TAKT Watch

A binary wristwatch with four lights and one button, designed, modeled and launched as a one-minute product film in a two-day sprint.

Type

Binary Wristwatch

Timeline

Two-Day Sprint

Tools

SolidWorks, Blender, Claude Code, Resolve

Soundtrack

“Back Pocket”, Vulfpeck

Time, in binary.

TAKT Watch is a wristwatch with no numbers on its face. Four lights sit in a column, worth 1, 2, 4 and 8 from top to bottom, and the lit ones add up to the hour, which is always showing.

Press the orange button and the same four lights spell out the minutes, tens first and then ones, before settling back on the hour.

I took it from concept to a finished one-minute commercial in a two-day sprint.

Three steps, no numbers on the face

Orange lenses over four 3535 LEDs

Every part, laid out flat

Kvadrat strap in black, white and orange

TAKT Watch · Simulator

10:47

Showing the hour2 + 8 = 10

Add up the lit values (1, 2, 4, 8) to get the hour, which is always on. Press the button to see the tens of minutes, then the minutes.

Time

HelpShow valuesHide the answer

Two days, four tools

It started on paper: the binary layout, a list of parts to model, the strap, and a storyboard for the film. From there the sprint ran modeling, build, graphics and edit back to back, so each tool had one job.

SolidWorks: modeled the shell, side button, back lid and the four lenses as an assembly.
Blender: the strap and buckle, the internal electronics (board, cells, charging coil and LEDs), materials, lighting and every animated shot.
Claude Code: the 2D graphics, from the callouts and type in the explainer shots to the infographics and drawing sheets on this page.
DaVinci Resolve: the edit, cut to “Back Pocket” by Vulfpeck.

The film is music only, so the explainer shots had to teach binary on screen: callouts tracked to each lens, the sum of the lit values, and the minutes building up digit by digit.

Working out the binary: test times, dot patterns and the parts list

Idea list and storyboard for the film

Form sketch: the pod reading 10, with strap keepers and slots

Twelve frames from the film

Four tools, in the order they were used

Clay and line renders of the internal stack

The film and the renders

Film: a 59-second commercial, at the top of this page.
Explainers: motion-graphics shots that teach the hour, the minutes and the back-lid guide without a voiceover.
Renders: studio, night, clay, line, X-ray, colorway and flat-lay stills, all from the same model.
Drawings: dimensioned orthographic plates of the pod, the button and the full watch, below.