• Tired of adverts on RWI? - Subscribe by clicking HERE and PMing Trailboss for instructions and they will magically go away!

QlockTwo replica

puretime

Trusted Dealer
Trusted Dealer
16/3/06
13,891
4,564
113
This watch wont sell in the Chinese market so the rep makers wont be interested.
 

Troklo

Active Member
23/12/15
380
149
43
Shame these are some watches I would like to own. Will have to with a gen, they are not thaaaaat expensive anyway.
 

cool1o

Known Member
11/10/20
134
85
28
Germany
Shame these are some watches I would like to own. Will have to with a gen, they are not thaaaaat expensive anyway.

Well if you think about it they are massively overpriced. My dentist has one of them, they do look really good but are either machined alu or plastic with some diffused LED's in the background that are most likely controlled by a microcomputer inside a wood chassis.

So if you'd make it yourself, excluding the time learning to code a relatively simple code the price would be:

40$ for a CNC'd plate if you know someone who owns a CNC router
25$ for a Raspberry Pi ZeroW and Adruino
20$ for a chassis out of wood
11$ for 121 LEDs
10$ for a light diffuser
10$ for some cables and solder

Now, I'm talking here about prices that you'd need to pay if you do it as a single person - imagine the margins and the price that qlocktwo has to pay for such things.
 

Troklo

Active Member
23/12/15
380
149
43
Well if you think about it they are massively overpriced. My dentist has one of them, they do look really good but are either machined alu or plastic with some diffused LED's in the background that are most likely controlled by a microcomputer inside a wood chassis.

So if you'd make it yourself, excluding the time learning to code a relatively simple code the price would be:

40$ for a CNC'd plate if you know someone who owns a CNC router
25$ for a Raspberry Pi ZeroW and Adruino
20$ for a chassis out of wood
11$ for 121 LEDs
10$ for a light diffuser
10$ for some cables and solder

Now, I'm talking here about prices that you'd need to pay if you do it as a single person - imagine the margins and the price that qlocktwo has to pay for such things.

Yeah those are crazy margins but then again probably everything we buy that is machined probably is.
You seem to know yourself around this. Have you tried to build one? If so it would be ace if you could share your results :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: cool1o

cool1o

Known Member
11/10/20
134
85
28
Germany
Yeah those are crazy margins but then again probably everything we buy that is machined probably is.
You seem to know yourself around this. Have you tried to build one? If so it would be ace if you could share your results :)

Yeah, I started when corona kicked really hard around april but suddenly I exploded with new jobs (I'm a graphic- and webdesigner focused on onlineshops) because all the shops were closed and businesses wanted to go online. Since then I wasn't able to finish my work.

I was finished with the LED Matrix tho, so the left thing would be to wire everything up, write the code so the LED Matrix knows which lights to turn on and to CNC the layout.
Maybe I'll finish around new year.
 

Simo_6732

Looking Around
16/11/20
0
2
2
Yeah those are crazy margins but then again probably everything we buy that is machined probably is.
You seem to know yourself around this. Have you tried to build one? If so it would be ace if you could share your results :)

I also have built a few of them, both 45x45 and 90x90, and actually in the post I linked I was trying to show off a few pictures (I will try to post it again following the guidelines so hopefully it will not get removed this time and I’ll be able to receive your opinion).

The costs I faced were greater but that’s probably because I outsourced both the CNC machining of the wood, the laser cutting of the plate and the printing of the PCB and so for just a few pieces it gets expensive.

cool1o Good luck with the code and machining, I’m too looking forward to see it once you will have completed it!
 

Leo_98

Looking Around
5/12/20
2
4
3
Well if you think about it they are massively overpriced. My dentist has one of them, they do look really good but are either machined alu or plastic with some diffused LED's in the background that are most likely controlled by a microcomputer inside a wood chassis.

So if you'd make it yourself, excluding the time learning to code a relatively simple code the price would be:

40$ for a CNC'd plate if you know someone who owns a CNC router
25$ for a Raspberry Pi ZeroW and Adruino
20$ for a chassis out of wood
11$ for 121 LEDs
10$ for a light diffuser
10$ for some cables and solder

Now, I'm talking here about prices that you'd need to pay if you do it as a single person - imagine the margins and the price that qlocktwo has to pay for such things.

