watch that fires laser

[dragon]

What some people come up with.

CNN) -- It cuts through plastic! It burns holes in walls!

It ... tells time?

Like something out of a James Bond film, it's a watch -- equipped with a laser. Its inventor, Patrick Priebe, built it during downtime from his full-time gig creating props and modestly describes it as a "tiny watch made of garbage."

Still, Priebe's laser watch has attracted its share of attention for being an entertaining, if mildly dangerous, bit of technology. (It will burn skin if the wearer isn't careful.)

On a YouTube video, the German tinkerer activates the laser and pops a handful of balloons, lights a few matches and burns through a compact-disc case.

The video has picked up more than 700,000 views since Priebe posted it five days ago -- not bad, though not as much as his Spider-Man "Webshooter" (2.1 million views) or his laser cannon prototype (1.3 million).

Priebe, who runs a firm called Laser Gadgets, said he made the watch out of "leftovers."

"I found a piece of leftover tubing, and I put it on my wrist and I realized it looked like a watch already," he said from his home near Cologne. After molding the tubing a bit more, "all I had to do was file down the edges to make the time module fit and cut something out for the laser module on the side, and it fit right away. It's just my style, putting things together without a plan."

The laser watch has been compared to a James Bond device, but Priebe says it wasn't inspired by a particular Bond film -- not even "Goldfinger," with its famous scene of the villain aiming a laser at Bond's crotch. Instead, it was a Nintendo game of "GoldenEye," the video game based on the 1995 Pierce Brosnan Bond movie.

"I'm not really a Bond fan," Priebe said, admitting that he prefers science fiction.

Priebe, a former lab technician, is a now a full-time prop builder who's constructed pieces for the TV show "Warehouse 13," among other projects. He also makes money from YouTube views and been caught off-guard by the interest in the laser watch. He likes to personally answer YouTube comments and e-mail queries, and has gotten backed up with both.

Incidentally, if you're interested in buying the watch -- you budding Dr. Evil, you -- too bad. It's not for sale, Priebe says.

"There are some limits," he said. "I always say I don't make weapons. I just make toys."

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[Sea Skimmer]

That's awesome, I think gloves may be advised

[LaCroix]

A mirrored glove? I think MJ used to have one.

[Sky Captain]

That's some serious power from laser that small. I'm wondering what would be possible if you scaled it up to the size of large flashlight for example.

[LaCroix]

To pop black ballons, it doesn't take a lot power - a 10mW laser might do it, given good optics. A 1W laser, for example, will ignite matches and burn through plastic (CD box), but at the same time, will not harm you if you accidentally move your hand across the beam.

So you need to seriously ramp the power up - but flashlight-size 3-5W lasers are a thing, and I think up to 10W are possible if you don't hold it too long. Everything else will heat up too fast to be held in hand.

[Purple]

How dangerous is this thing to peoples eyes? I'd hate to see it hit the market only to be bought up by retarded teenagers who than proceed to flash humans in the eyes with it.

[SCRawl]

How dangerous is this thing to peoples eyes? I'd hate to see it hit the market only to be bought up by retarded teenagers who than proceed to flash humans in the eyes with it.

The guy who built it basically stated that it's not for sale. But if the technology isn't stupidly expensive it's probably just a matter of time before someone gets the bright idea (pun intended) to build a consumer version.

[Napoleon the Clown]

How dangerous is this thing to peoples eyes? I'd hate to see it hit the market only to be bought up by retarded teenagers who than proceed to flash humans in the eyes with it.

You know those laser pens? Those are bad for eyes, too.


Considering how this watch is "aimed" I doubt there's a terribly big risk of someone getting hit in the eyes by it, though.

[LaCroix]

With a laser like that (I'm thinking 100mW), you don't need a 'real' hit, a swipe over the face across the eyes is enough to cause damage.