A watch that vibrates every five minutes reminding us of time’s inexorable flow can be a potent tool in a struggle for psychological health. It can help people understand what they really want in life and shed the superfluous. Wearing this thing for a week can generate endless insights. I totally need this watch.
Kyle VanHemert talks about a new tool for keeping time:
Durr [seen above] is a watch designed to draw attention to that slippery disconnect between time as it passes and how we perceive it passing. Instead of hands or numbers, it’s just a solid, colorful disk. Every five minutes, it vibrates. … [Designer Theo] Tveterås says it adds an undeniable “rhythm” to the day, chopping it into chunks small enough to let you look back and consider what you’ve been doing (vibrating any more often than every five minutes, they found was annoying; any longer than 10 and it became hard to remember when the last interval started).
Of course, giving people an existential metronome can have the opposite effect. In some cases, it hasn’t led to the wearer noticing the passing of time but rather time passing away. “We’ve gotten feedback from other people using it that it acts a…
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Clarissa's Blog 
Unfortunately, they only made 50 watches and they’re all sold out. Sounds like a cool thing to attempt to build, though – I’ve been thinking of starting to play around with microcontrollers for a while now.
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This is why I reblogged the post. If a lot of buzz is generated, somebody will start making them. Maybe that will be you and I’ll take all the credit. 🙂
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It looks like they’ll make another run – I just wanna play with microcontrollers 😉
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Mmmm. That would drive me into shrieking hysteria in short order – I need zero help towards driving myself past my own limits thanks. But, vive la difference! I can see it might be neat piece of tech for those who’d find it useful.
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Argh, that posted twice for some reason, sorry Clarissa, delete the first please?
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I would go insane from all the vibrations. Annoyed and the focus would be disturbed. Reminds one of the waterdrops on head torture method.
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I enjoyed learning about this. I have told all my friends about these new watches! Actually, they mentioned the “life expectancy” watch (The Tikker) on Spanish language radio a week or two ago.
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A “life expectancy watch” is not for the faint of heart! one needs nerves of steel to wear it.
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