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Sensor Watch Firmware

While you can build any number of bare-metal applications for Sensor Watch, when we refer to the Sensor Watch firmware, we’re really talking about Movement, the community firmware for Sensor Watch. You can read more about Movement here; for now, the important thing to know is that it manages a series of watch faces that you advance through using the mode button. It’s a very similar idiom to the classic Casio F-91W, which advances from Clock -> Alarm -> Stopwatch -> Time Set, and then wraps around to Clock.

Movement offers many more watch faces — some of which, like World Clock, you can include more than once! Still: you’d be pressing the Mode button for hours if we included them all, so instead, we only build a subset of the available faces into any given firmware. This means that you can download an alternate firmware that includes the kind of functionality you want, or build custom firmware that includes just the watch faces you desire.

1 - Flashing Firmware onto Sensor Watch

The small spade at the top of Sensor Watch is designed to plug directly into a USB Micro B cable. This allows you to flash new firmware directly onto the device via the built-in UF2 bootloader.

To accomplish this, disassemble your watch completely, and plug the Sensor Watch board into a USB Micro B cable plugged into your computer. Double tap the tiny Reset button on the back of the board; the LED should begin to pulse red (or blue, for Special Edition boards). You should see a disk drive called “WATCHBOOT” appear on your computer.

Drag a UF2 file with the firmware you want to use onto the WATCHBOOT drive. You can find some prebuilt firmware images right here on the Sensor Watch website, or you can build your own firmware with just the watch faces you want to wear.

After you drag the file over to WATCHBOOT, the LED should pulse intensely for a few seconds, and then turn off. This signals that the firmware has uploaded successfully; you can now reassemble the watch and wear the new firmware on your wrist.

NOTE: As a failsafe (in case the watch inadvertently enters bootloader mode while being worn), the bootloader is programmed to exit after 60 seconds of inactivity. This means that once you enter bootloader mode (red LED pulsing), you have one minute to copy over your firmware, or the watch will exit bootloader mode, and you will have to double-tap reset again.

2 - Prebuilt Alternative Firmware for Sensor Watch

This section contains the stock firmware for Sensor Watch, as well as several prebuilt firmware images featuring an alternative set of watch faces. To flash one of these firmware images to your Sensor Watch, follow the instructions here.

Prebuilt Firmwares

Note that each firmware comes in three flavors, depending on the color of your circuit board:

  • There are a few Special Edition boards with a red/blue LED that are blue in color. For these boards, you should download the blue firmware.
  • The classic Sensor Watch circuit board was green. If you have this board, you should download the green firmware.
  • The new Sensor Watch Lite circuit board is red. For these boards, download the red firmware.

If you put the wrong color of firmware on a board — specifically, if you put the blue/green firmware onto a red board or vice versa — the LED will light up bright yellow to indicate that there was a mismatch. Make sure to match the color of firmware to the color of your board!

Also note that all of these have the “Preferences” and “Time Set” screens at the end; for brevity they aren’t included in this listing, but you will always have access to them.

  • Movement Standard Edition: Simple Clock, World Clock, Sunrise/Sunset, Moon Phase, Stopwatch
  • Movement Backer Edition: Simple Clock, World Clock, Sunrise/Sunset, Moon Phase, Temperature
  • Focus: Simple Clock, Tomato Timer, Stopwatch, Countdown
  • The Athlete: Simple Clock, Stopwatch, Countdown, Exercise Counter, Pulsometer
  • The Backpacker: Simple Clock, Sunrise/Sunset, Moon Phase, Temperature, Temperature Log, Blinky Light
  • The Stargazer: Simple Clock, Astronomy, Sunrise/Sunset, Moon Phase
  • Deep Space Now: Simple Clock, Mars Time, World Clock x3
  • alt.time: Simple Clock, Beat Time, Day One

Movement Standard

This is the standard firmware for Movement. It’s packed, but not jam-packed:

  • Simple Clock - A basic clock with date for timekeeping.
  • World Clock - You can configure this with a custom two-letter title and any time zone.
  • Sunrise/Sunset - Local sunrise and sunset times.
  • Moon Phase - Tonight’s moon phase. (press Alarm to see days in the future)
  • Stopwatch (by Wesley Ellis) - A simple stopwatch with one-second resolution.

Download it now: for Red Boards, Green Boards and Blue Boards

Try it out: Sensor Watch Emulator

Movement: Backer Edition (with temperature display)

Required Sensor Board: Temperature Sensor

The first Sensor Watch boards that shipped were with orders that automatically included a temperature sensor board. As such, the set of watch faces that shipped with those boards included a temperature display.

Post-campaign, the temperature sensor board was optional, so we replaced the temperature display with a stopwatch. If you bought a temperature sensor board and wish to have a temperature display, use this firmware; it’s identical to the standard firmware, but replaces the stopwatch with a temperature display.

