All you fancy people with your Pebbles, Apple Watches and Samsung Gears and what have you. There’s still a heck of a lot of life left in the humble mechanical watch. In fact, so refined are our skills in making traditional timekeepers, we now have watches like Citizen’s Eco-Drive One that are not only incredibly thin, but “light-powered” too.
OK, OK, using the sun for energy isn’t anything new in the watch department, I’ll give you that. But there’s something to be said for crafting a device so wafer-thin, it almost looks edible.
The Eco-Drive One here is 2.98mm thick, though the mechanism inside is a mere 1mm deep and comprised of just 85 components.
As for the outside, the face is made from 0.15mm-thick sapphire crystal, while the case itself is a ceramic / metal composite (cermet) with a hardness rating of 1500HV.
Now, for the price. The model shown here is a limited edition, with only 800 pieces made. It retails for a classy $US6000, while the standard models are $US2600. The main differences are the casing and size, with the regular versions about a millimetre wider and surrounded in stainless steel.
[Citizen Watch, via The Awesomer]