TokyoFlash is giving away a watch to three winners of their TokyoFlash landmark contest. The rules are pretty simple: simply create an image of a famous horological landmarks redesigned with TokyoFlash faces i.e. Big Ben with the Rogue face built-in.

Get creative and submit your own ideas for a new landmark clock to clocks@tokyoflash.com for the chance to win the watch of your choice from Tokyoflash!

You can send an image, description, news story or combination, but please keep it to less than 500 words. You can use your own way of telling the time or use the display from any of our watches.

How To Enter:

1. Email your enty of a famous landmark that has a Tokyoflash way of reading the time to clocks@tokyoflash.com
2. Closing date is 26th May 2009 when three winners will be chosen to win a watch from Tokyoflash.
3. Winners will be able to select a watch of their choice.
4. You may submit as many entries as you wish.

So this watch is supposed to look like a Japanese signature seal and lights up in odd configurations, shown here, to show you the time. It’s made of brushed metal. It’s as unreadable as any other Tokyoflash watch, so unless you really like this you’d probably be better off getting a tattoo of a watch on your wrist – at least it will be accurate and readable twice a day.

$99 from Tokyoflash.

Made from aluminum, and using multicolored LED’s to indicate the time and date, the Kisai definitely has a unique appearance. You might be reluctant to tell people that it’s a watch however, because they could ask you to tell them what time it is. Perhaps you could tell them that it’s a Geiger counter, or perhaps a device used to measure gamma radiation for space. They’d probably believe you.

Me: “Greg, what time is it?”

Greg: (stares at wrist for two minutes) “I have no idea.

The outer green dots look like this and the innermost ones look like that and then the ones in the middle move around like so, which means… I have no idea. Don’t you have your phone on you?”

I believe he was sporting the Tokyoflash Rogue (above left), which promises that…

“Once mastered, navigating the time is simple, but creates a sense of mystique to the uninformed. The outer ring of small dots represents minutes, every fifth dot being slightly smaller to distinguish five minute groups. The ring of large blocks represents rough minutes, the position of the gap indicating approximate minutes. The inner ring of blocks represents hours, the position of the gap in the ring showing the current hour as on a clock face.”

… “Once mastered” being the most important, yet overlooked part.

Thankfully, the new Keisan watch looks a little easier to read, although you’d better be ready to add small numbers together. A series of four LED strips, each containing numbers one through five, illuminate in various denominations to give you the hours and minutes.

The watch itself is made of high-grade aluminum. There are four color combinations available, all priced at $255 (and one cent).

Kisai Keisan Aluminum LED Watch [Tokyoflash.com via Tech Digest]

The guys over at Tokyoflash have just announced their first new watch for 2009, the R75. Unlike some of Tokyoflash’s other watches this one actually seems simple to read while still looking cool.

Made from stainless steel, this watch has a two-part display, binary on top and numerical digits on bottom. You can toggle between full binary or mixed modes where hours are shown in digits and minutes in binary or vice-versa. It comes in silver, black and gold with a choice of blue or white LEDs.

These things are a bit pricey though, coming in at $235.48. Now if that is too much for you, check out their online store. They have some of their older models on sale with up to 62 percent off.

The Denshoku costs $247.72 and is available in white or black.

The watch shows the time in three stages. You press the button and it shows the hours, ten minutes, and then the single minutes. You can also activate animation mode that gives a Blade Runner-esque sense of style to your next board meeting.

Your Boss: So we’ve got to really pull together this quarter and get those sales numbers up. I think we have some leads and I think we’re going to be able to make it through this slump without losing any of you.
You: It’s too bad she won’t live!
Your Boss: Without losing some of you.

Unlike John Biggs or Flavor Flav, I am no timepiece purist. In fact, most watch lovers might consider me a heretic; in an age where every TV, DVD player, camera, and cellphone totes a clock, I’ve come to consider watches less of a tool, and more of an accessory. Hell, I once wore a watch with a dead battery for over a month.

As such, I’ve always been interested in TokyoFlash watches. With their varyingly complex designs of spiraling LEDs, they put the focus on the aesthetics aspect of a watch without sacrificing the time-telling functionality. Sure, it may take you a day or two to get used to each design – but each watch does the job, and looks damned good doing it.

