 2 thin wedges to useto help level the other side of the watch band as you remove the pins.

[trogabird]

Sears has a dovetail saw for $9.99 that would be good for trimming wood like this to shape. You can also find many different woods for sale on the internet. do a Google search for exotic woods.

[frizle]

what kind of watch do you have?

[yuri-cmcm]

(removed by author or community request)

[Legend]

Do you not know the hours of a clock? :-P It's elegant to have no 'hours', but if you need them you could improvise some on. e.g. scorch mark or metal pieces

[Legend]

Fantastic project, you can carry nature around on your wrist, letting your imagination drift off to distant forests while at work :-)

[mrapnash]

(removed by author or community request)

[mrapnash]

This is the one I have made, haven't varnished it, just made it form a bit of scrap in the shed. A couple of things I learned that may be useful: 1. wrap some sticky tape around your finger sticky side out, wrap some sand paper around that and its easier to sand the edges and corners. also, when the tape gets a tiny bit loose you can rotate it on your finger; when it wears down on one side, just rotate it round your finger to a fresh part and use the old part as fine sand paper. 2. Some watches don't have removable stems, i had to clip mine with pliers and will reattach it soon, not sure how as I may want to have an interchangeable face so I don't want to solder it. 3. Tape the original face to the wood to provide a rigid, flat surface to sand on. it is also useful for shaping the face. If you want to swap between wooden and original face best not to use this method.

[04mewm]

that is nice.

[HardCoreHacker]

This is really cool

[monkey pirate]

you're a freak! i want dis watch!

[Donk76]

That's pro! You must have some spare time on your hands. Well done.

[The Musicman]

lol...he has time on his WRIST! bad joke......

[JohnMichael]

This is a cool project! I am considering doing this with one of my old watches.

[CybergothiChe]

Nice one, Brutha! yeah, that is phat! I love how you ended "Strut...you've earned it"

[Leon Close]

This is really nice, but you could have saved a fair bit of effort by using a well tuned block plane or even a cabinet scraper.

[jamesv]

If I do more of these I'll certainly invest in some proper tools for getting the stock closer to size, but I'm not a wood worker by any means, so I had to go with what I had in the garage (the little hand plane I do own is not a precision tool by any stretch of the imagination, meant for getting doors to clear jambs, etc). I've been caught by the missus ogling hand tools on shows like Woodworks, so maybe this is the excuse I need... Most of the excess wood was removed rather quickly on a belt sander, the slow, tedious part ended up being the last 10% because of the constant dry fitting.

[neller75]

Forgive me for saying, that seemed obvious to me. I sort of suspected you didn't spend much time sanding that block by hand. I also kind of figured you'd use a power tool of some sort to get it down to a workable thickness to start dry fitting. I too am a big fan of sanding equipment. I once made a smokers pipe with a drill and an orbital palm sander....... followed up by hours of hand aching finger tip sanding with a bit of sand paper between your thumb and two forefingers.......ouch! Very nice work I might add!

[soccercheese33]

hey neller you should reproduce the pipe and Instructablize it!

[dagenius]

awesome

[crazycommanche=US=]

at first it looked like a nixon wath i like nixon watches

[Sire_74]

That is absolutely beautiful. The colors is just right. Thumbs up! Glenn Sweden

[Thetis]

I'd just like to expand on your instructions for opening a watch case - I'm a qualified watch repairer. The knife you use should be exactly like a stiff, sharp penknife but without a cutting edge. It should be polished, or it is likely to mark your case. Hold the watch resting on its side on a hard but cushioned surface with the slot facing up. Offer the blade to the slot and apply downward pressure, but no more than you can control - DO NOT TWIST! Twisting is also highly likely to mark a case. It is ok to rock the blade carefully. There are cases that you can't do this with. Some cases are very difficult to open (especially those big square ones with a lug at one corner of the case back), even for a professional and I have half a dozen different case opening knives and other tools. There is no shame in going to your local watchmaker - he'll probably open it for free (well, I would, anyway!)

