James Bond movies always feature the British hero using some kind of crazy high-tech spy gear to get out of a jam, but now a laser-obsessed fan has actually made one of the gadgets a reality. Check it out!
We've posted about German craftsman Patrick Priebe in the past, as he is the same guy who built his very own Iron Man gauntlet as well as a laser-guided Spider-Man webshooter, but now he has unveiled his latest build and it is quite impressive. Taking a page out of Q's book, he has designed a watch that can fire a a high-powered laser beam capable of some serious damage. As you can see in the video, the laser is hot enough to pop a balloon, light matches, scorch walls, and even burn through plastic. Much like James Bond's version of the same thing, this thing is definitely not a toy.
In the movies dating back to Dr. No in 1962, James Bond has made frequent use of watch-based gadgets, sporting ones that can do all kinds of tricks - including firing grappling hooks, producing garote wire, and providing GPS location. The laser cutter, however, is one of the more frequently used tools. It first showed up in the non-Eon Productions Never Say Never Again, but it also popped up in Goldeneye and Die Another Day. Of course, the biggest difference between the tools used by 007 and what Patrick Priebe made is style. Over the years, Bond's gadget watches have been masked as Rolexs, Seikos and Omega Seamasters, mostly because they fit with the British superspy's taste in fashion. If Bond were to put on Priebe's design, the villains would immediately know that it needs to be taken away from him. That being said, props to him for making it a working watch with what appears to be a Kevlar casing.
Priebe has pretty much become a master at building this kind of stuff, but this project in particular wound up being quite a challenge - both in terms of manhours and for his wallet. Speaking with CNET, the craftsman revealed that the James Bond laser watch took between 40 and 50 hours to make and in parts wound up running him about $200. As he mentions in the video, though, the greatest challenge in the project came with making his own little buttons and screws, which requires a delicate touch and a good amount of patience.
At this point we commonly find ourselves wondering, what could he wind up building next? The science-fiction genre certainly offers up more then plenty of options, but certainly a lightsaber has to be at the top of Patrick Priebe's To-Do list, right? I don't think a person becomes that interested in lasers without wanting to make that particular piece of Star Wars weaponry a reality.