As my first venture into the TokyoFlash collection, I opted for the S-Mode Oberon (¥16,900, or roughly $167 USD). I’ve been wearing it around town for about a week. What do I think? Read on to find out.

Initial impressions:

At 150 grams, the watch is right where I like it, weight-wise. It doesn’t feel light or cheap to the touch, nor does it feel clunky on my wrist.

The band’s default size could fit an ogre, coming it at about twice the size I needed. Though the pin-type links looked almost identical to the Fossil watches they had behind the case, the first store I took it to for a fitting looked at it like it was from the farthest reaches of space. Perhaps I shouldn’t have told them it was from Japan – I think they expected it to turn into a giant robot if they touched it the wrong way. The next store had no problem making the adjustment.

The face is quite susceptible to fingerprints which, seeing it’s glossy black, is pretty much unavoidable.

Reading it:

Because of its unique design, reading this watch requires a bit of practice. Pushing the top button once lights up the time (pushing it twice brings up the date). The outer circle is the hours – one light for each hour, 1 through 12. The inner most ring is minutes by groups of 10 – 1 dot means 10, 2 dots means 20, all the way up to 5 dots for 50. The middle ring is the single minute counter – 1 through 9. 3:26 would be 3 dots on the outside, 2 dots on inner most ring, and 6 dots on the middle ring. In the image on right, the time would be 5:19.

If it sounds complex, it’s only because its somewhat tough to put into words – after about two minutes with the watch, determining the time before the LEDs switched back off was no problem. After 2 days, it was as at-a-glance as the methods I’ve grown up using.

Reactions:

Unsure of the metric usually applied to watch reviews, I decided the best way to rate the watch would be to see what other people thought of it. Here are some of the reactions I’ve got so far:

• Girlfriend, immediately after unboxing the watch: “Oooooh. Shiny.”
• Friend, after seeing it light up the first time: “What the hell?”
• Other friend, seeing the watch for the first time, sans time display: “*knocks on watch* Is it voice activated or something?”
• Guy who adjusted the band: “So… how much weed did you have to smoke before you could read that?” (Yep – he seriously said that. You don’t know how odd it was to hear that in a fairly upscale jewelry shop.)

I showed it to a good number of people, and the reaction was fairly consistent: surprise or curiosity, followed by compliments. I’d take that as a good sign.

What I like:

• It’s a very, very sharp looking watch. I could wear out to a day on the beach, or to a dinner party.
• Comfortable weight, with a secure band
• It’s unique, without being awkward or unwieldy. It definitely gets a reaction out of people.

What I don’t:

• No way to force the time display to stay on.
• There has been at least one occasion where pressing the time display button didn’t seem to do anything. If I pressed it a second time, it worked fine.

The Verdict:

While my watch collection could be dwarfed quite easily by that of some folks around these parts, I’ve got enough of’em to get me through a week or two without repeating. That said, the Oberon now sits amongst my favorites. It’s sharp, it’s unique, and it certainly turns heads. If you’re in the market for a sub-$200 watch and are looking for something that is as much a conversation starter as it is a timepiece, the S-Mode Oberon is a solid bet.

I have something I need to get off my chest. I love me some watches and I think TokyoFlash has done more for the watch industry than they know, creating high-design timepieces for not much money. But when time-telling becomes painful, I worry.

From the TokyoFlash website about their new Rogue: “Once mastered, navigating the time is simple, but creates a sense of mystique to the uninformed.” Is this really what we want? To be a time lord in our own three-foot circular personal space? I think time should be shared and I don’t think a weird glowing thing on your wrist will get you the ladies. But I could be wrong.

Anyway, it’s out, it’s round, and it has lots of glowing things in it. $161.52 from TokyoFlash. Am I wrong about my feelings? Tell me off.

Want to turn Japanese? How about an S-Mode Oberon IPB or Tokyoflash Infection from Tokyoflash. We’ve got one of each, so two winners total.

S-Mode Oberon IPB -Breaking through the atmosphere with the same velocity as its predecessor Titan, this high quality time piece has a radiance that can be seen from another cosmos.  The S-Mode series brings you a stunning wrist wear design featuring a sleek full-face black mineral crystal lens with contrasting white LEDs beneath.  Oberon is dark yet irresistible, housed in a streamlined black IP coated stainless steel case and complemented with a custom designed linked strap and bright white LED display.  The time is presented simply, with a single touch of the upper button. The outer ring of LEDs indicate the hour, the second ring indicates single minutes and the inner ring indicates minutes in groups of ten. The date can be read in a similar way with a second touch of the upper button. 