[smokehill]

I did something similar, but a LOT easier, with an old silver ring I picked up at a yard sale. It had a missing stone, or something -- originally something square was set into a recess at the top. I looked around among my veneer scraps until I found something with a nice, fine grain, cut it into the right dimensions, and glued it into the ring. It sat "above" the surrounding silver a bit, so I sanded it in place until it got down a ways, and then I put a spot of polyurethane varnish on it. Looked great, and the total cost was 50 cents for the junk ring and close to zero for a miniscule scrap of rosewood veneer. I'd post a picture, but an ex-girlfriend swiped it a long time ago.

[mynameisjonas]

this *may* be a "stupid" question, so beware

I went to that website internet lumber, but I couldn't find the samples on the site.
help would be greatly appreciated

[smokehill]

Look on the internet for places that sell wood veneer. Most of them sell sample packs quite cheaply, with a lot of really nicely-figured grains to choose from. Constantine's is one biggie ... I think they're still in business.

[jamesv]

It appears that they have changed their policy on selling sample scraps. This might just be more incentive to track down a broken toy, old cigar box or piece of pole barn that has a better story associated with it.

[mynameisjonas]

thanks! but do you think that you could use a piece of veneer instead of sanding down a piece of wood?

[kd1uc]

I think that would work just as well. If you still want small pieces of wood almost any store that sells wood working tools sells small pieces of wood. Also there are a thousand catalogs and web sites that sell small pieces. Wood Turning catalogs specialize in small pieces for pens, ornaments and Yoyos. Woodcraft, Rockler and PennState would be some good starts. BOL

[vinny44]

sweet!

[chaitanyak]

really cool idea!! love the way it turned out!!

[chanzant]

Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!

[Sandisk1duo]

this is soo frign' awesome! make a $7 watch from walmart look like a $1000 watch!

[nachosyumm]

You could also just use wood veneer. Just find a local cabinet shop and ask if they have any small veneer scraps. The one i used to work at we would throw away pieces of veneer that big, even much bigger that that since we really had no use for them.

[benz_z]

this is a grate -ible :) but would it be possible to make the wrist out of wood too and put the oyster-clasp on that? (i know it would take a lot of work with the pins and evrything)

[PuddleOfMudd25]

This is awesome, so doing this! I just got some European Symacore Figured veneer, so I might be able to do something with it!

[b1russell]

This is GREAT-looking! Thanks for your creative suggestion. But for those of us who are, unhappily allergic to "hypoallergenic" stainless steel (the part of the watch that actually touches your skin!) and even plastics, any ideas for replacing or covering the nasty back part with truly hypoallergenic wood? I've tried pocket watches, but sadly, women's clothing often comes without the requisite pockets; I've also discovered a lamentable tendency to throw pocket watches in the washer with the pocket!

[dan_peixoto]

Thanks for this great instructable!! Actually, I just finished one that is going to be a gift to my father. I saved the sanding time using a kind of "wood card" people use to cover MDF furniture. This is the result:

[Rossiroller]

veneer

[davidglinski]

yea your right thats a good idea for fathers day or a birthday thx

[jwlk.]

Love the watch. I'm planning on making one myself. I found the watch I want and photoshopped what it would look like with the wood face. I also got a little crazy and put my initials on it in a cool font. What would be the best way to get that design on the wood. I've read all the comments and saw talk of rub on transfers. Anyone ever use these or now if they're any good. The wood is black and the text is white. what would be the best way to do that. Thanks

[Rossiroller]

I make long boards and I put my logo on them by just getting fast signs to print me up a sticker (like $20 so I imagine a tiny one would be dirt cheap) just stick it on there before painting

[2001CamaroB4C]

hmm, you could engrave whatever you want into the wood then fill it in with some kind of paint or something and then sand the face of it so that only the part you want still has the color. Or you can get stuff from woodworking stores that is a powder you mix with ca glue for inlay, that could be cool.

[T0BY]

I think the way to get the best result may be to laser print onto acetate cut to the same size as the veneer and lay it on top of it, inside the watch. Otherwise I think it may look unprofessional. Paint would probably bleed along the grain and I think anything sticky would probably look uneven and flake off.

