The watch face displays four figures, each with a lot of random-looking lines and triangles stuck on them all over the place. I tried staring at the image and trying to read off what time it was, before giving up and just peeking at the bottom of the image to read it off: 15:23.

The design was submitted by Lloyd from Australia, who explained: “I feel this design would appeal to puzzle, game and sci-fi lovers in particular. It would also suit geeks and anyone who likes quirky modern things as well as thinking ‘outside the box.’”

Here’s the key to figuring out the numbers that the figures stand for:

If you haven’t cracked the code, this is how it was done:

Extremely simple, right? But were you able to figure it out on your own? Now that you see it though, it’s actually a really easy watch to read if you know what you’re looking for.

[via Tokyoflash]

This interesting concept comes from Körös Benedek and features three analog bands that travel 360 degrees around it’s surface. Individual bands have the hour, minute and seconds on them. You get the correct time by reading the break in the middle of the bracelet as the bands move into position.

Should it ever become a reality, it would be made from materials like stainless steel, plastic, and rubber. Too bad we can’t buy one right now. I’m sure they would sell very well.

[via Yanko Design]

The watch is digital, and has a dual-zone time LCD face with date, alarms, timer, tachometer, pedometer and a “sailing option,” though it’s not clear what added info that mode displays. Proceeds from sales of the watch will be put toward the restoration program of music milestones at the GRAMMY Museum, so at least it’s for a good cause.

The I-Gucci GRAMMY special edition watch sells for $1,395(USD) over at the Gucci online store. There are other models starting at a “low” price of $1,250 and going up to $7,900 for the diamond encrusted one.

[via Pursuitist via Ubergizmo]

That’s what I initially thought of Tokyoflash Design Studio’s Sudoku Puzzle Watch Concept, but you don’t actually have to solve the entire puzzle from scratch with the watch – just a small portion of it.

The design itself is easy to understand enough: the face of the watch is actually a digital display showing a Sudoku puzzle grid. At least two grids from each column will have two blank spaces each. Just fill each grid up with the missing digit from 1 to 9, and you’ve got your answer. Once you figure it out, read the figures from left to right to figure out what time it is.

The Sudoku Watch Concept seems pretty complicated at first glance, but it’s a whole lot simpler than you think – especially if you’re used to solving Sudoku puzzles. And if it gets made, I’d definitely want to get my hands on one.

[via Tokyoflash]

While Nooka haven’t said that this watch was specifically made for women and/or kids, I think they’ve been able to broaden the appeal of their line with these watches. Each one is wrapped in a bold polyurethane body, with an integrated watchband and a simple “button” clasp to cut down on mechanical parts. The LCD watch face is framed under a faceted gem-cut lens and the display shows the minutes surrounded by a circle with twelve partitions, each representing an hour.

It’s definitely not as hard to decipher as some of the other digital watches out there, so it should be no problem telling the time at a glance. Now saying its name… that’s another story altogether.

You can the Nooka Zub Zibi Zirc from Nooka for $80(USD) in four different colors.

[via designboom]

These watches come from a collaboration between Google and Modify Watches. Aside from these Android versions they also have watches that feature Google’s Chrome logo and the Google logo. So Google fans are well covered.

Modify Watches are built so you can mix-and-match faces and straps to create the watch the way you like it. You can buy one now for now for $59.95(USD) from the Google store. I like the Android mascot myself, but that seems a bit steep for branding my wrist with a no-frills watch. If you beg to differ, head over to the Google store and buy one.

[via Talkandroid]

The limited-edition Kisai Optical Illusion is a touchscreen alarm watch, with time, date, alarm, and EL backlighting. You’ll need keen eyes to make out the time, as it’s hidden in diagonally reversed lines among a maze of confusing squiggles.

If that’s too hard on your peepers, you can just press the reveal button and the watch will show the time. It comes with an animation mode as well, which alternates between the puzzling illusion and revealing the time ever 20 seconds.

While it might not look that technologically advanced, the display has one of the most complex LCD screens ever on a watch, with over 1500 tiny LCD segments which need to be addressable by its time circuits. The watch is made out of stainless steel, and it’s available in either black or silver with a natural or green display. For the next two days, you can order the Kisai Optical Illusion watch for $179 (USD). After this, you’ll end up paying $199.

Watch designs featured by Tokyoflash are usually extremely complicated, which makes reading the time off of them – which happens to be the main purpose of watches, by the way – more difficult than necessary. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when I chanced upon the Trax MkII Concept Watch.

