Watch stand – evolving desings

Some time ago I decided to make myself a watch stand. I don’t have a bed side clock, and since I take my watch off to sleep it seemed it could do double duty and be the ‘clock’ on my bedside table.

I made this:

I was pretty happy with it at the time, and I’ve used it for a couple of years. However over time the failings in this design has become more and more annoying.

The first issue is that the round that the watch is wrapped around is not quite big enough. I miscalculated at the time and so the watch hangs quite loosely on it.

The second, and much more serious issues, is that when the watch is in place the whole thing is front heavy. It is very prone to tipping over. Particularly when I’m putting the watch in place. I must have had this fall over and off my bedside dozens and dozens of times.

So I finally decided to make a new one. Attempting to fix the problems of the first, and also to come up with a different design. I could have just made the same thing again, but with better balance and a larger center. However I thought it would be more interesting to design something actually different.

That thinking actually lead me to make two new watch stands, trying out two different designs and two different materials. One in wood and one in metal.

These are the designs I came up with

The wooden one is a fairly traditional and simple design. A central block that the watch closes tightly around with a peg through it that rests in a cradle. This is nice because I can lift the central block free of the cradle to add or remove my watch. Then set it back down. The weight is central and the whole thing is nice and stable. It also holds the watch face right where I want it.

The metal one by contrast is adjustable, the central ‘hub’ has two nuts welded into it, and the front and rear plates screw in and out to adjust to the size of the watch. This design is in some ways more complicated, but in others more basic. The structure of the stand is essentially the watch itself. The metal ‘skeleton’ simply adds rigidity that holds the watch in place.

A few weeks on and I haven’t really decided which I prefer. I mostly alternate between them. I think the wooden option has a nicer tactile feel. But there is something about the bare bones metal one which I enjoy the look of.

Below I have videos of me making each one. Which do you prefer?