Digital Pip-Boy faces feel fake on your Apple Watch, but YouTuber Huy Vector built the real thing. His custom smartwatch delivers actual Pip-Boy authenticity that licensed products can’t match—complete with brass frame, green-on-black display, and live vitals monitoring that would make any Vault Dweller jealous.
Built From Fallout Dreams and Arduino Skills
This isn’t another watch face mod—it’s custom hardware that captures the Pip-Boy’s chunky, retro-futuristic soul.
Vector constructed his wearable around a Seed Studio XIAO ESP32-S3 microcontroller, cramming a 1.54-inch LCD, MAX30102 heart rate sensor, and lithium-ion battery into a handmade frame of copper wire and brass screws. The brass hardware isn’t just aesthetic—those screws double as capacitive touch controls, letting you navigate the interface like you’re actually operating wasteland tech. Heat-shrink tubing prevents accidental inputs, because nobody wants their Pip-Boy going haywire during a radroach encounter.
The custom firmware displays live heart rate and SpO₂ readings through an interface that perfectly mimics the game’s green-text-on-black aesthetic. Navigation feels authentically clunky in the best possible way, cycling between status screens with deliberate touches rather than swipes.
Reality Check: What You’re Actually Getting
This passion project prioritizes authenticity over convenience, with limitations that matter.
Unlike your Galaxy Watch or Apple Watch, the device won’t buzz with notifications or run apps—the ESP32’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities remain unused for now. Think of it as a very cool health monitor that happens to look like game equipment, not a replacement for modern smartwatches.
The build requires intermediate maker skills including:
- Soldering
- Arduino programming
- Metalworking
Vector shares his complete parts list and code openly, but don’t expect plug-and-play assembly. You’ll source your own components, wire everything carefully, and troubleshoot problems yourself.
Compared to Facer’s official Pip-Boy faces or Etsy’s decorative shells, this delivers unmatched authenticity through custom hardware. Where those solutions dress up existing technology, Vector rebuilt the entire experience from scratch. The trade-off? You lose notifications, app ecosystems, and commercial support for something genuinely unique.
For Fallout devotees who’ve always wanted wrist-mounted wasteland tech, Vector proved it’s possible to build the real thing. Just remember—authentic doesn’t always mean practical.
