The Nokia 1100 may be an icon of the mobile world, being the best-selling phone of all time but if you think it is dead, it couldn’t be further away from the truth.
A YouTuber who goes by the name of Daniel Davis has now converted the iconic phone into a smartwatch, showing the steps as he proceeded in a three-part YouTube series.
Using the display, speaker and the vibration motors mainly from the Nokia 1100, the watch runs mainly on an Arduino board with resistors added to prevent it from burning.
A Bluetooth module was also fitted, which is used to connect to a smartphone. Power is supplied through a 3.7 volt battery. He placed all of these components on a 3D-printed case.
The watch itself is nothing to write home about. It pretty much does only the basic functions including receiving text and call notifications, as well as showing time and date. It also looks pretty dated with its low-resolution screen but at least to its credit it induces some nostalgia with its yellow-tinted display.
But that’s not the point. Using the details shown here, pretty much anyone can make their smartwatch themselves and nothing beats that. The platform has room for growth with potentially menus, a clock and maybe even games debuting around the near future. On the hardware side, too, there is a possibility for Davis to add a heartrate monitor.
The watch is quite a stretch from even the cheap smartwatches of today, but at least on the coolness factor the watch is better than pretty much anything available right now.
