Worn & Wound
The MIYO Watch Keycap: An Intersection of Hobbies
Early this year, I dove into customizable mechanical keyboards for the first time, adding yet another hobby to the growing list. While I wholeheartedly blame our CEO Blake Malin for this, it’s become one of my favorite hobbies to date. Along with physically building keyboards, I also began exploring various subreddits, Discord servers, and blogs, learning about the many different facets of my new hobby. Along the way, I learned about “artisan keycaps”, custom keycaps that are handcrafted from many materials (frequently resin or metal) for a specific theme, which are highly collectible and unique. At one point, I mentioned to Zach Weiss (who also got into keyboards thanks to Blake) that I wanted an artisan keycap with a fully functional watch inside. It turns out that I’m not the only one, as Zach would eventually discover a post on the r/MechanicalKeyboards subreddit titled “MIYO: 1u functioning analog watch keycap (2 year update)” which introduced me to MujiManiac and SNEAKBOX Designs. While there are many artisan keycaps on the market, the standout feature of the MIYO is that it houses a functional watch movement and analog display, built inside a standard 1U size keycap. As the project was designed to be a functional keycap, the movement sits inside a custom machined, two piece stainless steel case that both protects the movement and allows it to be mounted on a keyboard of your choosing (provided it has compatible MX style switches). At the heart of the M...
