5 votes

Help disabling flashy "animation" on my dumb watch

Posted by lou (edited )
Tags: ask.advice, watches

This is the "animation" (video, image). It is the circle on the upper left.

The watch is a very cheap one, a Chinese concoction called "Skmei El Luminous Dual Time". It looks great for my taste, but the insanely flashy, continuous animation is unpleasant. I bought it online, and the animation didn't look as annoying in the videos as it is in real life.

Yes, I know most people wouldn't care about that, but I'm neurodiverse etc.

The official manual makes no mention of the "animation", and asking AI was useless. There is a real possibility that the animation is hardcoded, in which case I will probably keep the watch as jewelry for special occasions.

Perhaps someone has the same watch and can help me out?

Thanks!

2 comments

  1. [2]
    cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    This looks like the watch in question: https://www.skmei.com/digital-watch-1335 Which is apparently a knockoff of the Casio AE1200 (manual). However, even knowing the SMKEI model # I couldn't find...

    This looks like the watch in question:
    https://www.skmei.com/digital-watch-1335

    Which is apparently a knockoff of the Casio AE1200 (manual).

    However, even knowing the SMKEI model # I couldn't find a manual for it anywhere. There are a few videos showing how to set the date/time, alarm and whatnot for that make/model, but none mentioned or showed how or if the animation could be stopped. And the original Casio doesn't appear to have any animation there since that ring displays a functional digital dial showing your home city's time. So I suspect you probably can't disable that animation in the knockoff since its ring doesn't appear to actually serve any real function other than as decoration.

    Can you cover that section of the watch up with some tape, or white-out, or something similar? If you can figure out a way to take the front glass off the watch to get access to underlying LCD screens, you could probably even make it look decent when that section is covered up.

    Edit: Funnily enough, someone on reddit had a similar gripe as you and did something like what I suggested. :P

    I have a few Skmei 1335 (various colors) lying around that I basically bought to harvest parts to use for casio ae1200. This is kind of paradoxical since I'm kind of annoyed at this watch and skmei for basically using the digital "analog" round clock part as a useless flashing light.

    The first thing I did was slap a random Decepticon (from Transformers) sticker on the annoying part of the module. Then I used a gray paint pen and slobbered all over the faceplate. After drying that mess, I got a permanent marker to messily mark the outlines. I used an eraser to remove the text on the case. Got an old gray 3d printed 18mm to 20mm nato adapter I had and put a black nato strap with silver hardware on it.

    I haven't tried polarizer or color film mods though.

    2 votes
    1. lou
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      I think you're spot on. My observation of the watch and manual confirms that the animated circle is completely useless. I have messed with the alarm and other functions, and nothing about the...

      I think you're spot on. My observation of the watch and manual confirms that the animated circle is completely useless. I have messed with the alarm and other functions, and nothing about the circle ever changes. It is a ridiculous flourish in an otherwise impeccable product (for the price).

      I don't know why but the fact that it is completely useless makes it worse for me.

      I don't wish to cover it with a sticker because that would ruin the aesthetics for me. I'm also not very good with arts and crafts. I'll just make an effort to get used to it. Perhaps I'll keep it on my wrist but will look at my phone for the time :P. It really is a nice-looking watch and it was a total bargain.

      Thanks!

      EDIT: for some reason when I enter the alarm configurations the circle becomes empty. That also does nothing. What a weird watch lol