one-needle analog – A new DIY-style analog watch by Sahko uses a single coil meter needle driven by a Raspberry Pi Pico and a digital-to-analog converter to show hours, minutes/seconds, and even the current month or day of the week—trading full simultaneous display for a striking
A normal analog watch quietly stacks time across multiple hands—hours, minutes, and often seconds. Sahko’s watch does none of that.
Instead, it uses a simple analog coil meter as its time display, sweeping a needle across a scale based on the voltage input. Where other watches juggle several parameters at once, this build funnels everything through one moving needle.
Powering the meter is a Raspberry Pi Pico. The Pico drives the coil meter through a digital-to-analog converter, turning button presses into motion on the dial. Those controls sit outside the watch: pressing the buttons tells the meter what to show. The watch can display hours, minutes/seconds, or the current month or day of the week.
The limitation is part of the design trade-off. With only a single needle available, the watch can show just one parameter at a time. But that compromise is also what creates the appeal—a cool, unique analog face where the act of switching what you’re seeing becomes part of the experience.
The hardware details add to the character. The dial backing isn’t just printed paper; it’s a custom PCB meant to be harder and more durable. The case itself is CNC milled out of aluminum and bead blasted to reach a quality surface finish. giving the finished watch an industrial feel rather than a purely hobbyist one.
A video of the project accompanies the build, showing what the one-needle system looks like in motion.
There’s also a broader message in the way the watch is made: it’s presented as a standout example of custom watch craftsmanship. with the attention to fit and finish doing real work for the end result—something Sahko’s build is said to share with other watch projects that use similar construction techniques.
analog watch Raspberry Pi Pico coil meter digital-to-analog converter CNC milled aluminum custom PCB dial
So it’s like a watch but only one hand moves? Kinda pointless tbh.
I don’t get why you’d use a Raspberry Pi in a watch when normal watches already exist. But the aluminum CNC part sounds fancy… maybe it’s just for hobby flexing? Also “switching what you’re seeing” sounds annoying.
Wait so the needle is like… an analog meter thing and the buttons are outside the watch? That seems backwards. I read “shows hours, seconds, and calendar” and thought it would show all of them at once like normal, but then it doesn’t? So basically you’re just guessing what mode you’re in??
Not gonna lie, this sounds cool but I feel like it’s gonna be confusing as hell when you’re actually trying to tell time. Like which scale is it on, the month one or the day one? And if it’s only one needle, what if the voltage changes weird or you press the wrong button… then you’re late forever lol. Still, industrial aluminum watch case is pretty neat.