Watches

19 Cool Watches that Require a PhD to tell Time

June 13, 2008

If your the kind of guy that likes to “figger things out” and never have to be anywhere on time, perhaps one of these ultra-geek (yet cool) watches should be on your shopping list.

01 The One Lightmare Men’s LED Watch

The outer circle of lights represents the hours. The inner circle represents every 5 minutes. The row of 4 singles LEDs in the center of the dial is the single minutes. Add them all up, and there you have it.

$169 @ WatchCo.com

Abacus Series 2 Men’s Watch

What other watch indicates the time by the position of a small ball? This ball moves to and fro across the face of the watch with the flow of the wearer’s arm movements; but as soon as the ABACUS reaches a horizontal position; the ball moves as if by magic – or at least by magnetism – to the right”point in time”.

$225 @ Kenmar Watches

Buffalo Rage Men’s Watch

A casual analog men’s watch. Features a black genuine leather band , black stainless steel case with a black dial. This watch is nickel allergy free, scratch resistant mineral crystal. Water resistant to 30 meters.
$98 @ Amazon

Storm Circuit Watch

The Circuit Watch uses a pair of tall stacked LED segments to illustrate the current time. The bars on the left show the current hour, while the bars on the right display appear to be split into two sections, one which displays tens of minutes and the other which shows individual minutes. Found @ Technabob

$225 @ Storm

Dakota “The Matrix LI” Men’s Watch

“Atop the face sits the hours, while minutes (in increments of five and a single 1-4 slot) are listed beneath; put simply, bars on the LCD are lit above the corresponding number(s) as the day whisks away”

Discovered @ Engadget

$70 @ Kenmar Watches

Fossil Starck Watch

This digital style watch displays the time in a unique fashion. In a ring shaped display, the hours are displayed as numbers while the minutes are displayed in segments. As time goes by, the segments build making a complete ring every hour. The center is completely see through and the pusher is located on the case back to create this sleek styling.

$125 @ Amazon

Horological Machine No. 2

This cool watch features an “instantaneous jump hour, concentric retrograde minutes, retrograde date and bi-hemisphere moon phase.” Uhhh ok

Only $59,000

Found @ Boing Boing

Jean d’eve Sectora Automatic Watch

The hour and minute hands move vertically in a fascinating ballet on this watch. As soon as hand completes its cycle it springs back to starting point.

From SwissTime

Laurinda Spear Free Time Watch

“The cycle of life, with a beginning, middle & end is synchronized by the 3 rings and guide us along our path to openings where time limits are set free. Our journey through time, passes the story of our past & present, to a hopeful future”

$90 @ Unica Home

LIP Mythic Jump Hour Watch

This men’s watch features three separate discs for hours, minutes, and seconds spin exposed on the dial lining up in the viewing window located on the left side.

$395 @ Watchismo

Nooka ZOT V Watch

The Nooka Zot-V watch also has some nifty features: a chronograph for timing your poker games, and an alarm to get you up in the morning. The 12 dots represent hours (months in date mode) and the row below counts minutes.

$265 @ Nooka

Ora Unica watch

“The hour and minute hands are represented by a single line drawn on two circular faces, which turn one inside the other. Both faces together resemble a graphical gesture, a doodle that changes as time passes.”

Found @ Yanko Design

OTIUM [du:z] Watch

Look – clockwise – for the last slit in which the ball is in the extreme outside position: You have got the hour. As usual you can read the minute by the little sweeping hand.

Check it out @ the Otium website

RAZOR BLOCK – 01 THE ONE / Binary LED Watch

This watch features 10 white LEDs on a round dial…enclosed in a square, frosted black polycarbonate block. The top row of LEDs apparently represent the hours and the bottom the minutes. You got me!?

$169 @ LED Watch Superstore

Watch This – Reveal Watch

This mystifying watch reveals the current hour and minute through a looking glass while the past and the future fade to gray. It’s an analog watch that reads in digital format.

$110 @ Uncommon Goods

Tokyo Flash Barcode IP LED Watch

The 1st two columns show the hour. In column 1 each light equals 5 hours, in column 2 each light equals 1 hour. The 2nd 2 columns show the minutes. In column 3 each light equals 10 mins, in column 4 each light equals 1 minute.

$209 @ Tokyo Flash

Alessi “Look No Hands” Watch

The rotating disks are the basis for telling time. In the unique design, the current hour and minute appear in two distinct openings that rotate around the face of the watch, revealing only a small part of the art work at a time.

$85 @ Buy.com

Tokyo Flash Twelve 5-9 Q Watch

“Moving clockwise from the top of the display, the first two lines of LEDs indicate the hours 1-12, each lit LED indicating one hour. The third line of LEDs indicates minutes up to 50, each lit LED indicating 10 minutes. The final two lines indicate single minutes 1-9, one LED representing each single minute.”

$152 @ Tokyo Flash

URWERK UR-202 AlTiN

“Revolving Satellite Complication The UR-202 features URWERK’s patented Revolving Satellite Complication with telescopic minutes hands. The Revolving SatelliteComplication displays time using telescopic minutes hands operating through the middle of three orbiting and revolving hours satellites. The telescopic minutes hands precisely adjust their length to follow the three sectors marking the minutes: 0-14, 15-44, 45-60. Extended, they enable the UR-202 to display the time across a large, easy-to-read dial. Retracted, they allow for a very wearable and comfortably sized case.” Can’t find a price…guessing it’s a shit-load.

Check it out at the URWERK website