‘Nixoid Next’ Nixie Tube Watch User Guide

There’s something super cool about wearing a Nixoid watch—the glowing nixie tubes feel like a portal to the past, strapped to your wrist. But if you’ve ever tried to set one, you might feel like you’ve been handed a relic with instructions written in hieroglyphics. Simply put: their manual could use a little bit of work.

After spending an embarrassing amount of time tinkering, experimenting, and reverse engineering mine, I finally cracked the code. To save you the same headache, here’s my step-by-step guide to setting your Nixoid Next watch without frustration.

Selfishly, I’ll admit–I’m halfway writing this article for my own reference, so I can remember the process. I may come back later and add a video to this to make things even easier.

Note: while this article is written for the Nixoid Next, I’m guessing that other designs they offer have similar processes as well. Let me know in the comments below if this is the same on your watch or if there’s something amiss in my instructions.

Watch Overview:

The design is pretty simple. Here’s all of the parts of this watch which are important to understand prior to using the watch.

In the image above, “13” is displayed on the watch. Because the blue “Minutes LED” is illuminated, that means that the watch is displaying 13 minutes after the hour. If the green “Hours LED” was illuminated, and the watch was displaying the number “13,” that would mean that the watch is in 24 hour mode and is displaying 1 PM.

You can also tell if the time (and not any part of the date) is being displayed if the bluish-green LEDs are illuminated on the bottom of the display. (If there are blue-green LEDs on, the watch is displaying either the hour or minute.)

How to Use the Watch:

To check the time: Either use the auto-on feature to look at the watch, or push the side button instantly one time. The watch will show hours & minutes.

To check the time & the date: Push and hold the side button for at least 4 seconds, but not longer than about 9.8 seconds. The watch will then display hours, then minutes, then the date, then the month, then the year, assuming everything is set correctly.

If it isn’t set correctly…

How to Set the Watch:

1. Start with a charged watch, but disconnect the watch from power.
   • If you do connect the watch to power while you push the button, I think the watch goes into a nightstand mode where it continuously flashes between hour and minute, though I haven’t experimented with this.
2. Enter the “Setting” Mode by pushing and holding the watch button for 9.8 seconds.
   • As you are holding the button down for 9.8 seconds, the watch will cycle through it’s currently set date & time. Be sure to make a mental note this time & date. More specifically, it will display the following values, in this order:
     • Hour (Possible values: 00 – 23. The “Hours” LED will be illuminated.)
     • Minute (Possible values: 01 – 12. The “Minutes” LED will be illuminated.)
     • Date (Possible values: 01 – 31)
     • Month (Possible values: 01 – 12)
     • Year (Possible values: 00 – 59–so… you’re outta luck on the year if it’s 2060-2099.)
   • For Example: Let’s suppose as you pushed the button for 9.8 seconds as described in step 2 you noted that the numbers displayed were 06-15-17-01-25, that would mean that the watch is currently set to 6:15 AM on January 17th, 2025.
3. When your watch reaches “setting” mode, the watch will start to increment up about 3x per second the value that it is currently setting. This will hopefully tell you which value you are setting.
   • Extending the example above: Suppose after the watch displayed 06-15-17-01-25, the watch displayed the value “17” and then started incrementing up 3x per second on that digit–18, 19, 20, 21… That would mean that you’re setting the date value of the watch.
   • Note that you likely will not know which value it will try to set first: it will set whichever value precedes the value set previously on the list above.
   • Also note that if you find that your watch is set to 8:08 AM on August 8th, 2008 (where your watch would display 08-08-08-08-08), you’ll have to do some guessing & checking as to which value is being set.
4. Set the value by allowing the value to increment to the value you desire.
   • Alternatively, take your finger off the button for an instant and push and hold the button again–the value will begin to decrement.
   • You can keep switching between incrementing and decrementing the value by removing your finger for an instant and then pushing the button again. (This can be really useful if you’re trying to sync your watch with the atomic clock, and you’re setting the minutes value.)
5. When you’ve reached the value you want to set, take your finger off the button and wait for the watch display to turn off.
   • If you’re trying to be really accurate and sync with the atomic clock spot on: while setting the minutes, try to have your minutes value at the correct value when the atomic clock reads 57 seconds.
6. Return to step 2 above and repeat steps 2-5 for each value.
   • Note: if you end up setting the minutes value first, that means that you’ll be setting the date next, followed by the month, followed by the year, followed by the hour, and then again followed by the minute. If you set the year first, you’ll be setting the hour next, followed by the minute, followed by the date, etc.
   • Also note: It takes 9.8 seconds to put your watch back into setting mode for each value.

Now–enjoy your correctly set Nixoid watch! Again–your mileage may vary with different Nixoid models. Let me know in the comments below if I missed something, or if something can be clearer!