  • Simple Clock - A basic clock with date for timekeeping.
  • World Clock - You can configure this with a custom two-letter title and any time zone.
  • Sunrise/Sunset - Local sunrise and sunset times.
  • Moon Phase - Tonight’s moon phase. (press Alarm to see days in the future)
  • Temperature - As measured from the temperature sensor board. (Alarm toggles C or F)

Download it now: for Red Boards, Green Boards and Blue Boards

Try it out: Sensor Watch Emulator

Focus

Required Mod: Tomato and countdown timer requires soldering the buzzer connector.

For folks who want to use the watch for productivity.

  • Simple Clock - A basic clock with date for timekeeping.
  • Tomato Timer (by Wesley Ellis) - A productivity timer varietal.
  • Stopwatch (by Wesley Ellis) - A simple stopwatch with one-second resolution.
  • Countdown (by Wesley Ellis) - A simple countdown timer for eggs, tea or tasks.

Download it now: for Red Boards, Green Boards and Blue Boards

Try it out: Sensor Watch Emulator

The Athlete

Required Mod: Countdown timer requires soldering the buzzer connector.

For folks who want to use the watch for fitness.

  • Simple Clock - A basic clock with date for timekeeping.
  • Stopwatch (by Wesley Ellis) - It counts up.
  • Countdown (by Wesley Ellis) - It counts down.
  • Exercise Counter (by Shogo Okamoto) - Designed for tracking a number of exercises by pressing the Alarm button.
  • Pulsometer - Hold the Alarm button while touching a vein on your neck, and count 30 beats. Release for your heart rate.

Download it now: for Red Boards, Green Boards and Blue Boards

Try it out: Sensor Watch Emulator

The Backpacker

Required Sensor Board: Temperature Sensor

This watch face is focused on helping you when out in the backcountry.

  • Simple Clock - A basic clock with date for timekeeping.
  • Sunrise/Sunset - Local sunrise and sunset times. Don’t get caught in the dark!
  • Moon Phase - Tonight’s moon phase. For when the sun fails you.
  • Temperature - As measured from the temperature sensor board. (Alarm button toggles C or F)
  • Temperature Log - A 36-hour log. Toss the watch outside your tent to measure overnight lows.
  • Blinky Light - This will chew through your battery, but could be useful in an emergency.

Download it now: for Red Boards, Green Boards and Blue Boards

Try it out: Sensor Watch Emulator

The Stargazer

For folks who think space is the place!

  • Simple Clock - A basic clock with date for timekeeping.
  • Astronomy - Calculates altitude, azimuth, right ascension and declination for all planets
  • Sunrise/Sunset - Local sunrise and sunset times.
  • Moon Phase - Today’s moon phase. (press Alarm to see days in the future)

Download it now: for Red Boards, Green Boards and Blue Boards

Try it out: Sensor Watch Emulator

Deep Space Now

For folks who work in deep space. (no, really!)

  • Simple Clock - A basic clock with date for timekeeping.
  • Mars Time - Displays Mars Standard Time, or local mean solar time and mission sol for each active mission on Mars.
  • World Clock - One slot for the ground station in Goldstone (California, USA)
  • World Clock - One slot for the ground station in Madrid (Spain)
  • World Clock - One slot for the ground station in Canberra (Australia)
  • Day One - Counts the number of days from a given date. Try plugging in the start of a mission (i.e. August 20, 1977) to get mission day.

Download it now: for Red Boards, Green Boards and Blue Boards

Try it out: Sensor Watch Emulator

alt.time

For fans of alternative timekeeping systems.

  • Simple Clock - A basic clock with date for timekeeping.
  • Beat Time (by Wesley Ellis) - AKA Swatch Internet Time, a decimal time standard centered on Switzerland.
  • Day One - Counts the number of days from a given date. Try plugging in your birthday!

I hope to expand this face in the future. (International Fixed Calendar, anyone?)

Download it now: for Red Boards, Green Boards and Blue Boards

Try it out: Sensor Watch Emulator

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Original F-91W SVG is © 2020 Alexis Philip, used here under the terms of the MIT license.

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Original F-91W SVG is © 2020 Alexis Philip, used here under the terms of the MIT license.

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Original F-91W SVG is © 2020 Alexis Philip, used here under the terms of the MIT license.

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Sensor Watch Emulator

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Original F-91W SVG is © 2020 Alexis Philip, used here under the terms of the MIT license.

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Sensor Watch Emulator

Sensor Watch Emulator

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Original F-91W SVG is © 2020 Alexis Philip, used here under the terms of the MIT license.

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Sensor Watch Emulator

Sensor Watch Emulator

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Original F-91W SVG is © 2020 Alexis Philip, used here under the terms of the MIT license.

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Sensor Watch Emulator

Sensor Watch Emulator

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Original F-91W SVG is © 2020 Alexis Philip, used here under the terms of the MIT license.

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Sensor Watch Emulator

Sensor Watch Emulator

Skin

Volume

Location

Original F-91W SVG is © 2020 Alexis Philip, used here under the terms of the MIT license.