At first glance you’ll look at the LED display on the CODEX and say “WTF time is it?” But once you understand how it works, it’s actually not that hard to read, and you can actually tell time at a glance.

Initially, you’ll just see a bunch of diagonal lines, but look closer, and you’ll realize that each triangular section of the watch’s pyramid-shaped face simply represents a number. When wearing the watch, the top and bottom sections represent hours, and the left and right sections represent minutes. Each number is just shown in a funky angular typeface, which is adjusted to the appropriate angle to fit into each section of the watch face. Look again. Make sense now?

Here’s a chart that explains what each digit looks like in its various rotated states. They kind of look like some sort of weird characters you’d see on the controls of an alien spacecraft, but once you understand what they are, they actually are pretty straightforward.

The CODEX watch was a collaborative design by a guy going by the name of Firdaus in Malaysia, and Heather Sable here in the US, and is currently up for voting over on the TokyoFlash design blog. If you’d like to see it produced, head on over and show your support.

The top dots indicate hours, while the bottom dots are minutes. Simple enough, right? But when you get to the fringes of the watch face, something interesting happens. When it’s exactly the top of the hour, both the “00″ and “60″ markers illuminate, creating two sides of a triangle.

And when it’s exactly 12:00 (or 24:00), all four corners light up, forming a bow-tie shape. While this additional display doesn’t really add anything to the readability of the display, it does make it just that much more interesting to look at. I particularly like how the design incorporates a conventional digital display for date and time too – I think more unconventional watch faces should do that more often.

Make sense? You can check out an animated version of the watch face here if you’re confused.

While the Geometrix watch is only a concept at this point, it seems simple like the design would be simple enough to execute (are you listening Tokyoflash?) If nothing else, its creator should consider making an iPhone or Android app version.

[via Behance]

The Nixon Black Diamond watch was designed by Emir Rıfat Işık. While it’s not a real product (as of yet), it sure looks like it would be right at home in Nixon’s modern watch collection.

The watch would feature a bold dot-matrix display (looks like it should be OLED or E-Ink to me), set into a pitch black face. A pyramid-shaped faceted crystal would sit over top, creating cool light-and-shadow effects over the display. The wristband echoes the diamond shapes with its own harlequin embossed pattern as well. About the only thing I don’t care for on this watch is the knob on the side. I get that the pointy shape works with the design, but it’s not a practical shape for gripping with your fingertips, and you’ll probably end up drawing blood at least once grabbing for it.

That aside, I think Emir’s design is quite elegant, and I truly do hope that Nixon looks at the design and calls him up to license it for production. In the mean time, if you like the geometric crystal idea and want a watch you can actually buy, you might want to check out the Nooka Zizm series.

[via Yanko Design]

But what would you think if I told you that you could possibly be using a multitouch, tempered glass keyboard and mouse by April of next year? Well, you really would, if you made a pledge of $350 or more (to get both), $250 or more (to get the keyboard), or $150 or more (to get the mouse) on this Kickstarter project by Jason Giddings.

These next-generation computer mice and keyboards are made from special, curved tempered glass and have cameras at the base to detect your fingers’ movements using infrared light. Both devices are still unnamed, but Jason is giving anyone who pledges $10 and $25 a chance to name his babies (these babies, and not his real ones, if ever he has any.)

Jason’s goal was to raise $50,000 and it looks like the project is well on its way, as the current pledges already amount to over $48k. Way to go!

[via Oh Gizmo!]

Well, it gets lonely no more because you can actually rock with a friend, a relative, or your significant other in the Sway rocking chair. The Sway, designed by Markus Krauss, is comprised of a padded shell of a seat supported by a steel frame.

It looks like a geometrically-shaped chair that’s been stretched out at weird angles, but it’s a rocking chair that can seat two. No more lonely memories or lone afternoons because you’ll have enough room to share that seat with a friend (or a lover.)

But if you happen to all by your lonesome, then there’s still no worries because now you’ll have more space for yourself to stretch your legs out. Unfortunately, the Sway chair isn’t available for sale at this point, but if you’re skilled enough, you could actually make one yourself.

[via psfk via Oh Gizmo! ]

The iKurv delivers 20 watts of power, and it also has all of the inputs for regular audio devices. It can even be connected to your TV. It comes with a remote and will even dock some older iPods. There aren’t many buttons on it, but the included remote should be fine to control your music player.

You can get the iKurv directly from Speakal for $79.99 (USD). It’s available in white, yellow, green, pink and blue. It’s definitely an interesting dock to have in your pad, if you life futuristic gear.

