If you’re looking for the perfect timepiece to complete your steampunk outfit, ThinkGeek may well have what you’re looking for. The Tesla Watch is named after Nikola Tesla, a scientist best known for his work on electricity supply systems as well as a number of eccentric inventions including a particle gun that could “cause armies to drop dead in their tracks.”
Tesla came up with all sorts of inventions and has sort of become the poster scientist for awesomeness now. Sure he wasn’t perfect. Sure he was a bit crazy. But he was always on time for his appointments. (Ed. note: We made that up.) And now you can be, too, with the new Tesla Watch.
The separate seconds dial at the 10 o’clock mark is not the Tesla Watch’s most unusual feature. That honour goes to the two vacuum tube-style LEDs that protrude at the top. A switch lets you turn them on or off.
The Tesla Watch’s steampunk aesthetic is completed by the weathered-brass finish stainless steel case, leather strap and winding keys to allow you to adjust the time.
Even if you ignore the vacuum tubes, the Tesla Watch is not inconspicuous. It is 2.7 inches tall when you include the tubes. The total watch face measures 1.6 inches in diameter and the strap is 1.2 inches wide.
As ThinkGeek points out, “everybody will want to ask you what time it is so they can see your watch. Just remember to follow the answer with, ‘… 1875.'”
The Tesla Watch sells for US$59.99 (about CA$80) from ThinkGeek.