Spent a truckload on your mechanical wristwatch and have a burning desire to display it the way it deserves? Design firm Dietlin has something for you – It’s called the Pulsograph and it not only displays your watch but it enhances the mechanical sound of the watch for your aural pleasure (see video). The Pulsograph is currently a prototype.
You’ve to give it to Diesel for being fresh with such consistency. This year, they made me do a double take when i first spotted the dz4160 shown above. At first I thought it was photoshopped. Renzo Russo, the man behind Diesel calls this – his company’s ability to innovate in stagnant fashion markets as the ‘Diesel treatment’.
In a recent book, Wilbert Das, Diesel’s creative director, explained their approach further:
“We’ve always been fascinated by things that are kitsch, colourful, decorative. Sometimes we refer to it as “retro-futuristic”, but that doesn’t quite capture it. We like to clash styles, piling references on top of one another. We get out of our way to challenge definitions of good taste. We’re not interested in fashion – we prefer to create things that are entirely our own. Diesel is anti-fashion fashion.
There was a time when Rolex would write down the name of the retailer on the face of the wristwatch and there was a time when Cartier used to sell Rolexes in their stores. Put two and two together and you’ve got a stack of antique Rolexes out there with the Cartier signature like this 1967 Double Red Sea Dweller up for auction that has a pre-sale estimate of between $25,000 to $45,000. Credit: Hodinkee for spotting this.
The Post-it watch only receives email and has an acid-etched glass on top which allows the user to scribble notes on the surface. This is the first wristwatch to combine an analog interface (pen/pencil) with a digital one.
Designed by Industrial Facility for Seiko and selected for the 1999 Industrial Design Yearbook. I think this was always meant to be a prototype.
Imagine a clock that you can smash all you want and it won’t break. Keep Imagining because that clock doesn’t exist. However, Matthias Lange here, has come up with a prototype called ‘Smash’ that not only takes a beating but encourages you to by making it part of its interface. You have to punch it to stop it ringing.
Thorunn Arnadottir’s bead clock is a necklace where each bead represents 5 minutes. The orange and red beads represent hours. As the wheel on which it rests, turns, one bead falls off thus counting the passing of time.
To tell the time, one has to count the beads and to help with that, Thorunn has a silver bead for midnight and a golden one for noon.
According to Thorunn, his prototype’s goal was to create a more ‘emotional’ perception of time and to take it further, you could express your freedom from time by removing the beads from the wheel, then in a symbolic gesture of defiance, he recommends you wear the necklace as a statement that you are in control of your minutes.
If the Onion, the fake news humor site, wrote a parody of a wristwatch press release, this would be it:
In a world of constant reflection on the past and constant worry about what tomorrow may bring, the main goal of the Now is the Time wristwatch is to inspire timekeepers to live in the only moment that matters – right now. Void of numbers, the Now is the Time wristwatch is instead filled with a uniquely inspirational message. In place of the missing digits, the words “Now is the Time” are laid out in typical clocklike fashion.
“This is more than a wristwatch,” stated Van Strickland, creator of the Now is the Time wristwatch. “It’s a gateway to dream realization.”
Tissot was the first wristwatch company that decided to experiment with different materials: They made the first watch out of plastic, mother of pearl, stone and of course, wood. However, all these shenanigans ended when the company was acquired by the Swatch Group.
Cue a few decades later and wood texture was hip again what with Nixon and its Rotolog, Vestal went all out with wooden dial for Paul Frank (Vestal is the license holder for Paul Frank watches) and Quiksilver one upped them all with a complete wooden special edition watch. And now, a new brand named Mica is entering the market this summer (2009) with what looks like an entire brand of wooden watches targeted the surfer/action sport community. (Also. I don’t want to skip Romain Jerome that used remains of famous tragedies or places i.e. titanic watch as inlays)
Mind you, while all of this was going on, unhip Joswissa always had a wood wristwatch collection (even a rock one too). Anyway, back to the Mica, there is no information about the price point.
To celebrate its 25th Anniversary, Guess has brought out a few new pieces including the G-Motion which uses a digital display that tells time by changing the color of the stones on the dial. It’s been done before but this is the first time its available in a everyday fashion brand.
