Still of Nathan Fielder in his chili suit (heat barrier gel not pictured). Random screenshot of heat barrier gel. Screenshot of Fabian Oefner cast that shows goopy mold release. Solid state watch failed attempt. Some other attempts. And final attempt.

Hot chili.Â

As we've mentioned before, we've been on and off trying to figure out how to reliably keep making Solid State Watch. In the past we've had a super hard time casting the movements in resin because LCD displays don't like heat or UV light. As resin cures, the chemical reaction releases heat and fries our displays. And when it isn't the heat, too much UV exposure from UV cure resin also kills the display. Over the past few months we've tried a bunch of stuff, slowly and not with tremendous success.

Last week Che-Wei was watching his new favorite old show Nathan For You. I was reading because Nathan, while I acknowledge his comic brilliance, is not always for me.

I peeked up from my book during the hot chili episode. Nathan is trying to devise a plan to help a guy surreptitiously vend chili at a local hockey game by crafting a chili suit to wear under his clothes. The moment I tune in was when Nathan was lathering a heat protective barrier gel all over his body so he could wear the suit with chili inside hot enough to meet food safety standards, but not burn his skin.

The next day I was scrolling through instagram and saw Fabian Oefner making one of his resin molds. He often uses a layer of thick, often vaseline looking, what I assume is mold release. I wish I knew more about the different kinds of mold releases and their uses - but in any case, it made me think of slathering a Solid State Watch movement in some thick and goopy Nathan For You heat barrier gel before casting it in resin.

This idea, is in no way sound. But lead us to a Monday filled with Solid State Watch tests.Â

And we're ready for a new drop, just in time for the time change this Sunday. We'll be making 15 next week. Grab one before they go!

Solid State Watch Limited Test Run

The new Solid State Watch is made by first dropping the movement into the 3D printed case. Then we snap fit a 1mm watch crystal right above the movement. Then we cast the crystal into the movement with resin (still testing UV cure and air cure). No resin touches or heats up the movement. At this point, the movement is sitting in air, but sealed from the top. The bottom of the 3D printed case has two small holes in it. Our next step is submerge the whole thing in mineral oil, and vacuum extract all (or most) of the bubbles. Then we seal the holes with some 3 min UV cure resin.

Huge shout out and thank you to @willy on our discord who has been sharing their experiments making their own Solid State Watches. A hugely useful tip was a fast curing UV resin (cures in 3 minutes) as opposed to the 3D print resin which takes way longer to cure. It's really helpful with prototyping. @willy also was using domed crystals on some of their experiments, which put the crystal bug in our heads. And the mineral oil thing, that's an old known casio f-91w waterproofing mod. It really helps here with visibility of the LCD, as opposed to keeping the LCD in air because of the way light travels through resin + mineral oil is more similar than air.

New classes!Â

SFPC just announced new classes with amazing teachers for their Winter 2023 Session. Please help spread the word, applications are open now until December 2.

SFPC Winter Session 2023

With love and hugs,

Che-Wei + Taylor

PS We got hit HARD with the flu this week. CW was spared, he got his flu shot and I wish I did too. We're better today, but it was 4 days of relentless discomfort. Apologies if we've been slow with emails and everything. CW has been holding down the fort.

PPS If you or anyone you know is really good at making resin casts, we would love to chat. This is for a sculpture we're working on. Totally unrelated to solid state watch.