Wearables

Tikker wristwatch tells you the ultimate time

Tikker wristwatch tells you the ultimate time
Tikker calculates your life expectancy and displays it as a running countdown
Tikker calculates your life expectancy and displays it as a running countdown
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Design prototype of Tikker
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Design prototype of Tikker
Tikker is intended to remind the wearer of the improtance of life
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Tikker is intended to remind the wearer of the improtance of life
Side view of the Tikker prototype
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Side view of the Tikker prototype
Interior prototype of Tikker highlighting development challenges
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Interior prototype of Tikker highlighting development challenges
Design sketch of Tikker
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Design sketch of Tikker
The Tikker prototype
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The Tikker prototype
Tikker is running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to bring it to market
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Tikker is running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to bring it to market
Tikker has a carpe diem philosophy behind it
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Tikker has a carpe diem philosophy behind it
Tikker calculates your life expectancy and displays it as a running countdown
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Tikker calculates your life expectancy and displays it as a running countdown
View gallery - 9 images

Are you gearing up to plunge into a particularly challenging jigsaw puzzle, or maybe starting to read a very large book? If so, you may want to check the Tikker wristwatch, which estimates how long you have to live and provides a running countdown. Aside from reminding you of this ultimate deadline, its designers see the watch as conveying a message to slow down and appreciate life while you still have it.

The principle behind Tikker is very simple. It estimates your life expectancy based on a questionnaire and converts the answers into a countdown display in years, months, days, minutes, and seconds until your appointment with the Grim Reaper. It can even compensate for leap years.

This isn't meant as a morbid death vigil stretched out over (hopefully) decades, but rather the "death watch," as the designers have nicknamed it, is a way of making people appreciate life by breaking down the modern taboo about death.

“The occurrence of death is no surprise to anyone, but in our modern society we rarely talk about it," says Tikker creator Fredrik Colting. "I think that if we were more aware of our own expiration I’m sure we’d make better choices while we are alive.”

The idea behind Tikker started with Colting’s grandfather passed away. "It made me think about death and the transience of life, and I realized that nothing matters when you are dead. Instead what matters is what we do when we are alive."

The carpe diem thinking behind Tikker may be uplifting, but not all of us may desire to be reminded that we've been living on borrowed time since last Thursday.

Tikker is currently running a Kickstarter campaign through November 1 to raise funds to cover tooling and mechanical costs, ordering components, and assembly and testing, as well as ironing out final software and hardware problems. A US$39 pledge puts you in line for the Tikker.

The video below describes the philosophy behind Tikker.

Source: Tikker via The Daily Express

Tikker - the death watch that counts down your life (but in a good way!)

View gallery - 9 images
7 comments
7 comments
Simon Sammut
wow.. i spend waaaay too much time thinking about our impending doom and the pointlessness of everything after that point.. this is the last thing I need... I can't think of this thing as anything more than a morbid reminder and a promoter of depression... I mean really???
VirtualGathis
I think this watches stated purpose will be at odds with the impact it will have. If I had a watch with my ultimate deadline on it it would not encourage me to "slow down and appreciate life". It would constantly remind me that I do not have enough time to accomplish everything I'd like. This would have me moving and doing every possible second I could manage to squeeze out of every day trying to get everything done "in time".
Jacked
How much time would you save if you didn't keep thinking about it and instead had a watch to remind you?
JimRD
I would rather have the watch tell me how many seconds I have already lived.
T N Args
ha ha, brilliant concept
Nairda
JimD makes a good point. Give people an option to view time to passing or time since creation. It would have a nice completeness about it for those glass half full or empty types.
Like the look of the thin, large white gummy watch and pixel multi line display. They should make this into a nice normal watch, with the doom function as a secondary view for those that like it.
To be constructive, how about such a device that measures your body temperature, heart rate and proximate body fat (my scales do it by measuring conductivity between feet or something. Then the cool thing would be if you get fit, your life expectancy would increase on the display. Get a beep and message flash one a week saying "5 years earned", or the other way if you are dropping the ball.
Wouldn't that be a treat !!
The Skud
How many people will take out insurance on the basis of the display and hope to gloat if they 'outlive' the watch? Or is that questionaire similar to the one the insurance companies have already devised over many profitable years? After all, they don't give an overweight, 50 plus drinker (or smoker) the same odds as a 20 something fit teetotaller, now do they!