I’ve come across those who not just want, but who need an easy to read watch. my first retro-design LCD had a pretty good success, so I thought I’d make a large digit retro LCD. Having large digits doesn’t leave a lot of space for other complications, so this came out quite plain and minimalist – the battery level is absolutely obligatory just to make the watch’s functionality useful, and I balanced it with day of month on the opposite side.
And Happy New Year everyone!
Looks good!
Looks good - but for me it looks a bit unbalanced- it needs a leading zero imho. (It’s 09:29 when writing) I’m not sure but don’t most ‘real’ digital watches have leading zeros? I like the style though and i am trying to replicate the LCD background you have!
Thanks! I couldn’t use the builtin-in LCD font or any of the ones I already had: since they’re all rectangular, I was limited on how large I could make hours/minutes, so I needed a tapered font. I saw a cushion-shaped font in a photo I found, so I loosely based this on that one and made it myself.
It was a rather awful “hack” of an experience, I had never dealt with making a font. And this case was particularly tricky because it absolutely had to be a fixed-width font to be a “properly functioning” 7-segment font. It took a week to finally get there, I went through 4 different font creators until I found one that I could hack my way through and that worked for me (Font Forge Windows app). But the font came out too fat! So… I ended up making a narrower version also-- regular for seconds/date/battery, narrow for hours/minutes. I took an existing 7-segment font and hacked it in Font Forge to get what I needed.
I went back and forth on the leading zero, but looking at photos of LCD watches from the 1970’s, almost none had a leading zero so I left it off to make it more retro. But you’re right, it’s lop-sided without it, and since I wanted it to be a realistic LCD layout, I couldn’t just center the text.
Meanwhile… this is the next one I’m working on, a US military spec from 1971, and I’m creating a drawing to scale first (using Visio) to get the specification’s dimensions, before going to Photoshop.
https://quicksearch.dla.mil/Transient/E629740194EB42D2B20A7977C6392CFA.pdf
I wish there were a lot more watch specs like this, since they’re public domain.
I forgot- you’re a retro king!
What’s the difference between a good designer and an average one? A good designer (like yourself) - the more work you put in the better it looks. An average (in my case less than average) designer the more work you put in the worse it looks! 
Wow a decent Brief . When I was at Design Scholl we were Taught that a Decent Brief Designs the Product . We Just Add a Bit of Style .
Oh don’t sell yourself short. I’m just a decent re-creator — remember, most of my faces are recreations of real-life old watches, I just do the “mechanical work” and recreate them in Photoshop. From my 102 published faces, only 15 are original designs while the rest are re-creations! On the other hand, most everybody else including you creates original designs.
I’ve gathered several photos of that actual military watch made by a couple different brands, and I’m already seeing areas of all those real watches that actually don’t match the design specs!
Ha Ha . Yes . There were a few Factory’s that made the Flieger . They all had a slightly different slant on it . I hope you will show us the Variations when you show us your Representation .
Many Congrats with your Debut Font BTW . I myself have not made one yet . I have done Images for Fonts . I would have done it that way and found someting for the Smaller Data .
Great work . I would say you could give a little more space to the Days of the Week but I realise it is a Bonus on that Face .
You already saw the exacting spec, and below is what I made out based on the dimensions of the spec. The color lines are outlines of various elements.
This is one of the sample photos I found. Already its hour hand is longer and narrower than the spec, and its seconds hand looks nothing like the spec. The triangle markers also don’t match in size.
Wow . I have not Read through the Complete specification Yet . Sadly that Divers Bezel is too big for me . I fell in love with the Flieger when I saw it . I might have been shown one as a Kid or saw it on a museum . You really go in Deep . I must read the,Spe I wonder if the,Font is Specified .
Are you a PRO ? Will you have an active Bezel ?
Have to say that looks a bit busy for my taste and based on my own service.
This is what I was issued with back in the 80’s (and I have produced a loose replica) and is co-incidentally more to my taste.
Could you share the font please?
I have yet to see anything about fonts in the spec, except for the height, pitch, and line thickness having been called out on the first figure.
Financial issues caused me to drop Pro, maybe by summer I’ll start it again. So until then none of that stuff unfortunately, although, I would say that it would be counter-productive anyway, since (based on my own faces) tremendously fewer people would have downloaded it as opposed to a free version. In either case, and for the most part, I’ve been leaving out adjustable bezels from dive watches because it’s useless if it’s not functional (back to Pro issues), and besides, it makes the rest of the dial smaller. Excluding it effectively enlarges the dial.
Its not a lot, but there are few around.
Look below, then check for MIL-W-3818A and B for example
for newer digitals check this for example
Interestingly, I’ve had GG-W-113 sitting on the back-burner since 2022. The dial’s spec is identical to the MIL-W-50717 I’m working on now, only the hands are completely different.
Back then I paused it because it appeared that only Benrus and Marathon manufactured it, and they’re both current active companies (I try to stick to defunct companies). But later on I realized the military specs are public domain, and I can use those exacting specs to build faces from.
You’ve inspired me to produce something similar (and simpler because I’m not that talented)
