Qwatch brings customizable 3D-printed smartwatch hardware to MakerWorld

A $25 ESP32 board, a 3D-printed shell, and a print-in-place strap have pushed hobby 3D printing past desk ornaments and into something you can actually wear. Qwatch, the customizable smartwatch project now live on MakerWorld, is built by Dr. David Pride, also known as DaveJaVu, and it has already cleared its funding goal with roughly $3,710 raised from 110 backers.

That matters because Qwatch is not being sold as a novelty case with a screen glued inside. MakerWorld describes it as both a finished smartwatch and a platform for experimentation, with custom firmware ready to install on a widely available ESP32 setup. Pride’s background as a computer scientist and Open Science advocate fits the pitch: the project leans hard into openness, modifiability, and parts that can be sourced without getting trapped in proprietary hardware.

The hardware stack is intentionally simple. MakerWorld lists the core components as an ESP32-S3 display board costing about $20 to $25 and a 1S LiPo battery costing about $5 to $6. The central housing module measures 43.5 by 13.7 mm, and the watch comes in six case themes, Chronos, Brix, Orbit, Feather, Stone, and Neon. Instead of treating the printed parts as decorative skins, the design makes the enclosure the whole identity of the device. That is the shift hobby printing has been waiting for: not another shelf trinket, but a personal device whose form is supposed to change.

The mod-friendly angle goes deeper than the outside. MakerWorld says the Mod Edition runs in the Arduino ecosystem and includes fully documented source code, plus built-in templates for both analog and digital watch faces. On Pride’s creator page, he said he had spent the last couple of months building a 3D-printed smartwatch based on a $25 ESP32 board with touchscreen, and that it included six themes, each with its own case and digital and analogue watch face. Hackaday.io’s project details add that the firmware already covers time, date, step count, stopwatch, weather updates, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a face gallery selector.

The real test for any wearable is whether it behaves like a thing you might keep on your wrist. MakerWorld says battery life in offline testing was about 10 to 13 hours, which is respectable for a maker smartwatch and honest enough to keep expectations grounded. Between the off-the-shelf electronics, the parametric strap options, and the clean split between Ready and Mod editions, Qwatch looks less like a clever demo and more like a legitimate maker platform. It still carries the rough edges of a hobby project, but that is part of the appeal: it invites use, repair, and iteration instead of locking the whole experience behind a sealed case.