Hi cool1o,
I built several replicas of the qlocktwo in different sizes (both 45x45 and 90x90) with Simo_6732, i'm a young engineer, and designed at CAD most of the parts of the clock.
The costs you're talking about are not that accurate in my opinion.
Let me explain you why:
1. Yes you can get a wood or plastic plate machined for such price, but we're talking about routering, not laser cutting, wich is more precise and won't have rounded corners on letters, wich is a major design flaw of the plate (you said you're a designer, i'm sure you can understand that).
if you go to qlocktwo site yourself you can see how the font was chosen to be futuristic and not roundy.
I'll post a comparison as in the early stage of prototipation we managed to have a cnc router for wood and created a plate for coding and testing.
I'm sure you can spot wich is the laser cutted in steel.
ZqnPt5.jpg
ZqnTEF.jpg

2. The raspberry pi or arduino are very very inexpensive, a lot less than what you mentioned if you don't mind using legal replicas.
Let's talk about accuracy. You need an external device to have at least an acceptable accuracy, as arduino can be a clock by itself, but will never be a trustable clock (even in the low term).
Accuracy problems are jokes if you mention the coding involved in the clock to make it work properly. It looks very simple, it's just a clock right? we tought that before we started coding the matrix manager and the showing-time routines. It took us almost 2 months of coding and testing (for a grand total of 60 to 70 hours just for coding). You can never predict all the problems of a system before you test it (maybe i'm just a young inexperienced engineer, i'm not saying you can't do it faster ).
3. The chassis. Oh boy this was fun. Yes, wood is very inexpensive,
But let's talk about designing and machining the matrix, about the costs of the cnc router(if you have one) ore the costs of manufacturing this complicated piece. You need to design and make 114 cone-shaped holes, the rails for the cables and the hole where your arduino will sit. Fun fact, we managed to do it in 2cm of thickness for the 45x45 and 3.3cm for the 90x90 beating qlocktwo itself in making a thin device.
4.Ok i'm not going to be technical in this department, as it would be very inappropriate for this forum, but still:
-If you manage to buy that quantity of nice quality LEDs at that price point i'm very jealous
-I don't think you're aware of how much power an LED needs, we used 4Amp 5V for the 45x45, and 8 Amp 5V for the 90x90. Go on amazon, you'll find the bad ones at a very low cost, wich will set your house on fire after a month, and you'll hear a constant annoying noise coming from your beautiful clock until then. You need a good, silenced, insulated one. It isn't cheap, they start at double the price of the bad quality leds you mentioned.
5. Light diffuser: I'm dead serious, if you manage to find light diffuser in thin sheets at that price please DM me, i'm interested.
6. Cables cost is not the problem, the problem is that, unless you want to make a messy circuit you'll need to design a PCB to manage all the boards involved, and the cables to control and power the matrix. I'm not even talking about the fact you'll need at least a couple days of soldering for just one clock.


This is what we made, and we're not even considering designing and finding the correct fonts, making proportions look right as the original (i'm sure you'll be faster than me in this).
If you like diy as much as we do, you'll enjoy the journey, but at least expect to double the costs to have a nicely done clock.

You're underestimating the costs of materials, and completely ignoring the manufacturing costs, labour etc..
Most of the parts of this clock require massive machines to be done (at least for the 90x90 version), or a lot of human labour (wich you can source from yourself if you diy it).
All of this if you don't consider the designing and prototyping process costs, wich could be counted as 0 for a mass production product, not for such a niche clock.

I'm going to post a couple pictures of our work right there:
The 90x90(in brushed stainless steel finish):
Zq69UY.jpg
Zq6ybs.jpg

The 45x45(in raw iron finish):
Zq6vZ4.jpg
Zq6suj.jpg


I'm quite sure you'll see by yourself that the only difference is that we don't sign them with the Qlocktwo logo.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: KOT1917 and cool1o

Troklo

Active Member
23/12/15
380
149
43
Fascinating post, thanks for sharing.
As I said before as long as it doesn't break any forum rules I would be interested in getting a German version of this.
 

cool1o

Known Member
11/10/20
134
85
28
Germany
Hi cool1o,
I built several replicas of the qlocktwo in different sizes (both 45x45 and 90x90) with Simo_6732, i'm a young engineer, and designed at CAD most of the parts of the clock.
The costs you're talking about are not that accurate in my opinion.
Let me explain you why:


Hi Leo!
Thank your for your lengthy and indepth comment. I really appreciate another view to my comment and the time that you put into it. After all we're in a forum, right? :D
I find your work fascinating, and can imagine your upfront and future cost, you're really dedicated in what you did to get upmost perfection!

As I was able to read from your friend Simo you guys outsourced the cnc machining etc.
That will increase the price for an ungodly amount. Maybe look for a hackerspace in a city nearby, most of the times you can use their stuff like 3d printers, laser cutters or cnc routers for a small donation to the hackerspace. You have to buy your own metal though.

Have you coded all the functions that qlocktwo coded in their clock? Or is it "just" the wordclock itself?

Since you mentioned the font, I am aware that you chose on of the newer models with the metal faceplate and futuristic font.
The watch that I was planning on building is the QLOCKTWO CLASSIC QOLOR with acryl front plate. The font that was used for that is most likely FF DIN Round from linotype. I could be wrong though, it's just guessing from the pictures that I've seen!

You are probably right about the LED Matrix, I mostlikely underestimated the power draw of 100+ LED, thank you for the warning beforehand so I can plan for it before doing anything stupid!

