The Tokyoflash Shinshoku LED watch

May If the wrist-watch of today is merely the homely older sister of fancy, time displaying mobile phones, Tokyoflash is determined to give it an extreme makeover. With the Pimp Watch and Equaliser Watch already lighting up shelves and wrists all over Japan, Tokyoflash has now released the Shinshoku LED watch, a 4cm wide wristband style it promises will make a “truly unique statement.”

Selling for JPY13,800 (US$116), the Shinshoku uses a pattern of lights to signal the time, instead of displaying it as a figure. Different segments of the watch denote different units of time. In one part, each light represents an hour, in another part each light represents 15 minutes, and in the final segment each light represents one minute. By looking at the amount of lights, and their different colours, one can tell in a glance how far past the hour it is.

The Shinshoku is the latest in a series of ambient, wearable technology. Instead of making information smaller, centralised and regimented, ambient gear focuses on form and “glancability”. The aim of ambient technology is to incorporate information into your environment, and make it peripherally accessible. Tokyoflash combines this aim with an attitude of fierce independence and style. Although many of its products struggle to reach a global audience, its tenacious adherence to producing “super cool watches” means that Shinshoku could soon find its way to Western wrists.