Tokyoflash Infection – Tokyoflash launches an original design combining sleek curves, tri-colored LEDs and a pulsating new display. Featuring a creatively designed full face mirrored lens and an innovative way to view time, no one is immune to Infection.  Housed in a smart new case, Infection is ergonomically designed to neatly fit the contours of your wrist, the tapered edges providing a smooth transition between the case and lens.  Twenty-seven multi-colored LEDs pulsate and move like cells across the curved face to present the time from beneath the attractive mirrored mineral crystal lens.  Finished with a matching leather band and stainless steel clasp, this is a flashy look that’s sure to get you noticed.  Twelve red LEDs indicate hours, eleven yellow LEDs represent the progression of time in groups of five minutes and four green LEDs show single minutes.  A single touch of the upper button animates the LEDs, a single touch of the lower button shows the time immediately.

How do you win?

Leave a comment. We’ll pick one commenter at random. Remember to include your real email address in the E-mail address field. Do not write your e-mail address in the body of the e-mail. To do so invites ridicule and a vague sense of dishonor.

Rules: You can win once per day, but you can enter multiple times per post and per day provided the comment content is different each time.

The Galaxy from TokyoFlash shows hours on the big pips, the red pips show five minute intervals, and the green pips show single minutes. While it’s not immediately intuitive, it’s a bit better than TokyoFlash’s traditional “the green blob shows the hours since your last bowel movement, the red blob shows milliseconds elapsed since 1929, and the blue blob is there to tell you that we care” styling.

The Galaxy costs $132 and is available online. Pick it up and look like a star captain in your spare time.

These two new watches from Toykoflash feature a unique LED system that can change the face color at the touch of a button. While the watches are standard TF fare — odd faces and cool designs — the real magic happens when you swap the red face for the blue, making you just that much cooler. Both are available now from Tokyoflash for $123.29.

While this watch won’t turning you into fast-moving blood zombie with a maniacal thirst for human flesh, it will turn you into someone who wears a really cool watch. The new Infection features sassy little protoplasms that you decipher by color and the odd band evokes the harsh, biotoxic skin of a bloated, mutated cow. Great for parties!

It costs $139 and comes in silver with a mirrored mineral crystal. Click through to see how to read this monster.

I’m a watch purist so maybe the S-Mode Oberon isn’t for me. However, it is another cool creation from TokyoFlash and at about $150 it’s a considerable bargain. It has a stainless steel body, mineral crystal, and shows the time in a series of bright blue LEDs. You press the button once to view the time and again to view the date.

Again, I totally dig what Paul is doing at TokyoFlash — high technology meets horology. I just wish my eyesight wasn’t failing and my cranky fat traditionalist bone wasn’t itching me.

At checkout, enter the code “CRU3” and you’ll receive a discount of ¥1,100/$11/€7/£5 off whatever watch catches your fancy. It’ll work for the next two weeks (ends May 24) so you have a little time to mull it over.

If you haven’t checked out our review of two Tokyoflash watches yet, go and do so. Because there will be a test! Seriously, there will. For your chance to win a cool watch from Tokyoflash (not necessarily one from the review, but hey), check out the instructions after the link. It’s quite simple, really, and in a few days we’ll have three winners. What are you waiting for? Click already!

Update: Due to a rather long holiday taking over the nation of Japan, you can enter until the 7th, at which point, we’ll choose a winner.


If thou wantest a watch for free,
answer me these questions three. (I know, corny. But there are three questions.)

WHAT
does the martini glass stand for on the Pimp Star Performer watch?
WHAT
time was it approximately when I took the picture of my wrist in the review?
WHAT
is a wakizashi?

The Tokyoflash site might be helpful if you’re stumped. I know, those questions are super hard, right?

Email your answers to crunch@tokyoflash.com (DON’T comment them, why would you do that, several already have) and in a few days (Let’s say May 4 May 7) three winners will be chosen. Good luck, people!

Katana and Watchizaki
You must have heard of Tokyoflash. They’ve got the coolest watches on both this and that side of Japan, and also make the best of those binary-time watches that puzzle you whenever you see them. I have two specimens of Tokyoflash gear right here with me — are they as solid as they look on the site?