[SergeantRage425]

that watch is like $105! i want it so bad

[The_Beast]

Fossil does make some wood faced watches but none that I really like but the watch you "made" is a very very cool I would have done it in birds eye maple but we all have different taste, again very nice watch

[jamesv]

The off the shelf fossil watches are really nice, but the "wood" appears to be synthetic. Nixon Rotologs are gorgeous and real wood though. Regarding the maple, I couldn't agree more :)

[duck-lemon]

please give me that watch... PLEASE!

[budman0312]

damn that looks really good.

[arthaha]

at the home improvement stores they sometimes have those sample cards. like the ones they have for paint but maybe there are some textured ones. that would be great for this project.

[somerockenguy]

should do thins to my fake tag heuer watch

[=SMART=]

Hot damn thats awesome !

[bengerszewski]

i agree!!!

[Ian.G]

Nice. My one critic is the you could have add something to give the ascent and a bit more detail. l would have gone dark red tick marks but over all you a very well detailed instructable.

[underoath777]

nice! great craftsmanship

[irinazcona]

ooh. nice!

[darkmuskrat]

I live in vancouver British Columbia and lots of veneer places have these small samples(or scrap from the edges) of bigger sheets(just ask nicely). that would save everyone some cash :D

[becca_sr02]

what I need to know is how thick was the wood when you placed it in?

[jamesv]

Under 1mm. By the time I was ready for final fitting, the lacquer was effectively a structural support.

[reado]

That looks amazing! Definitely not as lovingly made as your watch but my original Nixon Rotolog in Rosewood does the trick

[jamesv]

I'm two away from tracking down all of the wooden Rotologs. Those suckers are -really- nice.

[mosquitoloco]

That thing looks amazing!!!! too sad that a I have a digital watch!

[aliceownsj00]

that looks beautiful!

[nickhelton]

makes me want to do a steampunk one. get a brass band and go to town with it. thanks for the inspiration! +1

[tinkernet]

Beautiful!

[horoloradio]

Very nice job!

[killerjackalope]

Now this is style, I really love this idea, it also lends itself to refacing a watch in general...

[mrdspecs]

Where did you get purpleheart? That's an amazing wood, I've been thinking about buying some. Don't tell me they had it at the Despot? That would be excellent...

[jessifu]

I get my purpleheart, mostly at:
http://www.woodcraft.com/stores/
Hopefully there is one near you. The one closest to me is about 50 miles away. I venture up there every couple of months for exotic woods and lathe parts.

Enjoy,
Jessifu

I'm gonna try this one, with a twist!

[jamesv]

I got sample pieces (2"x2") from Internet Lumber. I can't speak to their pricing on 'real' orders, but their samples are very affordable.

[Mr. Rig It]

Sweet!

[Wiimote Master]

it looks so cool i have to try this.

[Mace42]

That is simply beautiful. I'm drooling at my keyboard.

[Spl1nt3rC3ll]

Is there any way of adding numbers or ticks? mabey pry them off the old face and glue them to the new one?

[jamesv]

I personally don't like numbers on analog faces, but I'm sure an eyeglass screwdriver and a little cyanoacrylate would work well to salvage the existing numbers. You could also grab some rub on transfer digits, or do something else arty (page numbers from old, yellowed newsprint catalogs might look nice).

As a follow up on sources, for those who want to skin an existing face without going through all of the trouble of sanding, check out cards of wood, they carry super thin veneers with an adhesive backer that I recently used on my business cards that turned out quite well.

[micronxd]

looks super snazzy

[stmurik]

wow, it's beautiful!!

[Punkguyta]

Now don't go wrecking your dad's expensive watch :-P

[hivoltage]

awesome. i really like the way that turned out, i'm considering making one myself. if you epoxied some veneer to some thinnish metal it might have worked as well

[hivoltage]

actually on second look, veneer plus metal would probably be too thick

[jamesv]

Yeah, there isn't a ton of clearance in there. What would probably be easier in the future would be to track down some replacement gears for the the movement that have a larger standoff from the face. There is a good deal of room from the hands to the crystal, just not much play betwee the hands and the movement.

