Today I was finally able to complete the first prototype for my frontplate antenna.

A few days ago I bought these engraving bits for my CNC and put them in good use for the frontplate design:

I wasn't expecting much, not having every tried to engrave acrylic with these kind of bits, but I was pleasantly surprised by the results

We could argue that the "T" didn't came out so great but I'll keep it as is.

Time for the final assembly...

I used some 2mm thick double sided tape to glue the frontplate and the connection seems to be good enough. A big plus for me is the fact that the tape is completely invisible from the outside.

And now some final shots.

All in all I'm super happy with the results:

• The connection with the car is great. Much better than the previous version.
• I was able to get back the buzzer without sacrificing the key car functionality.
• The watch is really cool to look at. Much better than I would have hoped for.
• Being the antenna in the front and not needing the additional space on the back, the watch is much more comfortable to wear.

The only downside for now is the fact that the watch is not water proof anymore. Nothing some glue can't fix though... But it's for a later version.

Some more improvements that came to mind:

• The chip I used is not in good shape regarding aesthetics. I'm planning to buy some new cards for better-looking chips.
• The frontplate was kinda rushed, I need to take the time and cut a new one on the CNC for a better look.
• Darconeous added some more functionalities (NDEF Business Card, use with Yubico Authenticator for generating OATH codes...) to its ring and I would like to do the same with my watch.

Overall I had a lot of fun with this project, I hope I'll find the time to keep improving it.