Tube clocks are a quintessentially geeky way to adorn your desktop, and building one from scratch gains you even more (hit) points! This gives you all the necessary components to assemble a beautiful vintage styled four-digit display for your bedroom, living room, or gaming space.

Nixie Tubes, also known as Cold Cathode Displays, are vintage components that were particularly popular in the 1950s-70s. Similar to fluorescent neon lighting, these bulbs contained ten shaped pieces of metal and required about 170 volts to start glowing.

The IV3 tubes used in this kit are a slightly modernized take on these iconic bulbs. They contain a segmented display inside a vacuum tube, earning them the title of Vacuum Fluorescent Displays. Very popular in the 1980s, these safer, lower voltage displays have incredible brightness and contrast – making them straightforward to read, while still keeping the excellent vintage aesthetics that nixie tubes bring.

This kit runs from a board; a tiny microcontroller designed for small products and wearables. The code on the SeeedStudio XIAO board is 100% user-customizable; just plug in a USB, write your code using CircuitPython, and upload it to the device!

is a programming language designed to encourage speedy prototyping, learning through experimentation, and idea generation. Based on the ever-popular Python language, CircuitPython suits this Nixie Clock perfectly – and makes it astoundingly easy to be creative with! There are so many ingenious ways to use this hardware – how about a number memory game, or an exchange rate tracker?

is an independent company based in Cambridgeshire, UK. Previously a physicist, the creator now makes a living researching and developing pet care products when they’re not working on cool things like this! Check out their other .