I have to assume that somewhere out there on the web I can track down bits meant for a different watch with a thicker face that I can swap in.

[dbell]

Beautiful job! And a very clear instructable... One suggestion: Check out a stationary store that carries a lot of scrapbooking supplies. There are a lot of real wood "papers" available. These are actually very thin veneer sheets, on the order of light card stock in weight. I've seen them for under $1 US per 8.1"x11" sheet, and NO sanding to thickness! Dave

[jamesv]

Well where is the fun in that ;)

I ended up going with a piece of solid stock for a couple reasons. First, I couldn't find veneer I liked at any of the local woodcrafting shops - it was all birch maple and walnut in huge sheets. Secondly, the face is actually structural, so I would have had to fit the veneer to a rigid substrate and sand that to fit. Believe you me, I was looking for anyway I could to avoid spending that much quality time with a sanding block.

If I can find a way to mill a rigid blank face, I have a few ideas for future watches. French Paper has some killer patterns I'd love to use. I've also been kicking around ideas on how to make a face out of leather airbrushed to look like my skin, so the hands appear to be floating directly on my arm.

To all, thanks for the kind words.

[AllanButton]

I was thinking of doing this with Veneer, I would use a light colour for the back peice, and a darker peice for the actual face, then make and drill holes in the face peice so I can see the lighter peice through it and see markers that represent numbers.

[dbell]

If the veneer stock was too thin, I was thinking you could glue-laminate two or more sheets. Doing that, you could even achieve some 3-D shape, if the face required it. One advantage of using the scrapbook veneers is that they do come in small sizes, and you can buy by the single sheet.

[robgonzo]

heh...that would be fun, take and print a photo of your wrist without the watch and you'd have a perfect match!

[fungus amungus]

When I first saw this I assumed you were using veneer, but you sanded a piece of wood down!?! Respect.

It's positively lurvely. Excellent job. this reminds me that I need to get started on that wooden clock I've been meaning to build.

[crapflinger]

absolutely awesome....i love cocobolo...great wood...my grandpa makes knives with the stuff...

[T3h_Muffinator]

Great job! That's one nice effect you've got going there!

[robgonzo]

That is NICE! I so want to make one of those. Only suggestion I have is go to a luthier supply place like stewmac.com and look for Peghead Overlay Veneers. These thin pieces of wood have already been thicknessed to about 3/32. Koa or Mahogany would look really nice. You can also finish with Tru-oil or Tung Oil.

[BobbyMike]

Very nice job, and I like your Instructable. Very well thought out and executed.

[klinstifen]

That's amazing. The patience and determination....nice job. I'd buy that in a heart beat if I saw it in a store.

[Jacob S.]

I want one!!!, good job. I should make one

[trebuchet03]

Beautiful wood and excellent job. I've seen some yachts that had cocobolo floors (the wood was cut as a tile instead of an interlocking strip). Absolutely beautiful, but it made me sad to see it because cocobolo is nearly extinct outside of reserves and such :/

[Project_Nightmare]

Now you need to skech the numbers/markers to tell the percise time:) Great instructions!

[jamesv]

I thought about that, but I've found that I tend to gravitate more towards watches with unnumbered faces. Something about keeping the concept of time more relative than absolute really appeals to me. With the amount of time I spent hunched over shaving that block to size, I got possibly a little over-contemplative about the whole project and its meaning to me ;)

[canida]

Gorgeous! Nice documentation, too.

[turbonegro]

very nice i could (almost) trade my rado for that one

[jarv34]

excellent photography work and very well thought out as an instructable. I think you mean "smooth it out with 800 grit sandpaper" instead of "smooth it out to 800 grit" although I might not understand what you mean there.

[jamesv]

Correct, I mean work your way through all grits between 100 and 800 until the surface lack sanding or swirl marks. Thanks for the comment and suggestion.

[Slavak]

Very, very cool. And great instructable