About this project
$1,026,292
7,658
The Kickstarter campaign is over, but you can still pre-order a CST-01 on our site: centralstandardtiming.com
In a Category of Its Own
The CST-01 is assembled by laminating thin, flexible components into a 0.5mm pocket etched into a single piece of flexible stainless steel. In order to make the watch as thin and minimal as possible, there are no buttons or knobs on the watch itself. Charging and setting the time is done on the included base station, and for those outside the US who prefer a 24 hour time format, this is also user selectable from the base station.
The CST-01 weighs less than 5 pennies at 12 grams. Because of the comfort, weight and thinness, if we didn't want to keep looking at it, we would forget we were wearing it.
Everything about the design and engineering was thoroughly considered for its functional and aesthetic benefits. The CST-01 is the most minimal expression of a timepiece, It’s ‘time’ embedded in a band.
Components
E Ink Screen
The concept of the watch was inspired by the qualities of E Ink segmented displays; ultra thinness, readability, ruggedness, flexibility, and low power. We developed our own segmented font designed for E Ink screens to make the numbers look great.
Powered by a Thinergy "Micro-Energy Cell"
The micro energy cell (MEC) that powers the watch is incredible in its own right. It can be recharged 10,000 times and lasts over 15 years. The watch can charge in 10 minutes and we expect the watch to be able to function for a month between charges. The MEC contains no toxic chemicals or heavy metals providing safety while being eco-friendly.
Driven by a Seiko Epson Microcontroller
The Seiko Epson System on a Chip (SoC) allows us to do everything we need to in a tiny package and sips power in order for us to achieve our desired battery life.
Assembled in the USA
What's Ahead of Us
What we are showing here are "Design Validation Units" (DVUs) that use real production methods and techniques. These are a result of a number of rounds of prototypes before them. Based on everything we have learned from these DVUs, we will be revising our designs to simplify manufacturing and increase the robustness of the manufactured version.
We'll be working on small modifications to everything from the stainless steel band, selection and refinement of adhesives, adjustments to the display module, refinement to the top mask in color and material choice and simplification of flexible circuits. The revisions we plan on doing will tackle key issues like making the product as waterproof as possible, optimizing scratch resistance, and ensuring that every product that comes off the line stands up to a high standard of quality. The charger will be revised to move from a 3d printed process to injection molded parts. This is something we have years of experience doing for a number of products that have come to market.
We are in discussions with several potential assembly partners, but we need to have final numbers for our initial manufacturing run before those talks can continue. We were originally interested in using Fulfillment by Amazon. After talking at CES with other Kickstarter veterans, they mentioned that shipwire.com was an interesting route for fulfillment as well. We will look into a number of fulfillment services to determine the best one for our needs.
Strength of the components under bending:
We had a few requests to put the components through the paces to prove that they are flexible:
Photo Gallery
The Nando Rossi Edition:
The Rose Gold Edition:
For more information about the Nando Rossi and Rose Gold editions, please see Update #6 under the updates tab at the top of the page.
Risks and challenges
We have been able to make working prototypes, but we will face more challenges as the design evolves for manufacturing. We will be lifecycle testing our prototypes in order to make sure that the watch can withstand daily abuse. As we come to understand more about manufacturing and durability, we may need to change some of the materials we are using. Currently we are looking into different materials for front mask materials that will achieve a more even surface and be more scratch resistant. This may result in a final watch that has slightly different dimensions compared to what our prototype has proven. Even with a material change we are confident we will be able to keep the thickness below 1mm. We are currently still refining the firmware that runs on the watch. With code that has not been fully optimized to preserve battery life, the measured current draw extrapolates to a battery life of 45 days. We have prototypes running currently to fully test the final battery life. The batteries can not be discharged past a certain point or they risk being damaged. We are able to sense this and put the watch into an ultra-low power sleep state that will allow sufficient time to put the watch on its charger. We will need to further study how long the watch will last in this state. A way to fully disconnect the battery and reconnect it may be necessary.
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Funding period
- (45 days)