Custom Harmonica Watch

If you could have a custom-built watch with any gadgets and gizmos built into it that you could want, what would you include?

When I first had the idea to integrate a tiny harmonica into a wristwatch, I started asking myself this very question. My mind ran the gamut of potentially useful items, creating a list of things including a compass, bits of string, LED flashlights… you name it. Being constrained to some degree by the size of my intended watch, I ended up selecting a few components that I thought might be the most useful to me: a chronometer (of course), a USB memory stick, and a harmonica.

The Chronometer

No wristwatch would be properly complete without a means of telling the time, so this was the first consideration. Without having any of the skill, tools, or means of building my own timepiece, I went for the next best thing: I bought and disassembled a cheap watch from Walmart and appropriated the functional components into the body of the watch I designed and built.

The Harmonica

This was the second consideration. As the spark of the idea that created this project in the first place, the harmonica was certain to earn a spot in the final design. It’s a vintage Hohner Little Lady from some unidentified era (presumably from before they started calling them Little Ladies since there is no etching on it anywhere to indicate that name). This is the same tiny harmonica design that earned the honor of being the first musical instrument played in space, in 1965.

The USB Memory Stick

While these memory sticks are growing somewhat out-of-fashion with the ubiquity of cloud-based storage, I still find them personally useful in a number of situations. And that of course, is the beauty of designing and building your own custom tech. You’re not limited by what the vast majority of consumers might find useful, or by what will be easy to sell. You just get exactly what you want. I pulled this little 2 GB memory stick out of a rubber Speedy Gonzales that I believe originally came from Staples.

Design and Build

The watch is designed to be built from four layers of wood, that when glued and screwed together create the cutouts necessary for all the pieces to fit in properly. Both the harmonica and USB stick are held in place using friction fits, which actually turned out remarkably well given my limited experience with woodworking projects. If you’re planning on making your own watch or something similar, I recommend cutting your pieces very slightly larger than required and sanding down, testing the fits as you go until you’re satisfied.

The drawings for all of the wood parts and for the assembly of all the pieces can be found here: Casing Drawings.

It has been quite a fun project, and to be honest I wasn’t sure at any point during the process that I had the skill or ability to be able to pull something like this off. There are a few things that I might change in a re-design if I ever come back to it, and a few things that didn’t turn out quite as I’d hoped (notably two screws in the back shearing off meaning I can no longer change the battery without drilling them out), but overall I’m pleased with the final product. I guess it just goes to show that just because you don’t think you can do something doesn’t mean you can’t try. You may surprise yourself… I did.