Gizmodo Australia » tokyoflash

Tokyoflash Concept Clocks Look Like Fun But Make My Brain Hurt

Gizmodo US Edition — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:40:00 +0000

Tokyoflash revealed some concept clocks that will either delight or depress you (say, if you still can’t figure out what time it is after staring at the damn thing for 10 minutes).

The Tokyoflash guys are good sports and looking for feedback from you, lovely readers, via an online survey. So if you find them too bewildering or eyesore, please perform your civic duty and speak up. The information gathered will then be used for product development and selected designs will hit the shelves. You could be a part of history.

Currently the collection includes a series of multipurpose clocks, such as ambient table lamps with subtle, animated textural designs. Some include the ever trendy iPod docks or have multiple time zone displays and calendar functionality. Others are structurally versatile enough to be be positioned on your desk, wall, or floor. [Tokyoflash Japan]

This Is Like the Millionth Tokyoflash Watch, but I Still Love It.

Adrian Covert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:00:00 +0000

At some point, Tokyoflash watches will lose their charm altogether on account of oversaturation in an already niche market. Until then, we can admire their Hanko watch, which I can’t seem to pull my eyes away from.

Maybe it’s the fact that the watch face is vaguely reminiscent of Space Invaders. Maybe it’s the not-too-crazy, not-too-boring design. Or maybe its the bright colours calling out to my ADHD-addled mind. Either way, I like it. And it’s only $US100 too, which isn’t shabby by Tokyoflash standards. [Tokyoflash via Geekologie]

Gorgeous Tokyo Flash MP3 Playing Home Tower is Shower Friendly

Gizmodo US Edition — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:30:13 +0000

Despite its name, this $US143 MP3 Tower is only 7-inches tall, making it more convenient to stick in small places. It’s also waterproof!

The waterproof Tokyo Flash MP3 Player Home Tower comes with a built-in speaker on the base, and a USB port located underneath the body for you to plug in music-filled Flash drives. Red LEDs display the time on the side as volume and track control buttons can be found on the top of the case. Using just three AA batteries, this MP3 player delivers 12 hours of playback, and is available in sharp black and soft white. [Tokyo Flash via Walyou via Technabob]

Tokyoflash Heko: Because Steel and LEDs Are Still Cool, Right Guys?

Mark Wilson — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:20:00 +0000

By now, Tokyoflash watches need no introduction. Here is their new, stainless steel “Heko.”

Priced at $US109, it features either white, blue or multi-coloured LEDs which, pending your PhD in cryptology, signify the time. [Tokyoflash]

Chronochrome: Time Telling for Life Savers Fanatics

Mark Wilson — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:15:00 +0000

When most of us consider impossible-to-use timepieces, Tokyoflash is the first brand to come to mind. Well now there’s a worthy challenger, as the Chronochrome probably can’t be deciphered without a cheat sheet.

Chronochrome actually displays time in simple 00:00:00 hour/minute/second format, but each number is represented by its own colour. Sensibly, these numbers follow a pretty standard chromatic logic. And for those who don’t want to sleep next to a whole Skittles bag worth of bad dreams, the clock doubles as a nightlight, displaying each digit in pure white.

The Chronochrome runs $US73, though you may have to do some convincing for the manufacturer to ship outside of the UK. [Chronochrome via ShinyShiny]

Gizmodo Gallery’s Kisai Tenmetsu Tokyoflash Watch Can Now Be Yours

Elaine Chow — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:30:00 +0000

Gizmodo Gallery visitors got a great sneak peek at Tokyoflash’s new watch, the Kisai Tenmetsu, which presents time using tri-coloured LEDs in Tokyoflash’s per usual esoteric fashion. If that floated your boat, it’s available now on the company’s website.

Kind of like a cross between the Tokyoflash Fire and Denshoku, each of the three colors—red, amber and green—represents a unit of time and the hours, minutes, month and day flash by in sequence. Red LEDs are 15 units, amber LEDs indicate five units, and green LEDs equal one unit. [Tokyoflash]

Tokyoflash Denshoku Bars It All To Tell Time

Elaine Chow — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:00:00 +0000

Oh Tokyoflash, how you challenge our perceptions of what a watch should be. The company’s newest item, the Kisai Denshoku, looks more like some kind of sound meter, with orange neon bars on an aluminium faceplate. Denshoku is actually one of the easier Tokyoflash watches to read, not that anyone who actually buys these things would use them to tell time in the first place.

Press a button and a number of the twelve light bars will brighten up three times–once for hours, then for groups of ten minutes, then for single minutes. Pressing the button again will speed up the time display. According to the folks at Tokyoflash, Denshoku was modeled on Tokyo’s Shinjuku skyline, which glows neon all through the night. Frankly, looking at their past designs, what watch model wasn’t modelled on the Shinjuku skyline? [Tokyoflash]

Tokyoflash Fire Watch Looks Hot, But Useless For Telling Time

Gizmodo US Edition — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:00:00 +0000

Now that more or less everyone uses mobile phones to tell the time, watches have been relegated to mere decorative pieces. At least that’s what it seems like with Tokyoflash’s watches, which look great but are nigh-impossible to read. It’s latest watch, Fire, is a beautiful streamlined little thing that wraps around your wrist and flashes multi-coloured LED lights to tell the time. Each hole indicates one unit of time—yellow LEDs are the hours, red LEDs show every ten minutes and green LEDs show single minutes–not that you’d ever take the effort needed to figure that out. The cost for this man jewelry? $US130. [TokyoFlash]

Void v.01 LCD Watch: Tokyo Flash For Minamalists

John Mahoney — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:45:00 +0000

My kind of aesthetic: these half-LCD, half brushed metal watches that get the tech-futurism across without bashing you over the head with binary-encoded time, 60 LEDs, etc. They’re available in four colours on Etsy, the eBay for homemade goods, directly from the designer in a run of 500 for $US185 each, which isn’t bad at all. [Void Watches, Etsy via Technabob and BBG]

Tokyoflash Rogue Proves Tokyoflash Still Has the Flash

Mark Wilson — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:30:00 +0000

Just when we’d sort of gotten over Tokyoflash’s watch design, they announce the Rogue, a wristpiece that refreshes their LED-driven sci-fi style while staying true to their confounding time-telling design. The death-green flavour LCD is standard on the Rogue, but the watch comes in silver and gunmetal (otherwise known as the two official best man colours evar). However, even with Tokyoflash’s helpful cheat sheet, just how one actually tells time with this watch left us scratching our heads:

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 in groups of five. The inner ring of blocks represents hours, the position of the gap in the ring showing the current hour as on a clock face.

But if the display made sense without solving complex algorithms to decode, it just wouldn’t boost your ego the same way after leaving friends and loved ones feeling stupid. Available for US$161, the Rogue ships free worldwide. [Tokyoflash]