The prices in the comment I posted at first were for a DIY-Grade product, excluding the time.
BTW: If you guys paid more than 265€ for the front plate you could buy a genuine one online: Frontcover Steel Powder Coated (qlocktwo.com)

Greetings from Germany!
 

Leo_98

Looking Around
5/12/20
2
4
3
Hi Leo!
Thank your for your lengthy and indepth comment. I really appreciate another view to my comment and the time that you put into it. After all we're in a forum, right? :D
I find your work fascinating, and can imagine your upfront and future cost, you're really dedicated in what you did to get upmost perfection!

As I was able to read from your friend Simo you guys outsourced the cnc machining etc.
That will increase the price for an ungodly amount. Maybe look for a hackerspace in a city nearby, most of the times you can use their stuff like 3d printers, laser cutters or cnc routers for a small donation to the hackerspace. You have to buy your own metal though.

Have you coded all the functions that qlocktwo coded in their clock? Or is it "just" the wordclock itself?

Since you mentioned the font, I am aware that you chose on of the newer models with the metal faceplate and futuristic font.
The watch that I was planning on building is the QLOCKTWO CLASSIC QOLOR with acryl front plate. The font that was used for that is most likely FF DIN Round from linotype. I could be wrong though, it's just guessing from the pictures that I've seen!

You are probably right about the LED Matrix, I mostlikely underestimated the power draw of 100+ LED, thank you for the warning beforehand so I can plan for it before doing anything stupid!

The prices in the comment I posted at first were for a DIY-Grade product, excluding the time.
BTW: If you guys paid more than 265€ for the front plate you could buy a genuine one online: Frontcover Steel Powder Coated (qlocktwo.com)

Greetings from Germany!

Thanks for the answer!
Yes, we out-sourced the Laser-cutting of the front plate, it was almost double the price you specified in your first answer, for a steel plate.
We liked a lot the metal version of the clock, but asked for a quotation to have an acrylic one and had similar costs, since material is the cheap part of the process.
The chassis machining wasn't oustsourced, because I own a small CNC router, wich was very useful, but i wouldn't assume everyone owns one.. I just pointed out that you need to count that in the cost of getting the chassis done, and it won't be cheap because of the complexity of the piece, even if you plan to outsource it and not pay for an entire cnc machine.
Our clocks are """"just"""" wordclocks without all the functions, and the time we spent coding it was quite high anyway, due to testing and different flaws that we noticed in early stages. READ THE EDIT

The overall meaning of the post, is that this clock looks simple at first sight, but every part of it is quite difficult to reproduce, and hides a million of different costs.

We even reproduced the magnetic attachment of the plate, wich was a challenge by itself, because we didn't want to sacrifice that clean look of the 45x45 using bolts.
(the 90 has bolts, like the original).
Every part of the clock has hidden costs that you can't expect while looking at the clock for the first time.
An example: neodimium magnets for the plate could cost from 1 euro(for the small ones) to 2euros each for the proper ones, and we managed to use 4 to have a safe hold. it's 8 euros just for magnets.
You need stainless steel bolts, a safe and rightly sized power supply, a decent wall mount, a specific cone shaped router tip for the CNC (10euros ones burnt after 30 holes), nice paint, cables etc..

Even if you aim for DIY grade product the costs are higher for a working one.

Anyway, we are very curious to see your clock finished!
Looking on the internet we found only very approximative replicas that couldn't satisfy us.
This clock is about beauty and proportions, it's not a watch with absurd complications, i don't get why someone would be interested in making one without that fantastic look.

Greetings from Italy!

EDIT:
Our clock works as the original if we talk about non-smart functions:
Button time-setter
seconds (yes we managed to code the seconds mode and it looks amazing)
Ambiance-light regulations
work as good as the original
the only thing that's is missing is the flash setter
 
Last edited:

viatortini

Horology Curious
6/10/19
6
2
0
Great job! I was looking for a replica of a 45 x 45, if it's allowed by the forum rules I would like to have one... the raw iron in Italian would be perfect
 

frank-bruno

Looking Around
3/3/23
2
0
1
Hessen
I am just a kind of "newbie" here in this forum, want to have a well designed Wordclock in the next few weeks, do you have a link or address, where I can find parts, fonts etc. for frontplates. Measurements between 40(50)x40(50)cm would be fine - German version prefered. Greetings gh
 

frank-bruno

Looking Around
3/3/23
2
0
1
Hessen
picture looks phantastic! - want to own one by myself! could somebody help me to find a file 45x45 for German version or with a editor to replace existing types? it is not my hobby, want to get it fast without true & false experiments, would give you some support for efforts! Greetings gh
 

mravatar

Horology Curious
DO NOT TRADE WITH ME
27/12/22
12
6
3
USA
Not bad at all. This is one of the replica watches you wish to own.