I can see this setup working as a giant clock and lighting system in any modern pad. The effect is quite hypnotic when you watch it. The piece is vividly illuminated by many LED sticks that are programmed using an algorithm to reveal the time of the day. It’s a re-imagining of how sundials were used, using shadows to tell time.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

This clock premiered at Design Miami 2011, but it’s currently on display at the Carpenter’s Workshop Gallery in London.

[Vimeo via TrendsNow]

Industrial designer René Lee envisioned the Scale² (aka the “Scale Scale”) as a single adaptable scale which works with humans, animals, suitcases or various other things. Instead of requiring a different size scale based on the footprint of its subject, the Scale² can accommodate a variety of sizes.

The device has a stupid-simple user interface, with icons for people, pets or luggage on the face. Simply press the appropriate icon, and the Scale² automatically opens up to accommodate its subject.

In addition to displaying weight, Scale² would display Body Mass Index, as well as sync with your smartphone or the Internet to track weight loss, and can store multiple user profiles. I also think the color-coded weight tracker is brilliant.  When you lose weight, the display is in green, while weight gain would result in a nasty red display.

While I’m not sure how often I really need to weigh my dog or cat, I could see weighing my baggage as a more common practice these days with the ridiculous surcharges airlines are tacking on these days. Even if it’s not a device you use every day, the Scale² is definitely a clever bit of industrial design, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it manufactured some day.

[via I.D.]

The top two rows display the hours, while the third one is reserved for minutes. The fourth one shows the seconds. The unique thing about this watch is that it’s got a refracted surface on its crystal, which distorts the view of the face. The faceted patterns is continued throughout the band of the watch, which is available in either titanium or blue.

The strap is fashioned out of silicone, and the watch is all angles and squares. Both colors are available on pre-sale for $375 (USD), and ships starting on October 24th.

[via designboom]

The Zub Zoo 40 allows you to simply slide off the bands to swap them out. It’s available in 4 colors, black, red, white, and a charcoal/green combination. There are a total of 40 different bands, allowing you to mix and match the colors you prefer.

The watch has a big display to show off the hours, and a horizontal bar that looks like a power meter to tell the minutes. It also has a chronometer and alarm functions, as well as an EL backlight. The Zub Zoo 40 costs $100 (USD) over at the Nooka online store.

The prototypes were constructed using fiberglass and polyester resin, with some manual layering. Initially, there were only four made, but now they will be available for all in 4 different colors. They will be made out of 100% recyclable material.

The chairs are made using a plastic roto-molding technique, and can be used indoors and outdoors. The chairs will be available in white, blue, green, and dark grey. You won’t find those funkier colors that we saw last year, ie spray painted etc. The only question that remains is how expensive they’ll be.

[via If It's Hip It's Here]

The LED (or is it LCD?) watch face has numbers for the minutes and then a digital hand that sweeps around to show the hours. It also lists the day and date underneath. I wonder how comfortable the unusual design would be to wear for a long time. It appears that the band is rigid and doesn’t flex or move at all.

The concept is seen in several different colors including orange, pink, carbon fiber, and blue. I really like the orange one and the carbon fiber version. I could totally see Tokyoflash bringing this design to market.

[via YankoDesign]

The Sixty apes the lines of the classic phone, but rips out its guts and cord and gives it a sleek modern look from the side. Under the hood, the bright orange phone offers DECT cordless calling, with a touch dial and a white-on-black LCD dot-matrix screen for Caller ID, time and speed dial info.

The phone has a 150 number phonebook built in, a digital answering machine, and offers a speakerphone mode too. The thing even makes those old clicky rotary sounds when you press the buttons, and little LED dots simulate the dial spinning.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It looks like The Sixty is currently available only in Europe where it sells for £99.95 (appx. $160 USD). That’s a lot of coin for a land-line phone, but I’m still hopeful that someone will decide to import them stateside – I’d love to get rid of my crappy old GE cordless phone and replace it with one of these.

[via Bless This Stuff]

Designer Hern Kim’s WALdok is a compact speaker dock that perfectly complements the design of the latest iPod Nano, giving it a warm and cozy place to live when it’s not in your pocket or on your wrist. The tiny dock hangs neatly from a spare wall outlet, so it’s perfect over your kitchen countertop or in your bathroom.

The curvaceous design of the WALdok provides a nice contrast to, but complements the Nano well, and certainly looks way better than any old wall charger and cord. Inside the WALdok is a 40mm audio driver surrounded by a custom-designed bass chamber to provide the best low-end possible given the small size of the enclosure.

