wear os watch face

Lantern Hour

In developmentWear OS 4, 5 and 6 · round displays

A late-night noodle stall at the mouth of a wet side street. The fire is your battery, the customers are your notifications, and the stall opens and closes with your actual day. Gen has been on this corner for twenty-two years; Ban, the cat on the far stool, has been there longer.

Lantern Hour at 21:40, service pose — 21:00 · Service

Lantern Hour at 19:40, special pose — 19:00 · Special

Lantern Hour at 23:40, queue pose — 23:00 · Queue

Lantern Hour at 00:40, bell pose — 00:00 · Bell

Lantern Hour at 02:40, low pose — 02:00 · Low

Lantern Hour at 03:40, charge pose — 03:00 · Charge

Lantern Hour at 08:40, shut pose — 08:00 · Shut

Lantern Hour at 13:40, closed pose — 13:00 · Closed

Lantern Hour at 17:40, opening pose — 17:00 · Opening

Lantern Hour at 20:40, sumi pose — 20:00 · Sumi

Lantern Hour at 22:40, sumi busy pose — 22:00 · Sumi busy

Lantern Hour at 18:40, sumi open pose — 18:00 · Sumi open

In development: the artwork is finished and the face is built and validated, but it has not yet been tested on a physical watch.

The stall has a working day

Six times of day, and the stall actually opens and closes with them. Before dawn the last customer has gone and the lamp is low. Through the morning and the afternoon the cart sits shuttered under a lashed tarp with nobody behind it. At dusk the tarp comes off, the curtain is unrolled and the lamp is struck. By evening it is full service; by midnight the street outside is empty again.

Everything reacts

Every second steam curls off the pot, the flame flickers, the cat's tail twitches and rain crosses the street — four loops running at different speeds, so it never looks like it is ticking.
Every minute the paper lantern swings a slow half-hour arc, and the broth in the pot drops a little.
On the hour the brass bell rings and a fresh bowl lands on the counter.
As the battery drains the pool of warm light retreats toward the lamp, until only the counter is lit.
Battery low and the lamp gutters to a cold ember, the steam thins to one thread — and Ban sits up and looks straight at you. It is the only eye contact anywhere on the dial, and it is the only low-battery warning the face needs.
On charge the keeper works the bellows: the fire comes back, sparks rise and the kettle whistles.
New messages are customers. One is a single silhouette over a bowl; six is a queue behind the curtain and an order ticket on the wire for each one (only the count is read, never the content).

A different bowl every day

Seven garnishes, one for each day of the week — soft egg, sweetcorn, chilli oil, scallion, nori, braised pork, wild mushroom — chalked on the board and sitting in the bowl on the counter. Four times a year the stall is dressed for the season: petals in spring, a paper fan in summer, maple leaves in autumn, snow along the awning in winter, with the curtain changing colour to match.

Everything else

two stallkeepers to choose from, Gen or Sumi, each with their own poses
numerals in Chalk, Amber or Vermilion
three planes of the street that shift as you tilt your wrist — and past a certain angle, the cat turns his head toward you
the date chalked on an order slip clipped to the wire
tickets, customers, cat, steam, rain and seasonal dressing each on or off
a near-black, completely still dial in always-on mode: the stall after closing, with two cat eyes on the far stool

Not on Google Play yet

Lantern Hour is still being built and tested on real watches. It will be sold on Google Play for €1 plus VAT once it has passed that testing. Questions in the meantime: paphitisbiz@gmail.com.

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