Do you remember those “magic picture” posters that were all the rage in the mid-90s?  Well, TokyoFlash Japan has introduced a new model, the Optical Illusion, that utilizes some similar principles.  Unlike those posters, however, there is a button that will allow you to display the time without having to trick your eyes.  Read on for the introduction sales special, and the bulk of the press release.

First, the sale.  The Kisai Optical Illusion is available at a 48 hour limited time release price of $179 (€132, £115) including free shipping until Friday January 27th at 11:30am (Japan time).   After that, it goes to it’s regular price of $199 (€147, £128).

“The limited edition Kisai Optical Illusion watch displays the time digitally through a maze of high resolution diagonal lines. Like many optical illusions, it’s really easy to see once you have trained your eyes. The direction of the lines in the display allows your eyes and brain to process only the lines that make up the digits that show the time.”

Kisai Optical Illusion comes in black or silver with a natural or green LCD display. It has a touch screen display with time, date, alarm, EL backlight and animation.  All in all, an interesting twist.  We’re looking into obtaining a review sample to give you a better idea of what the watch is like in the real world.

Another day, another Tokyoflash watch. This one, the On Air, has an LCD screen with backlight and you tell time by reading the numerical minutes read-out as it rotates around in place of the hour hand. It is, to be fair, pretty darn ingenious.

The watch is another fan submission created by skender Asanaliev & Adilet Asanaliev, from Kyrgyzstan. Tokyoflash liked the idea so much that they actually designed and built the working watch.

It’s available now and costs $179.

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Planning a trip around the world in 80 days? Spending some time with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? You’re going to need this $149 Tokyoflash, touchscreen pocket watch that, is as far as I can tell, unreadable by mere mortals.

The watch comes in four colors and features a touch display to scroll through the dual-time, date, and alarm features. It’s cased in a nice steel case with mineral crystal cover and, with a bit of patience, you can learn what the heck this thing actually says. It has a back-lit LCD screen that drops into a “natural” color when unlit.

This is a limited-edition model, which makes it slightly more desirable to that special someone on your Christmas list who needs a watch to match their steam-powered mechanical arm, steel top hat, and smoked-glass monocle.

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Another day, another Tokyoflash watch. The Kisai 7 is a clever, fairly cool watch that looks like something Jeff Bridges picked out of his magisterial beard in the last Tron movie. Priced at $99 for the next 30 hours, you, too, can look like a Program just looking to get out of the CPU.

How do you read it?

To demonstrate, check out the image below of the blue watch. You can clearly see the inner ring has a dark section pointing to 9 and the outer ring is pointing straight up, so the time is 9 o’clock.

The lights above & below the circles indicate 1-4 minutes. Here they are half way across so that’s 2 minutes. We already know it’s 9 o’clock, but to be exact, it’s 9:02. Like all watches from Tokyoflash, Kisai Seven easy to read once you know how.

Originally called the 7RON, this watch was originally a concept piece but came to life after Tokyoflash lovers all began clamoring for the design. Scott Galloway pitched the design last year and after a year the company pulled the entire thing together, creating something that you can wear to the next ComicCon.

Short version: A low-maintenance, good-looking gimmick watch, but e-ink gives the watch weaknesses as well as an interesting look. Recommended if you think you can pull it off.

Features:

• Dual-timezone E-ink display
• Rubber or steel band
• Several face styles
• MSRP: $165

Pros:

• Good-looking, not too sci-fi
• Comfortable
• Showing two timezones can be handy

Cons:

• No backlight; illegible in the dark
• Not suitable for formal occasions

Full review:

I’m not a big fan of gimmick watches. While I love that guys like Tokyoflash are pushing design forward when it comes to wrist wear, I worry that much of their work is too esoteric and could alienate some potential watch nerds with their complexity. The biggest problem, I feel, is that on the low end the watch world is separated, like computer RPGs, into two two camps – the Tolkein-esque “fancy watch” (think Fossil watches that look like they’re from the 1930s) and the Final Fantasy-esque “tech watch.” Luckily, the Phosphor E-Ink World Time straddles the line quite nicely and, as a result, will please almost any watch lover.

