Custom wearable Tamagotchi Mini - "Tamagotchi Pinny"

This custom wearable 20th Anniversary Tamagotchi Mini - which I've named the "Tamagotchi Pinny" - was the result of a couple of my interests colliding. One of the other things that I collect aside from virtual pets is pins, and back in the 1990s I also collected LCD-game wrist-watches and always wondered why Bandai never made a wrist-watch version of the Tamagotchi - after all, the "gotch" part of the brand-name partly comes from the word "watch"! (Other manufacturers did make virtual pets in watch format, but Bandai themselves did not - they only licensed out the Tamagotchi branding for several different types of non-virtual pet watch.)

After seeing a picture of a Tamagotchi Mini that had been turned into a ring, this musing about wearable virtual pets resulted in a random decision to create a wearable Tamagotchi of my own. So I picked up a 20th Anniversary Tamagotchi Mini in purple, and I went for it. I almost decided to try this with one of the Tamagotchi Original reissues, but I stuck with the Mini because it's small and light, which is important for its use as a pin, and because it's a low-maintenance virtual pet, which just felt like the right choice for this project.


I used multiple layers of Gorilla Super Glue to attach two brooch-bars to the battery cover, and a tie-tack to the clasp part of the ball-chain. The gluing looks hideous and untidy from the back, but it's also very secure and solid. Nobody will see the back when it's in use, anyway!


Here's how it looks on my Tamagotchi lanyard.


And here's how it looks on a wrist-strap. This isn't a proper watch-strap, but rather a thin charm-bracelet strap - I might get a proper strap for it at a later date, though I prefer the idea of wearing it as a pin so this isn't a priority right now. I left the ball-chain removeable for this purpose, regardless.

I'm really happy with how the Tamagotchi Pinny turned out, and I'm looking forward to wearing it at geeky get-togethers in the future. And if I can get an appropriate watch-strap, I might still make that Tamagotchi Original "Tamawatchi" yet!

A fantastic idea! I love how you included the chain in the look too.

Eggiweg said:

A fantastic idea! I love how you included the chain in the look too.

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Thanks very much!

I think that the ballchain is an iconic part of the Tamagotchi's design (back in the 1990s, it was my first encounter with that particular type of keychain, and I'm sure that that's the case for plenty of others from the regions where the Japanese-style chain was kept), so I couldn't possibly have left it out of this project!

I'll have to run this one soon...

Aww, cute! Let's hope when you run it you don't have any hand washing incidents or it accidentally getting into anything. If you leave the wrist strap pinny on the clock screen, it'll even look like a genuine watch!

Knighttchi's Ballad said:

Aww, cute!

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Thanks!

Knighttchi's Ballad said:

Let's hope when you run it you don't have any hand washing incidents or it accidentally getting into anything.

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I always take off any wearable electronics before partaking of any activity that requires handwashing! When I was a kid, I never understood why so many of my peers took the risk of damaging their watches, or carelessly went right ahead and damaged them, by not doing so - it seemed like common sense not to do that, to me.

Knighttchi's Ballad said:

If you leave the wrist strap pinny on the clock screen, it'll even look like a genuine watch!

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Ah, but where's the fun in that?!

Penguin-keeper said:

When I was a kid, I never understood why so many of my peers took the risk of damaging their watches, or carelessly went right ahead and damaged them, by not doing so - it seemed like common sense not to do that, to me.

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Ahh, the common man. Ever so brilliant XD (or just lazy). I remember back at camp when I was 14 idly thinking how lucky I was that I didn't lose my watch because of all the things that could've happen - y'know, ignoring how the thing was literally strapped to my wrist and all and it wasn't like some big fancy thing either. Now if I had a tama pinny, I would probably be 10 times more paranoid. The camp did have an electronic ban so chances are I would leave it on clock mode and change it back when no prying were around. And if I got caught, I'd insist, "Hey, look, it's a watch. Got a clock and everything. No, no, it's not a toy. It just goes off ever so often 'cause it's... an alarm. What? It makes me nervous? Well, of course! It's embarrassing to have it go off in front of everyone, y'know. Someone could be dying... I mean me! Dying inside. Ha ha. Oh yeah. Yeah it does go off at weird parts of the day. It a feature. Totally a feature. The irregular alarm keeps me alert! Alert!"

Penguin-keeper said:

Ah, but where's the fun in that?!

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Okay, rebel  It would be fun to see just how long you can have it out till normies realize it's unique.

Knighttchi's Ballad said:

Ahh, the common man. Ever so brilliant XD (or just lazy). I remember back at camp when I was 14 idly thinking how lucky I was that I didn't lose my watch because of all the things that could've happen - y'know, ignoring how the thing was literally strapped to my wrist and all and it wasn't like some big fancy thing either. Now if I had a tama pinny, I would probably be 10 times more paranoid. The camp did have an electronic ban so chances are I would leave it on clock mode and change it back when no prying were around. And if I got caught, I'd insist, "Hey, look, it's a watch. Got a clock and everything. No, no, it's not a toy. It just goes off ever so often 'cause it's... an alarm. What? It makes me nervous? Well, of course! It's embarrassing to have it go off in front of everyone, y'know. Someone could be dying... I mean me! Dying inside. Ha ha. Oh yeah. Yeah it does go off at weird parts of the day. It a feature. Totally a feature. The irregular alarm keeps me alert! Alert!"

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When I was a youngster, I actually knew some people who used that exact set of excuses for wearing and playing Tiger Electronics Wrist Games in class, with the sound on! That's hilariously nostalgic!

As I mentioned above, I collected game-watches back in the 1990s, but I usually avoided the Tiger offerings because they weren't actually watches - just LCD-games on a watch-strap (and as appealing as miniature games like that were to me, part of the appeal of those sold in watch format was having useful watch functionality along with the game; Additionally, the game display was used as the seconds-counter on these watches). They weren't scorned as long as you didn't play them in class, but most teachers back then didn't realise that the Tiger ones didn't tell the time, so they fell for the excuses while people were playing them right under their noses.

Knighttchi's Ballad said:

Okay, rebel  It would be fun to see just how long you can have it out till normies realize it's unique.

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I don't think that anyone would fall for it for a minute (and we could use the Tamagotchi to time it)! But, then again, the idea is for it to be worn to events and get-togethers where it wouldn't be at all out-of-place.