The watch was designed by Peter Fletcher from the UK, and draws on obvious military themes as its inspiration. That’s pretty much apparent as it uses tank-like treads to tell the time. Unlike other watch displays that flash a series of LED lights and leave all the time reading interpretation up to you, the Trax MkII tells it like it is: with good, old-fashioned digits.

As the time changes, the numbered treads move into position. Just read the numbers found between the LED illuminated brackets in the middle to know what time of day it is – in military time, of course.

On the design, Peter explains: “I wanted to come up with a watch design based on driven belts. The first thought that popped into my head when thinking about belts was caterpillar tracks and what caterpillar tracks are usually attached too. So I decided to use tanks as an inspiration for this watch concept.”

Execution of this particular design will require a fairly complex mechanism to be built, but if you’d like to see it produced some day, be sure to cast your vote over on the Tokyoflash design blog.

[via Ubergizmo via Geeky Gadgets]

Just in case you can’t tell, the FOUR watch design is all about the number four. It was submitted by Firdaus from Malaysia, who said: “I was influenced by many Japanese Tokusatsu and most of them featured henshin gadget that are very futuristic and stylish. Inspired by the shape of digit “4″ and Japanese “つ” (tsu), I came up with this watch design.”

On the watch, the time is displayed on lines of LEDs in the following groups: 12×1 hour, 5×10 minutes and 1×9 minutes alongside the “4″ shape face and part of the strap, as illustrated by this image:

It took me a couple of minutes to understand how the FOUR watch face above was supposed to read 8:21. The trick is to look for the darkened LED segments and then count up from the bottom of the watch.

While I admit it’s a pretty cool and definitely futuristic timepiece to have, the way it tells time is way too complicated for me. Still, if you like the design, head on over to the Tokyoflash design blog and vote for it now.

It looks like a cross between a Cylon and some sci-fi robot from the 1950s. As usual, you’ll take some time figuring out how to tell the time on this thing, but it is just too cool not to wear. Its red LED cyclops eye even blinks to resemble the swinging motion of a pendulum, counting each second. The grid of lights that make up the robot’s body tell you the time or the current date. Rather than try and explain how to tell time on the EOBOT, I’ll leave it to Lloyd:

“Telling the time on this watch is pretty easy. The first 4 vertical rows of lights indicate the 4-digit time and date and in each row one of the lights is illuminated in either green or blue. A blue light indicates an even digit and a green light indicates an odd digit. The top light in each row represents either 0 (considered as being an even digit) or 1, the second one down 2 or 3, the third one down 4 or 5, the fourth one down 6 or 7 and the fifth one down 8 or 9. Therefore, the combination of a light’s colour and position in each row enables you to figure out which digit is being indicated.”

Makes perfect sense, except maybe for that “easy” part. Right now the EOBOT watch is a concept, but if you like it, hit up Tokyoflash to vote for it.

[via Ubergizmo]

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.

Each BR Twelve O’Clock watch face uses a set of three rotating disks to gradually shift between a numbers representing a single hour. When it’s not exactly that time, the watch reveals abstract geometric patterns, again revealing the time when that hour approaches again. That’s right, each Twelve O’Clock watch tells the proper time exactly twice a day. All other times, it’s just a cryptic pattern. In fact, you need to own a set of 12 of these watches in order to tell the time properly. Huh, wha?

Given that limitation, the Twelve O’Clock clearly works better as a clock than as a wristwatch, since it’s being sold in a set with a dozen watches, each placed into its own battery-powered winder. Here’s a sped-up video showing off the Twelve O’Clock in action:

And a little more footage of the concept from this year’s earlier Baselworld show where it was first revealed:

Sure, completely impractical, but its still a cool design. Bell & Ross fully admits the Twelve O’Clock is an art piece, and not really intended to be worn as a practical timepiece. With that in mind, they’re only making a dozen of these limited-edition watch sets. And if you have to ask how much it costs, you most certainly won’t be able to afford one. That said, a set is said to cost about $88,000 (USD). See? Told you that you can’t afford it.

While I’m 1000% certain that this thing isn’t official Disney merchandise, it definitely captures the iconic mouse-head and conveys a strong sense of Disneyana on your wrist. It tells time using 33 LEDs arranged into three rings. Not-Mickey’s head shows the current hour, while left ear displays single minutes, the right ear displays tens of minutes. It also displays the date with a press of the button.

While the build quality definitely looks suspect, and Disney’s lawyers might come knocking on your door if you wear one, it’s actually not a bad looking watch.