The Phosphor E-Ink World Time is a $165 time piece that uses an E-Ink screen to show two timezones simultaneously. The watch, in all modes, is amazingly easy to read and comfortable to wear. It has multiple “face” styles including time only, time/date, and a face that shows one foreign time along with local time. You set the face style by pressing right side of the single button on the face and you set your current country by tapping the left side of the button. You can reverse the type by holding down the left part of the button, creating a black background with white letters. You set the time and date by holding down the right side of the main button.

There is no back-light, a huge issue with watches like these. It is almost useless at night, which makes me sad, but presumably that’s the price you pay for e-ink.

Barring that one complaint, however, generally this is a very low maintenance, set-it-and-forget it watch. You can wear it with jeans – it might be too Star Trek for a suit – and it’s quite large and handsome without looking like a pie plate on your wrist. Phosphor has a unique curved case style that, if you know anything about watchmaking, is amazing and even if you don’t it adds quite a bit of comfort. The rubber band is comfortable as well but I usually recommend getting a steel band if only to prevent eventual cracking.

For $165 the E-Ink World Time is a great timepiece and it definitely doesn’t look like a dork watch. It’s legible, usable, and very cool – it’s a definite conversation starter, even if you won’t enjoy the conversation it starts.

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There’s an old O. Henry story, The Gift of the Kisai that recounts a tale of a young man who sells his Kisai Round Trip LED pocketwatch to buy his wife a hairbrush and his wife cuts and sells her hair to buy her husband a pocketwatch chain. The story, a classic in the oeuvre of “how-the-other-half-lives” fiction, is heartbreaking in itself, but fear not: you’ll never have to go through those privations. There are plenty of $72 LED pocket watches to go around and their affordable for even those in relationships bathed in irony and penury.

This new Tokyoflash watch charges via USB and clips to your bag or pants. You’ll also notice the maddening fact that to check the time you have to press a button and the time is told in Tokyoflash’s inimitable WTF fashion. Some specs, in case you’re curious:

Displays the time
USB rechargeable*
LED animation mode
Stainless steel case and key ring included
Case dimensions: 41 mm x 50 mm x 11 mm
Weight: 58 grams
Water resistance: 3ATM
Japanese and English instructions
One year warranty
Battery: LIR2032 standard rechargeable and replaceable watch battery
Pocket watch, key ring, USB cable and spare USB cap included.
* Charging time 3.5 hours. Each charge should last approximately 1 month. Battery lifetime will vary depending on use but is estimated at approximately 300 charges.

In this episode we talk about watch repair tips and some classic watch legends. Enjoy!

Mentioned this episode:

Chad the Watch Guy

Otto Frei watch repair

Tokyoflash

Here’s your chance to win a watch from Tokyoflash. Crunchgear teamed up with the master of the impossible to read digital watch to do a Twitter contest. All you have to do is follow @tokyoflashnews and @crunchgear, and then twitter about why you think you should win and include the #iwanttokyoflash in your tweet. The winner of the contest will be able to select any watch from Tokyoflash’s current collection. The contest ends on Wednesday, so tweet hard people!

It may not do much – it’s basically a feature watch with stopwatch, alarm, and 24-hour time – but it’s nicely designed. This Casio, called the Poptone Cubic Puzzle Watch, comes in blue or black and has buttons stacked up, Tetris-style, on the bottom.

The watch is available for $89 on good old TokyoFlash. Might be good for your “Back to the ’80s” party this Halloween.

From my other site:

I’ve always liked Tokyoflash watches, but I’ve also always been wary of committing to a single crazy-ass color whenever a design impressed me; the ones I liked were always monochromatic. No more! The newest Tokyoflash timepiece, the Negative, sports 7 different colors you can switch between whenever you feel like it. At last, something to go with that day-glo jumpsuit you use when you’re fighting the clowns! At $160 it’s not cheap, but can you really put a price on kaleidoscopic techno-insanity?

AKIRAAAA!