In a previous blog post, I shared my intriguing idea of incorporating an antiquated numerical system into a contemporary Smart Watch. Today, I am thrilled to announce the successful completion of this unique project! I fist heard about Cistercian numerals a while back, I think it was on Hacker News and had an idea to make a smart watch that display the time using this format.
The journey was not without its challenges. During the gap between crafting the watch face and the Smart Watch’s arrival, the device’s base codebase underwent significant changes. This necessitated that I adapt and modify my original code to be compatible with the new operating system release.
Despite these hiccups, I am immensely satisfied with the final product. It’s become an integral part of my everyday attire, as I’ve been donning the watch on a daily basis. My goal is that with constant use, I will gradually adapt to this numeral system until reading the time becomes second nature, eliminating the need for mental decoding.
And here’s what it looks like:
Thanks to Hubert Sablonnière for his post A clock based on Cistercian numerals that gave me the basis and colour scheme for my watch face. Also thanks to Pine64 for their open source hardware, specifically the smart watch PineTime and particularly their discord support forum which was invaluable for me to get a lot of help fixing my code.
The notion that I might be the only person globally with a watch that showcases time through this numerical system is quite intriguing! (Although I think someone wrote a watch face for the Apple Watch).
Matthew Felgate 
Is reading the time “second nature” yet 😉