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Cheshire Cat pocket watch

Cory Doctorow at 2:42 pm Fri, Mar 18, 2011

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This concept design for a Cheshire Cat pocket watch tells the time by the disappearing bits of the mad kitty.
The hours are affixed around the outside of the case in normal clockwise fashion. The cat himself is segmented into 5 minute intervals, the grin, appearing first, is 5 minutes, his head is the 10 minute mark, and each stripe is five minutes. The singular minutes are four dots affixed just below and between the 12 and 1 hour markers.

`Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'

`How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.

`You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'

Cheshire Cat Pocket Watch Design (Thanks, Paul!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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  • Anonymous

    Shouldn’t the cat sections disappear as the hour proceeds, winding up with the grin? From the description, it sounds like they appear.

  • Anonymous

    HMmmMmmM… yEsSssSSS…. puRRrrfect.

    Pocket Cheshire cats wants!

  • Drew

    The book is 146 years old, so all copyright on it has expired. It’s now considered public domain. That’s why there are so many variations of the theme out by so many different studios, game companies, etc.

  • Zig

    Oooooo…

    Want! Now! Take my money!!!

  • Anonymous

    I would buy instantly. I would lose the “Cheshire” logo, though, or replace with an icon. Otherwise it’s over-writing: seeing the word before having a chance to figure out the wonderful premise-riddle of it on your own is diluting.

    I’d say matte black with an option to lose some of the frilly Victorian etching.

    Really great work. Nicely done.

  • Anonymous

    I’d love it if the inside of watch matched the case. Not big on the logo either. Cheshire doesn’t need to be spelled out, I think we get it. Just use the cat.

  • FAC33

    If they made this, I’d buy one.

    • SilverMoon

      Me too.

      But how would you tell what hour it was?

      • Max

        Read the description : “the hours are fixed around the outside”.

        Just count the number of ticks and you know the number of hours.

        So the example photo above looks like 12:59.

      • Steiny

        The hour marks around the perimeter only light up as each hour is reached. The first sample image in the attached link shows 8:58 and hours 9-12 are unlit.

  • Anonymous

    I would definitely buy it if it were made. Also, I really like the Cheshire logo. Don’t listen to that Anon dude.

  • Anonymous

    Do the Tenniel heirs get any royalties?

  • Anonymous

    If you want to see the design become a reality drop by http://www.tokyoflash.com/blog/2011/03/cheshire-cat-pocket-watch-design/ and vote/leave a comment

  • Drew

    I definitely want one of these! Really hoping it goes into production.

  • Anonymous

    You have only the cat’s word for it that it is mad.