39th Chaos Communication Congress · Germany · 2025

39C3 Cyberwatch Badge

Modular cyberpunk watch-style badge

An electronic badge created for 39C3 as a modular, solderable watch-style device. The project was designed to be reconfigurable with interchangeable daughter boards (called shards) for different use cases.

39C3 Chaos Communication Congress Germany Electronic Badge Watch Modular DIY Shards LoRa

Event39th Chaos Communication Congress

SeriesChaos Communication Congress

LocationHamburg

CountryGermany

People

Authors & Credits

39C3 event host

Chaos Computer Club

The 39C3 project page is part of the official Congress event project index for 2025.

Source

project documentation and design

Cyberwatch project contributors

Public Cyberwatch documentation is the primary trail for hardware concept, shard design, and expected firmware context.

Source

Why It Mattered

The record captures a major physical badge artifact in 39C3 that sits alongside the Hub badge systems: a user-facing project that intentionally supported hardware reconfiguration and optional add-on boards.

Hardware

Primary sources describe a smartwatch-shaped base board, an SD card-reader form factor used as a fast and easy daughter-board interconnect, a base DIY board with space for additions like sensors and LEDs, and a LoRa shard option.

Software & Apps

Project documentation says base firmware for the cyberwatch was expected during the congress and references a fork of Meshtastic for the LoRa shard, with prebuilt firmware assets linked in project materials.

Lore

The project narrative frames Cyberwatch as a cyberpunk DIY wearable, with explicit guidance to read installation steps before soldering and clear solder-order notes to manage its dense layout.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

badge communication source-backed

LoRa shard path

Project documentation and README material link a LoRa expansion shard to an adapted Meshtastic path, indicating an explicit long-range radio capability target.

Compatibility: 39C3 Cyberwatch Badge

Source

badge hardware source-backed

Modular watch architecture

The 39C3 Cyberwatch project is documented as a solderable watch-style base badge that is designed to accept interchangeable shard boards through a modular hardware concept.

Compatibility: 39C3 Cyberwatch Badge

Source

badge hardware source-backed

SD-card shard interface

The project documentation describes an SD-card form-factor interface used to carry modular add-on boards in place of fixed accessory ports.

Compatibility: 39C3 Cyberwatch Badge

Source

badge software needs completion

Firmware expectation context

Project sources indicate a base firmware expectation around congress time and a prebuilt firmware trail for shard use, but they do not confirm a complete public production release artifact set for all build variants.

Compatibility: 39C3 Cyberwatch Badge

Source

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

missing rights-cleared image note

No 39C3 Cyberwatch badge image is published because the recovered public sources and documentation do not provide a complete reuse basis for an official reusable photograph, attribution, and processing notes.

The entry remains image-free rather than copying unknown-rights project media, generated previews, or social/press photos.

Confidence: local project policy
Status: needs licensed original replacement
Timeframe: current catalogue build
Source note: badge.gallery image policy and cyberwatch project documentation.

physical-archival status caveat note

The current source trail shows a complete project concept and extension design, but public recovery in this pass does not fully prove how broadly distributed Cyberwatch badges were or document a complete attendance-wide shipping ledger.

The dossier records what is sourced—badge architecture and shard concept—without over-claiming circulation or official distribution scope.

Confidence: project docs
Status: documented
Timeframe: 39C3
Source note: Cyberwatch project page and 39C3 codeberg documentation.

software lifecycle caveat note

Sources mention expected base firmware and linked firmware material but do not establish a single canonical, fully documented OTA/app ecosystem for all shard variants in this source pass.

The software record stays tied to the published architecture and shard references instead of inventing an endpoint, app-store, or locked release stream model.

Confidence: project page and repository
Status: documented
Timeframe: project period
Source note: cyberwatch codeberg docs and 39C3-release_board README.

Resources

39C3 Cyberwatch project page official project page · Primary 39C3 assembly project page documenting the Cyberwatch modular smartwatch concept. 39C3-release_board README technical documentation · Raw repository README for the 39C3 release-board hardware and shard references. Cyberwatch documentation technical documentation · Project documentation covering the SD-card shard interface, shard-based hardware extension model, and configuration path.

Sources

Chaos Communication Congress: 39C3 Cyberwatch project page Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary official project page for the 39C3 Cyberwatch hardware concept and event context. Codeberg: Cyberwatch documentation Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Public project documentation describing the modular shard concept and software/firmware build notes. Codeberg: cyberwatch/39C3-release_board README Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Raw public README describing hardware layout, SD-card sharding design, and branch of modular watch extensions. Codeberg: 39C3-release_board repository Retrieved 2026-05-15 · Primary repository source linked from project docs for CAD references, firmware, and supporting project assets.