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One-of-a-Kind 1960's Camera Watch on eBay for $60,000
Posted by Adam Frucci at 8:10 AM on December 15, 2007
While cramming gadgets into wristwatches isn't all that notable these days, back in the 1960's, it wasn't that easy. That's why this Kilfitt UKA 659 camerawatch is so sweet. It's a tiny analogue camera stuffed into a (relatively) stylish watch. It's the only one in existence, created as a prototype in the Munich laboratory of famed optician Heinz Kilfitt in the 60's. It has a 1.3mm-10.5mm lens, shutter speed from 1/15 sec to 1/1,000 sec, and it uses a custom film disc. This one-of-a-kind piece of history ain't cheap, but if you've got $US60,000 sitting around there'd be worse ways to blow it. [eBay via Gadget Lab]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
hughjass
Posted 5:06 PM 14/12/07
@DocGratis:
Do you think it could be hacked and modded with a ZPM to let you gate to the Pegasus galaxy?
hughjass
DocGratis
Posted 5:00 PM 14/12/07
@Rotnmeat: You stumbled on to why this is really 60k, it actually a mini stargate!
The camera is on a little mini mapl that comes through the gate...
(heh those symbols do look like stargate symbols...
I think I see the one for earth.. oh nope not quite.)
DocGratis
dame1234
Posted 4:57 PM 14/12/07
Pretty amazing. I'm going out on a limb to say that I can't drop off the film at walgreens to get it developed.
dame1234
CODIFEROUS
Posted 4:57 PM 14/12/07
@Rotnmeat:
It looks like it could take standard 35mm if you cut it into a round shape, and the exposures fit on one frame.
CODIFEROUS
Rotnmeat
Posted 4:47 PM 14/12/07
I hope it comes with a manual. That "Stargate" encompassing the lens looks intimidating. I'm sure some Minox collectors are clamoring over themselves trying to get this, but it appears you're going to have to manufacture your own film stock if you want to use it. That canister doesn't look like it holds a common format.
Rotnmeat
DirkusMaximus
Posted 5:39 PM 14/12/07
Actually, I beleive that's a 10.5mm lens, with a 1:3 (f/3) aperture.
DirkusMaximus
92BuickLeSabre
Posted 5:37 PM 14/12/07
@DocGratis: Well, sure...if you have a huge a...
92BuickLeSabre
DocGratis
Posted 5:26 PM 14/12/07
@hughjass: Sure, except for the size of the gate aperture is so small, it would hard to fit through that...
DocGratis
92BuickLeSabre
Posted 5:18 PM 14/12/07
These are the bizarre little times I wish I were rich.
I would buy this thing in a heartbeat.
92BuickLeSabre
DocGratis
Posted 6:51 PM 14/12/07
@fearless_fx: So the joke here would be Dick Tracy took a picture with this watch and in it the sign he is holding up says "I want my watch back"?
OHHH you mean his watch had a two radio not a camera, I thought you were suggesting the impracticality of sending a message on a camera watch.
(man I don't want to be at work anymore.. but stuck I am)
DocGratis
fearless_fx
Posted 6:41 PM 14/12/07
@DucatiGuy:
Dick Tracy's watch had a 2 way radio, not a camera. =)
fearless_fx
DucatiGuy
Posted 6:31 PM 14/12/07
Dick Tracy called, he wants his watch back
DucatiGuy
norfizzle
Posted 12:39 AM 15/12/07
this watch or a Vertu phone? Hmmm, let's see..I'll take the watch without a second thought!
norfizzle
w00zzy
Posted 10:13 AM 15/12/07
I read about this(yes I can read) in a spy gadget magazine about fifteen years ago. They just had an article on it no pics. At that time it haden't been seen for a while and they thought it had been sold and lost.
w00zzy
Maxwells_Nylon_Hammer
Posted 8:42 PM 16/12/07
Does it have a self timer?
I'd love see you try and get on a plane with this on your wrist. The lens says Uca-Kilar! You can't even prove that's it's a camera as the controls are written in Middle Earth runish.
Maxwells_Nylon_Hammer
King of the Wild Frontier
Posted 2:46 PM 17/12/07
@Maxwells_Nylon_Hammer: That's true with older German technology; there are switches and gauges that don't seem to correspond to any known function. I hitched a ride once with a coworker who had some older German car--it might have been a Karmann-Ghia or one of the more obscure Volkswagen models--and I asked him what one of the gauges on the dashboard was for (it was labeled in German). He thought for a minute, then said, "I got no idea." I figure that it must have been the hyperdrive.
King of the Wild Frontier