⌚ XIAO Round Internet Time

Swatch Internet Time `.beats` clock with Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 and Round Display

Roni Bandini — Buenos Aires, Argentina — November 2023

XIAO Round Internet Time is a desktop clock that brings back the late-1990s idea of Internet Time: replacing hours and minutes with a universal day divided into 1,000 .beats.

The project is built with a Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 and the Seeed Studio Round Display for XIAO.

It pays tribute to the story of Charly Alberti, drummer of Soda Stereo, who proposed his own Internet-oriented time system called i-Time in Argentina in 1998, shortly before Swatch introduced its .beat Internet Time concept.

The clock displays:

@458.32

instead of a conventional time such as:

12:59

✨ Features

⌚ Swatch-style Internet Time display
🥁 Tribute to Charly Alberti's 1998 i-Time concept
🔢 1,000 .beats per day
🕐 BM8563 hardware Real Time Clock
🖥️ 1.28" circular 240×240 TFT
🎨 Embedded PNG graphics
🔤 Custom Noto Sans fonts
🔋 Battery-compatible Round Display
🧱 Custom 3D-printed desktop stand
📡 No Internet connection required during operation
🔌 XIAO + display plug-and-play hardware

🕐 What Is Internet Time?

Swatch Internet Time divides a complete day into:

1000 .beats

Therefore:

1 day  = 1000 beats
1 beat = 86.4 seconds

Examples:

Conventional time at UTC+1	Internet Time
00:00	`@000`
06:00	`@250`
12:00	`@500`
18:00	`@750`
24:00	`@000`

Unlike ordinary local time, .beats were conceived as a common reference for people communicating through the Internet.

Background:

👉 Swatch Internet Time — Wikipedia

🥁 Charly Alberti and i-Time

In 1998, Argentine musician Charly Alberti, drummer of Soda Stereo, promoted an Internet-oriented universal time concept called i-Time.

The project included a website where users could check the common Internet hour.

This clock was created as a physical tribute to that story, using the circular format of the XIAO display to evoke late-1990s Internet watches.

Full background in Spanish:

👉 El Internet Time de Charly Alberti — Medium

Project story and construction:

👉 The Curious Case of (Swatch?) Internet Time — Hackaday.io

🏗️ Architecture

flowchart LR
    SET["🕐 Set UTC+1 Time"]
    RTC["⏱️ BM8563 RTC"]
    XIAO["🧠 XIAO nRF52840"]
    CALC["🔢 Convert to .beats"]
    PNG["🎨 Embedded PNG"]
    TFT["⌚ 240×240 Round Display"]

    SET --> RTC
    RTC --> XIAO
    XIAO --> CALC
    PNG --> XIAO
    CALC --> TFT
    XIAO --> TFT

The nRF52840 version does not require Wi-Fi.

Time is entered once before uploading the sketch and then maintained by the BM8563 RTC integrated into the Round Display.

🧮 Calculating `.beats`

The conversion is very simple.

The number of seconds elapsed since midnight in UTC+1 is:

seconds =
    hour × 3600
  + minute × 60
  + seconds

Since one .beat equals 86.4 seconds:

beats = seconds / 86.4

The firmware implements exactly this:

float myBeats =
    (
        3600 * timeStruct.hours +
        60 * timeStruct.minutes +
        timeStruct.seconds
    ) / 86.4;

For example:

UTC+1 = 03:30:00

(3 × 3600 + 30 × 60) / 86.4

12600 / 86.4

≈ @145.83

🧠 Hardware

Component	Quantity
Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840	1
Round Display for XIAO	1
USB-C cable / power bank	1
3D-printed stand	Optional

No wiring is required between the XIAO and Round Display.

The XIAO simply plugs into the rear connector.

🧠 XIAO nRF52840

The Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 is based on the Nordic nRF52840.

Specification	Value
CPU	ARM Cortex-M4F
Clock	64 MHz
RAM	256 KB
Internal Flash	1 MB
Onboard Flash	2 MB
Wireless	Bluetooth LE / NFC
Size	21 × 17.8 mm

The project does not use Bluetooth; the board acts as the clock controller and graphics processor.

🖥️ Round Display for XIAO

The Seeed Studio Round Display provides most of the hardware required by the project.

Specification	Value
Display	1.28" circular TFT
Resolution	240 × 240
Colors	65K
Touch	Capacitive
RTC	BM8563
Storage	TF / microSD up to 32 GB
Battery charging	Integrated
Diameter	39 mm

The onboard RTC is particularly useful because the XIAO nRF52840 itself does not need to retrieve time from the Internet.

⏱️ Real Time Clock

Before uploading the sketch, check the current UTC+1 time:

👉 Current UTC+1 time — Time.is

Then edit:

uint8_t h = 13;
uint8_t m = 44;
uint8_t s = 40;

During startup:

timeStruct.hours = h;
timeStruct.minutes = m;
timeStruct.seconds = s;

rtc.setTime(&timeStruct);
rtc.begin();

Afterwards, the clock reads the BM8563 using:

rtc.getTime(&timeStruct);

🔄 Display Loop

The default refresh interval is:

int refreshSeconds = 5000;

Every five seconds the sketch:

Reads the RTC.
Calculates .beats.
Loads the background image.
Draws the Internet Time.
Draws the conventional UTC+1 time.
Waits five seconds.
Repeats.

flowchart TD
    RTC["Read BM8563 RTC"]
    CALC["Calculate .beats"]
    BG["Load Background PNG"]
    BEAT["Draw @xxx.xx"]
    TIME["Draw Conventional Time"]
    WAIT["Wait 5 seconds"]

    RTC --> CALC
    CALC --> BG
    BG --> BEAT
    BEAT --> TIME
    TIME --> WAIT
    WAIT --> RTC

🎨 Graphics

The repository contains two graphics converted into C header arrays:

charly.h — startup tribute image
itime.h — clock background

The firmware loads them directly from flash:

png.openFLASH(
    (uint8_t *)itime,
    sizeof(itime),
    pngDraw
);

PNG decoding uses:

👉 bitbank2/PNGdec

The display background graphics used in the original project were generated with DALL·E and converted into embedded image arrays.

