Smart Watch Faces

A selection of designs for Wear OS and Samsung (Tizen) smart watches. Available at Facer.

Astron^omicon Deux: A watch face with animated balance wheel and gear train is chiefly composed of a 17th century French astronomical ring (a type of sundial) with the engraving “Butterfield Paris” and a 14th century Egyptian brass tray that has been reconfigured to create the movement’s base plate. The minute and hour hands are 16th century Japanese Yanone: arrowheads made of tempered, folded steel. The rotating time scale ring measures the seconds.

Dragon (re)Animate: An animated watch face featuring a hand-colored woodcut page from the German book Astronomicum Caesareum (1540). The hours and minutes are framed by a pair of Zhou dynasty jade dragon pendants. The seconds are marked by the rotating dragon’s fire.

In dim mode the hour marker is a 15th century German spear head and the minute hand is a 18th century Indian spear head. The background is a British crown coin 1890 depicting St George slaying a dragon.

Tsuba 蜻 蛉: A watch face featuring an 18th century Japanese Tsuba (sword guard) made of copper and gold, featuring 2 dragonflies. The second hand is a 17th century Japanese Kogai (hair dressing tool) used for pinning the warrior’s hair into a bun. An outer ring indicates battery level.

A daishō (matching set of swords) from the Edo period is used for the dim mode hands. The hour hand is a Wakizashi (short sword) and the minute hand is a Katana (standard sword).

Artemidorus’ Dreams: An Eastern themed Jump Hour watch face featuring an 18th century Turkish votive tablet, with 11th century Persian metal beads and hour numbers reminiscent of an antique typewriter.

Grønland Rose: A Jump Hour watch with an animated face composed of a 16th century painting by cartographer Ignazio Danti depicting Grøenlandia (Greenland), with the seconds indicated by a rotating 32 point compass rose.

Time Span: A hybrid analog/digital watch face comprised of: an illuminated calligraphic guide by Joris Hoefnagel (Flemish / Hungarian, 1542 – 1600), 5th and 11th century Egyptian beads, Northern Mediterranean stone arrowheads dating from 1,500 to 10,000 BCE and a 4th century Roman bronze dish.

Mongolian Jump: A graphic Jump Hour watch face featuring an 1830’s Austrian Phenakistiscope disc with a dancing man. The disk “jumps ahead” to reveal the hour while a black ring marks the minutes.

Face Mask: An art historical mash-up combining a 19th century Dutch calendar illustration of the Zodiac, an ancient stone funerary mask from the Condorhuasi-Alamito people of South America. The hour markers and second “hand” are 11th century Egyptian filigree beads. The hour hand is a Paleolithic flint biface tool and the minute hand is a 15th century Kogai hair dressing tool..