The best part of course is because it’s a cheap, unlicensed Chinese gadget is that it sells for just $7.35 (USD) over at VKAmobi, so if it sucks, you won’t feel like you flushed too much money down the drain.

The Proton watch is quite unusual, especially if you choose the transparent band. Just like some of their other watches, the Proton doesn’t have any markings. You tell the time using two transparent gradient disks. Blue represents the hours and yellow indicates the minutes.

The Ion is more of a traditional analog watch, with two hands, and a brushed metal face. Both models are available in white, transparent, and transparent smoke wrist bands, and you can actually swap out the band later if you decide you’d rather go with one of the other colors.

You can get the Proton for €129 (~$170 USD) and the Ion for €105 (~$139 USD) over at Ziiiro’s online shop.

[via designboom]

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 “You’re Very, Very Late” tattoo watch was designed by Julia Rothman, and it’s something funny that you can wear during the busy holiday season, or year-round if you’re perpetually late. It also makes a good stocking stuffer, or something that you can use in a gift exchange.

The tattoo watches come in a variety of colors and sell for $15 (USD) for a set of 8 or $5 for a set of 2. So the next time that you’re tardy, you’ve got a funny excuse to share with your family and friends.

In short, the LED Domino FX wristwatch sent in from someone named Lloyd from Australia will definitely not be for me. I think dominoes is a fun game, but using it as a design to tell the time just, well, makes things complicated. I mean, remember the Domino Clock?

But for the people who can be bothered to take some extra time out to understand how the watch works, here’s what Lloyd has to say about his design: “This watch design is based on one of my puzzle ideas and, although it looks baffling initially, is actually incredibly easy to understand. It is called Domino FX because of the 4 domino-like figures in the display. However, these are not really dominoes, but digital 8s with up to 7 spots arranged inside each.”

“Up to 3 spots may appear in the top half and up to 4 in the bottom half. These spots indicate which, if any, of the 7 straight lines that make up each 8 must be omitted to make the time or date visible. You know when a line must be omitted because a spot appears right next to it.”

Get it? Don’t get it? You might need to read his explanation a couple more times (and check the display on the wristwatch more than a couple of times) to get the hang of the whole concept.

[Tokyo Flash via Gadgets Matrix]

Just push any number 0 through 9 on the watch, and it’ll blink out the current time using small LEDs mounted into the face of each button. The display supports both 12- and 24-hour time modes. A press of the pound sign shows the date, using the same blinking LED method.

The chunky buttons are supposed to be reminiscent of a computer keyboard, but to me they look more like an old pushbutton phone. Either way, it’s definitely a unique design, and I’m pretty sure the guy standing next to you won’t be wearing one.

You can get the Keypad watch in dark blue or ivory with blue LEDs, brown or black with white LEDs, or grey with red LEDs. I particularly like the brown and grey ones as they look very militaristic to me.

They’re available now at Watchismo now for $89.99 (USD) each. Just don’t try to do any math with one – you will fail.

The watch is encased in stainless steel and has a futuristic touchscreen interface. It works with a hybrid combination of LCD/LEDs, so it will be easily readable during the night or day. If you need more light, just push a button and the LEDs will flare up to allow you to read the time. The screen locks after 60 seconds and can be unlocked with a swipe. It’s also got an on-screen animation and alarm clock features.

The display isn’t that hard to read. The outer ring shows the hours, while the inner one shows the minutes. My guess is that you could train yourself to read the time with a glance pretty easily. It’s available in red, blue, green, or “natural” LCD colors and sells for $149 (USD) for the next two days over at Tokyoflash. After that, the price jumps up to $169.

While I probably spent more hours playing this on my old Nokia 6200 phone than anything else, I actually remember playing a version many years earlier on my Atari 2600, called Surround, and then later with the arcade TRON Lightcycle battle.

The cool thing about the Snake Watch is that the same pixel block snake that you played the game with is the time display. Look carefully, and you’ll notice that the snake trail on the watch above spells out “12:45.” Neat. When the time is not being displayed, the snake moves around the screen constantly, to keep your eyeballs occupied, and to act as a screen saver. Not that I think a watch display actually needs a screen saver.

The watch offers up two types of digits – one where the lines are truly continuous, and another where the numbers can have dots in the middle. Definitely more legible, but not representative of the snakes’ slithering. In digits/dot mode, I guess this snake can jump!

As is always the case with designs up on the TF Design Blog, you can vote for this watch if you’d like to see it produced.

In the mean time, you can occupy your time with an actual game of Snake, right now.