The Durr Vibrating Watch Will Mess With Your Perception Of Time

Time is a strange thing. When you’re engaging in a fun activity, minutes and hours just seem to slip by and you’re left left wondering where the time went. Yet on the other hand if you’re stuck in a boring meeting or are made to endure something you really don’t enjoy, then the time drags and what is actually a short period of time, can feel like eternity.

A watch designed by Theo Tveterås and Lars Marcus Vedeler, has been created to draw attention to the difference between our perception of passing time and how it actually passes.

Named Durr, the watch is very simple in design. It is a solid, colourful disk that vibrates every five minues. The Norwegian duo who make up the company Skrekkøgle, were inspired to produce this unusual type of time piece  after they realised how fast their days seemed to be passing, especially when they were busy working in the studio.

They knocked together a protype and tested it while out enjoying a few beers. “We were surprised and excited about how tangible time suddenly seemed,” Tveterås says. The duo have now put together something more refined. Inside it is made up of Arduino parts, while externally it is covered with a variety of colourful housings. It is finished with a simple thin leather strap.

The Durr watch’s hardware is as simple as the look. “We like the idea of single-purpose objects,” Tveterås explains. “It has a calmer, more specific purpose than, say, a smartphone or a smartwatch.”

They have found that after wearing the watch for six months, it has added an undeniable “rhythm” to each day, allowing them to look back at the segmented parts of their day and review what they have done.

Not everyone likes to be reminded that time is passing away though. Tveterås explains that they have had “feedback from other people using it that it acts a little like a countdown for life, which wasn’t the intention at all. But the memento mori aspect is very fascinating too.”

You can purchase the Durr watch for around $122.

[Image via Skrekkøgle]

SOURCE: http://www.wired.com/design/2014/01/a-vibrating-watch-that-messes-with-your-perception-of-time/