Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Tokyo Flash is usually the world leader when it comes to producing confusing watches that make telling the time at a glance nearly impossible, but I think Seahope may have just snatched the title with this Ants watch. The display is basically covered with a seemingly random pattern of ants that light up in red, green or orange depending on the current time. I’ve also included a shot of the ‘how-to-read’ guide, and as you can see, deciphering the time requires some basic counting and math skills. So the watch is probably better suited to a college-educated professional entomologist than a little kid who happens to like bugs.

Other features include a stainless steel case and band, a mineral glass face and the watch is waterproof to 3ATM, though it’s recommended you don’t submerge it. $207 from the Japan Trend Shop.

[ Seahope Ants Watch ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Life’s got you down? Well apparently you can turn things around by simply strapping this unique Ever-Increasing watch to your wrist. It’s part of the SeaHope EleeNo Cyber collection and the time is displayed via a series of always climbing line graphs. So even though you may be feeling down, life will always be looking up! Yeah, I know, it’s a bit of a stretch. But if one of the thing’s that’s been getting you down is the inability to read your watch in direct sunlight, you’ll be happy to hear that the Ever-Increasing watch also features a special coating on the color LCD that makes it easy to see even in bright light! $206 from the Japan Trend Shop.

[ SeaHope Ever-Increasing Watch ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While the ESPN Swimming Challenge device I brought you earlier was clearly designed with the younger set in mind, the Pool-Mate looks like it might actually be a useful tool for those who are serious about swimming.

The streamlined looking watch features a MEMS accelerometer that detects the motion of your wrist during a swim stroke, and using “advanced digital signal processing techniques and software algorithms” the watch is able to calculate both your number of strokes and your number of laps. And it’s compatible with a wide range of swimming techniques including the front crawl, the back crawl, the breast stroke and the butterfly in pools over 10 meters in length.

At the moment the Pool-Mate is still undergoing final testing, but it should be available for sale sometime this Summer.

[ Swimovate Pool-Mate Watch ] VIA [ The Gadgeteer ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Tired of digging your cellphone out of your pocket only to find it’s a call from someone you didn’t want to talk to? The Citizen AIBATO M is another bluetooth watch that can connect to a select number of cellphones and provide information about who’s calling, emails and even news tickers right on the watch’s display. The LCD will glow when there’s an incoming call or email, and if that’s not enough to get your attention the watch can also be set to vibrate so you won’t miss a call ever again. Unless you’re not wearing the watch of course. Furthermore, when used with various phones from Sharp or Softbank the AIBATO M can even remotely trigger the camera’s shutter which actually seems a bit more creepy than useful to me.

There’s no pricing info on the AIBATO M at this point, even though it’s set for a July 1 release in Japan.

[ PR - Citizen AIBATO M ] VIA [ SlashGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

There are already plenty of watches that will monitor your heart rate and can keep track of the calories you’ve burned while exercising, but the T4C from Suunto is the first I’ve seen that uses that data to create a custom workout regime. You simply select a date that you’d like to train for, like an upcoming marathon, and the watch’s Coach software let’s you know how long and how intense you should train each day to reach your goal. And if you decide to slack off or even over do it one day, the T4C will automatically adjust your ten-day workout cycle accordingly to compensate. You can order one from Amazon for $219, since the Suunto website seems to have mysteriously vanished.

[ Suunto T4C ] VIA [ Uncrate ]

By Andrew Liszewski

There’s no real reason anyone needs to wear a watch with a built-in calculator these days, unless you’re trying to look super-cool of course. In that case you’ll want to go with the Datamat from Vestal. With a classic segmented LCD display and 16 button keypad it’s as basic a calculator watch as you’re going to find, but the polyurethane band and neon green or yellow color palettes keep it straddling the fence between geeky and cool. Unless you go with the black model, then there’s no question you’re a nerd.

The Datamat is available on the Vestal website for $55.

[ Vestal Datamat ] VIA [ Acquire ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It’s been a while since we’ve seen anything new from Tokyo Flash, but I guess if any company would have trouble keeping track of the time, it would be them. Like their past efforts, the Kisai Denshoku gets high regards for style and design, but not so much when it comes to usability. The watch’s face is made up of 12 orange acrylic bars that light up like a graphic EQ, but interpreting the time takes a little know-how.

Pressing the button on the side of the watch causes the bars to light up 3 times, first indicating the hours (3 lit bars = 3 o’clock) then groups of ten minutes and finally single minutes. As is usually the case, there’s a bit of counting involved, but if you’re OK with that you can order the Kisai Denshoku in a black or silver finish from Tokyo Flash for $239.

[ Tokyo Flash Kisai Denshoku ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Watch collectors who lean towards the high-tech might want to break out their credit cards for this one. The 1972 Pulsar P1 by Hamilton USA was the first LED watch ever sold to the public, and according to the description on this eBay auction, the limited run of just 400 pieces were eventually all recalled. So finding one that’s still in working condition, with the original box, is quite rare. And that’s probably why the seller has listed it with a ‘Buy It Now’ price of $25,000. So, any takers?

[ eBay - Rare Pulsar P1 Prototype LED Digital watch 18k w/ box ] VIA [ TechEBlog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Looks like Romain Jerome’s got a new addition to their Moon Dust-DNA line with this model confusingly called “The Truth About Roswell.” What truth is supposed to be revealed here exactly? That aliens have mastered intergalactic space travel (minus the landing part) but have absolutely no taste when it comes to watch design?

Like previous watches in the Moon Dust-DNA line, ‘The Truth’ features a dial with actual Moon dust and has an alligator leather strap that’s partly woven with fibers from a spacesuit from the International Space Station. But it also includes titanium and steel fragments from the Apollo XI spacecraft in the bezel, as well as rusted steel melted with fragments of the Soyuz spacecraft.

This particular model is limited to just 9 pieces, which will probably put the price tag well above the $15,000 that Romain Jerome was asking for the previous Moon Dust-DNA watch.

[ Romain Jerome Moon Dust-DNA Line ] VIA [ aBlogtoRead ]