A way towards the watch..
I've actually figured out a way of hacking something similiar, involving this guy who makes custom wooden pocket watches (the cases of the watches are made from a selected wood), the skin watch (can't remember who its made by, but its an analog face with the thinest digital watch behind it on the planet), and either a timex messenger watch or one of the newer bluetooth watches..it'd involve jutting both the face and the handles on the skin watch, gutting the custom wooden pocket watch (and specifying to him to put in some button compartments down the side for the timex/bluetooth watches functions), put the LCD from the third watch behind the hands on the skin watch, but in front of the face (and have the LCD connectors run through the face but out of the way of the skin watches innards), with the third watches innards going behind the skin watches ones, and contained in the pocket watches case.
Unfortunately all of this would be a complete bastard to actually do and just isn't something I could pull off. It really pisses me off when I come up with a really good idea for something that I'd actually buy but is out of my league for creating and someone else hasn't made it already.
The Pocket Watch
I admire the Victorian era. Sure there was a lot of shit, but there is today, and there are many good things I admire about the era.
One great style accessory of the era that every gentleman had was a pocket watch, and I think this still makes a brilliantly stylish accessory today. Unfortunately in todays world thats all it is, if you want something practicle or useful, you go for a �10 Made-In-Japan junk piece from the local supermarket. Even high end makers of watches and pocket watches design two different types: a normal strap watch that will be practicle and have many different features, and a style-orientated pocket watch. It looks good and tells the time, but that's all.
In todays world of technology, especially networked digital tech, I'd like to see a new pocket watch: one which provides all the style of an 1890 14K Gold mechanical watch, with digital technology, and newer networking technology like bluetooth in order to provide new features.
Imagine a brilliant looking watch that also includes an LCD screen behind its watch-hands, and bluetooth connectivity, it connects to my bluetooth mobile and checks my e-mails (using an High Speed Data Service), text messages, online instant messages and answer machine messages, and then reports the findings back to the LCD in the watch. It could also carry with it a small amount of memory (say about a meg, or more) in which could be stored frequently entered personal data (but not too sensative), and other information like a PGP encryption key,that the watch could use its connectivity (either bluetooth for wireless, or a small serial port that could be found under removable back cover of the watch).
So far noone has even come close to creating something like this. A real shame as its something I'd buy (even at a high cost, I'm a gadget freak after all).
I wouldn't mind having a try at making this, and I've even come up with some of the specs and parts for making one, but it still seems a bit out of my league.
And for anyone interested I got the idea for this watch from a brilliant cyberpunk/steampunk novel by one of my favourite writers, Neal Stephenson, called The Diamond Age. It first introduced me to the idea of neo-Victorian values, as well as the above idea of integrated style and technology