🔤 Fonts

Two custom Noto Sans fonts are included:

NotoSansBold15.h
NotoSansBold36.h

The larger font displays .beats:

tft.loadFont(NotoSansBold36);

tft.drawString(
    "@" + String(myBeats),
    40,
    100
);

The smaller font displays conventional time near the bottom of the screen.

📚 Arduino Libraries

Install the following libraries:

Official setup guide:

👉 Getting Started with Round Display for XIAO

🚀 Arduino Setup

1. Install Arduino IDE

👉 Download Arduino IDE

2. Install XIAO nRF52840 Support

In:

File
→ Preferences
→ Additional Boards Manager URLs

add:

https://files.seeedstudio.com/arduino/package_seeeduino_boards_index.json

Then:

Tools
→ Board
→ Boards Manager

search:

seeed nrf52

and install the Seeed nRF52 boards package.

Complete instructions:

👉 XIAO nRF52840 Getting Started

🔧 Display Library Configuration

The original project includes the configuration files required for the Round Display:

User_Setup_Select.h
lv_conf.h

Seeed's Round Display library documents the TFT_eSPI and LVGL configuration here:

👉 Seeed Arduino Round Display — GitHub

📥 Download and Upload

Clone:

git clone https://github.com/ronibandini/XiaoRoundInternetHour.git
cd XiaoRoundInternetHour

Repository:

👉 github.com/ronibandini/XiaoRoundInternetHour

Open:

👉 itime1.ino

Set the current UTC+1 time, connect the XIAO nRF52840 and upload.

Serial Monitor runs at:

115200 baud

Startup output includes:

Internet Time Beats Clock
with XIAO Round TFT and nrf52840
Roni Bandini, 11/2023

📁 Repository Structure

XiaoRoundInternetHour/
│
├── itime1.ino
├── charly.h
├── itime.h
│
├── NotoSansBold15.h
├── NotoSansBold36.h
│
├── User_Setup_Select.h
├── lv_conf.h
│
├── README.md
└── LICENSE

⌚ itime1.ino — main clock firmware
🥁 charly.h — startup graphic
🎨 itime.h — Internet Time background
🔤 NotoSansBold36.h — main font
🔧 User_Setup_Select.h — TFT configuration
⚖️ LICENSE — MIT License

🧱 3D-Printed Stand

A custom desktop stand was designed for the Round Display and a cylindrical power bank.

It consists of two STL files:

Base.stl
InternetTime.stl

The original model was designed for PLA printing.

👉 XIAO Round Display TFT Internet Time Stand — Cults3D

An alternative is simply mounting the clock on a helping-hands soldering stand for a more industrial appearance.

🎥 Demo Videos

▶️ Internet Time Clock — Build / Demo

▶️ Internet Time / Charly Alberti Background

🌐 External References

🔧 Hackaday

Hackaday featured the project in November 2023.

👉 Swatch Internet-Time Clock Doesn't Miss A Beat — Hackaday

🛠️ Hackster.io

Hackster covered the XIAO nRF52840 implementation, .beats, Round Display, RTC and generated graphics.

👉 Roni Bandini's Nordic nRF52840 Desk Clock Brings Back Internet Time — Hackster.io

⚡ Hackaday.io

Complete construction tutorial and historical background:

👉 The Curious Case of (Swatch?) Internet Time — Hackaday.io

🇦🇷 Medium

Spanish-language article about Charly Alberti, i-Time, Swatch and the clock:

👉 El Internet Time de Charly Alberti — Medium

🟣 PCBWay

Build article with parts, .beat formula, RTC configuration and enclosure:

👉 Swatch Retro Internet Time Clock with XIAO Round Display — PCBWay

🌱 Seeed Studio

Hardware documentation:

👉 Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840

👉 Round Display for XIAO

👉 Seeed Arduino Round Display Library

🔗 Related GitHub Projects

🏍️ TinyML Tire Care

Machine Learning motion classification using the same XIAO nRF52840 Sense platform.

👉 github.com/ronibandini/XIAOnRF52840TireCare

🧬 Game of Life UNO R4

Conway's Game of Life running on the Arduino UNO R4 WiFi onboard LED matrix.

👉 github.com/ronibandini/GameOfLifeUNOR4

⚽ Soccer Forecast

TinyML soccer forecasting with Arduino UNO R4 Minima and Edge Impulse.

👉 github.com/ronibandini/soccerForecast

📕 Contracultura Maker

Contracultura Maker is a book by Roni Bandini about maker culture, experimental electronics, AI, physical computing and technological autonomy.

📂 Contracultura Maker — GitHub repository

📕 Download Contracultura Maker PDF

📬 Contact

Roni Bandini Maker · AI Developer · Writer Buenos Aires, Argentina

Built with ⌚ + .beats + XIAO + a bit of 1998 Internet history.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
LICENSE		LICENSE
NotoSansBold15.h		NotoSansBold15.h
NotoSansBold36.h		NotoSansBold36.h
README.md		README.md
User_Setup_Select.h		User_Setup_Select.h
charly.h		charly.h
itime.h		itime.h
itime1.ino		itime1.ino
lv_conf.h		lv_conf.h

Latest commit

History

Folders and files

Repository files navigation

⌚ XIAO Round Internet Time

Swatch Internet Time .beats clock with Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 and Round Display