I chose these two watches which I thought represented the more accessible portion of their stock. There are flashier, more obscure watches available for sure, but I think if you’re a first-time buyer you’d probably head towards one of the more subtle ones. I thought the Zero-G had a very elegant way of showing the time, and the Star Performer is just a bold piece of hardware.

Build quality + mass
First, I should say that the watches are definitely serious watches. These aren’t cheaply made; they’re built to last and they feel like it. Both are fully metal except for the displays, and the metal itself is an attractive gunmetal sheen, brushed but not dull. The Star Performer particularly is built like a tank, and the weight of it is reassuring on your wrist but not so much that your left arm is going to get all buff from checking your watch. The links have an armadillo-ish look to them; they’d probably stop a bullet. The Zero-G is less sturdy, but it’s also much smaller, and the band is, as advertised, about as thin as a dime. Build quality is excellent, so if you’ve held off on one of these because you felt it might be of “novelty watch” quality, lay your worries aside.

Flashy + functional
And how do they operate? Well, the Zero-G is the quickest and easiest to read; the hour is represented by a virtual watch hand, and an arc extends to where the minute hand would be. Once you get past the initial difficulty of the hour hand not getting closer to the hour you’re approaching, it becomes a very quick and straightforward way of checking the time. I only wish there were a way of making it display a Pac-Man. I know it’s possible. The two buttons are strictly for setting the time; I would have preferred one, I think, it kind of looks like the watch has buck teeth, but they’re solid and setting the time was easy. If you press the right button it does a little show for you.

My only problem with the Zero-G is that the band will occasionally grab hold of my wrist fuzz when it’s sliding up or down a bit. This can lead to screaming and swearing in inappropriate situations. The solution is to shave your wrist, but that’s insane and also carries the risk of accidental suicide.

“Epoch” Fatness
The Star Performer is more complicated, as you can see from the pictures. It’s blank most of the time, but when you press its big button, the numbers flash and settle on the current time. Press again while it’s displaying for date and then year. It also flashes the LEDs randomly, which freaked me out for a while (OMG ghost). In true Japanese style, the watch uses weird little graphics to represent things. You make money year after year, so the dollar sign (why not yen?) represents the year. Drinking is usually done in the evening, so a martini glass indicates PM. I could have done without the icons at all, but they add a little flavor and make it even more of a conversation piece. I found that the button was hard to depress, and was actually hurting my finger until I figured out you didn’t have to press it that hard. It’s still a little stiff for my taste, but it feels like it will never, ever break.

The displays will get greasy, and it’s noticeable because of the dark background, but I had no problems keeping them clean just with my sleeve – the display casing is thick and well-seated, no risk of it wobbling around.

Depending on your taste in watches, it really goes without saying that you might find one too small and one too large. You can see in the picture above that they do differ quite a lot in size, and if you have smaller wrists like me, the Star Performer might be a bit much.

In the end
These are some solid watches. The Zero-G is elegant and subtle, the Star Performer big, brash, and blue. If you’re in the market for something other than a cheesy silver-and-gold thing like everyone else has, you should definitely check these out. They’re a bit expensive, but $100-$200 is the going rate for high-quality watches, and these are definitely in that category. I wouldn’t call them a bargain, but I think you’re getting what you pay for.

And: keep your eyes out for the contest we’ll be running in just a little bit, you’ll have a chance to win a Tokyoflash watch, no purchase necessary!

Another day, another crazy watch from TokyoFlash. This one is the Tibida with a binary and digital time readout that is actually cool.

See, this thing shows time in binary and standard formats. The binary mode is a little hard to grasp but the numeric mode is genius. In most cases, the top LEDs show the hour and the bottom set shows the minutes in Arabic numerals. There is also a date display and a set of tiny LEDs that tell you what mode you’re in. Effective and sexy, clearly.

It’s about $120 and comes in multiple colors. Overkill? Sure, but it’s the kind of overkill we like.

Product Page

Sure, it’s pretty, but can you tell the time? I’ve been watching Tokyoflash move from “cool gimmick” to “fashion-forward horology source” and I’m kind of dismayed by their latest invention, the 1259Q. I’m not even going to try to tell you how to read it, but I guess if you need the attention and can’t get it with your good looks or hygiene you can always impress the lasses with your unreadable watch. $144.72 if you dare.

Product Page