V1 NASA Inspired Casio [AE1200WH-1A-PMV1]

The NASA Inspired Casio is a mod of the Casio AE1200WH (Casio Royale). I wore the F-91W for a long time, but I wanted something more unique with more features. I really didn’t want a smart watch either. So, this is what I came up with.

Inspirations

Early V1 Design

The earliest design for this watch featured a NASA strap fitted to the watch with adapters. This was originally an Apple Watch band, but it has worked out great for this project. It also featured a flag filter covering the analog style portion of the LCD screen. Even though this does make it slightly harder to read, I didn’t want to completely cover it with a NASA logo like the watch featured in Adam Savage’s video. I hardly ever use this use the analog style section of the LCD, but I still want to retain some level of functionality. I also installed an NTAG213 on the inside of the case. This means I could scan the watch and program it to share my contact information among other things.

Final V1 Design

The final V1 design includes a NASA worm logo covering the Casio logo. I also decided to invert the bottom half of the screen. This does add to the aesthetic of the watch. However, it makes the the small text (date, day of the week, am/pm, etc.) slightly harder to read. So, I end up using the backlight a lot more. Because of this, I decided to upgrade the backlight to some bright blue LEDs. I also think these LED help balance out the color pallet of the watch. The original orange LEDs made the watch a little bit too orange with only hints of blue in the flag filter and NASA logo.