In addition to the white design, he also plans on producing a limited-edition black version (although I personally like the see-through variant that’s being made for the prototypes.)

At this point Hern is raising funds to produce the WALdok via Kickstarter, and if you’re interested in getting in on the action, you can bid as little as $10 bucks to show your support, or those who pledge at least $59 will get a WALdok when released, and pledges $99 and up get a pair. Higher pledges qualify you for the limited-edition models and other perks.

Actually, at first glance at the Lightning LED watch concept, I thought it looked like an electric cooktop, but then those tiny blue and yellow “flames” that go around the perimeter to indicate hours and minutes threw me. Maybe a hybrid gas/electric cooktop would look like this – at least one you can wear on your wrist.

It would be really cool (if not a bit dangerous) if those flames were actually powered by butane, and you could walk around and have a flaming watch on your wrist.

If you love this design (in LED form, that is), head on over to TokyoFlash and vote for it – if they get enough votes, they’ll actually produce it. One thing that’s bugging me. I don’t know why it’s called the Lightning watch, when it says “fire!!!” right there on the front – I think that’s a much more appropriate name. I’d expect a lightning watch to shoot off bolts of electricity around inside of it. Ooh, cool. I gotta get on that idea and submit it to TokyoFlash.

[via Yanko Design]

The Hammerhead HMR989 is one of the most striking PC designs I’ve seen in a long time. Designed by Matthew Kim – whose prior experience includes racecar design and engineering – the system flips conventional computer design on its ear, putting the guts of the machine on the outside for everyone to see. And it looks good doing it.

Created predominantly from panels of Ecoresin plastic and CNC machined anodized blue aluminum sections, the HMR989 catches your eye the second you see it. The system is accented by bright blue LEDs and offers open-air cooling assisted by a dramatic Thermaltake “SpinQ” CPU cooler. The system runs on a 2.8Ghz Core i7-860 CPU, and an nVidia ENGTX460 graphics card. With its guts splayed out, you can easily swap out the 640GB front-load hot swap hard drive, while the system boots off its 40GB SSD.

It’s also got a CD/DVD drive and an extra hard drive bay for expansion. In addition, RAM and CPU can be easily upgraded by just popping open a quick-release panel.

Machines are hand-assembled one-at-a-time by Matthew, and individually numbered. Each HMR989 sells for $2899 (USD), and can be ordered here.

[via Case Mod Blog]

This watch concept would use E-ink in both its form and function. The E-ink allowed the Frey to incorporate some radical lines into the case and face design. The overall watch is made out of glossy black metal with some smaller chrome parts as well.

The display can be changed with two buttons which are along the left side of the watch. The top bands of E-ink would display day and date information, while the time would be displayed on an inverted display concealed in the black at the bottom of the case.

All in all, I wouldn’t mind having one of these on my wrist if it ever gets made.

[via Yanko Design]

At first it doesn’t make much sense, but then you realize that the actual face of a watch isn’t that important when you use analog watches. The watch stays completely black until the wearer presses a small button, which lights up the LEDs. The LEDs are positioned around the missing face and tell the time in an analog fashion.

They looks pretty funky and begs the question at how much the face of the watch matters. I would have liked to see the LEDs continually light up, not just at a press of a button. That would have been really cool, but battery life would have sucked.

[via Designboom]

The watch is supposed to look like a city at night I guess. I don’t really see that. It looks more like a circuit board to me or the surface of the Borg Cube. The hours, minutes, and seconds are displayed on the different color lines. The hours are in blue, the minutes in blocks of five are on the orange line, and the single minutes are on the green.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The blue numbers that are hard coded on the front light up along with the proper hour, and there are orange numeric indicators for 15 and 30 minutes past the hour (but not 45 minutes for some reason). You have to see how far the line goes to actually read the time. Coming from a guy that avoids watches with a normal face that have no numbers, this thing would drive me crazy.

The tiny sliver of land was made to park a car on. The owner of the home is 39 and lives with his mom in the three story one bedroom home. The house was built at what is a bargain price for Tokyo of appx. $500,000 (USD). Despite being so small, the house has the tech necessities we expect today with computers, washing machine, AC, and flat screen TVs. The house is tiny, but it’s actually very cool.

Of course, this single man won’t be getting any action at home since he shares a bedroom with mom. I would bet you could fart in the bathroom upstairs and cause a methane explosion in the kitchen on the ground floor the house is so small. Check out the video below to see just how small this house is.

[via CNN]