TokyoFlash Broke Watch: telling time with shattered, animated stained glass

The TokyoFlash folks have a new crazy-ass watch out, the Broke, which tells time by displaying an animation of a shattered piece of stained glass. The bright screen must be pretty battery-intensive because they've added USB recharging, which is pretty nifty.

Reading the time couldn't be easier. Touch the button and a shattering animation will light up the display. The outer ring of blocks represent hours in the same position as hours on a clock face. The inner ring of blocks represents five minute intervals in the same position as minutes on a clock face. Four single minutes are shown in the center.

Kisai Broke USB charging LED watch

• [i_prefer_yeti]

  If it ain’t broke, don’t break it.

• [murrayhenson]

  …Couldn’t be easier than just showing the time? E.g. 12:30 or whatever? Any watch that needs instructions on how to interpret what it is telling you is a watch that is all form and very little function.

  • [insatiableatheist]

    All watches require instructions on interpreting the time.
    It’s only because you learned to read (or tell analogue time) years ago that it is second nature now.
    I’m not saying this is better, but after wearing it a while one could easily tell the time at a glance.

  • [AceJohnny]

    The whole point of TokyoFlash watches is to be cryptic and beautiful, subverting the time-display mechanism we’re so used to. So yeah, it definitely is form over function. But on a good way (or you’re not the target demographic).

• [Chizu]

  So what time does the watch in the picture say? I’m guessing 1:24

  • [Anonymous]

    Says 1:23 on the site. I don’t get it though – do the yellow bits signify anything?

  • [SamSam]

    Hmmm… that was my first guess, then I decided that the red panes didn’t make sense and it had to be the orange panes that told the time.

    I’m guessing 7:5x. The x is because I can’t even tell which the four “center” ones are supposed to be, so it’s hard to tell which quadrant the center orange is in.

• [JayConverse]

  Watches aren’t for telling time, they’re merely jewelry and status symbols. I haven’t worn a watch in 10 years since the last battery wore out, and never miss it.

  • [proletariat]

    Watches aren’t for telling time, they’re merely jewelry and status symbols.

    The Diesel watch I wear every day hasn’t had a working battery for over two years now. But it’s so pretty. How else would anyone know how awesome I am?

• [ian71]

  “Reading the time couldn’t be easier.”

  I disagree.

• [thedub]

  The site says that this picture shows “1:21″, so I believe the dark spots are what tell the time.

• [Phil85]

  Looks like one funky clock. I struggle to read the time on a normal watch though so rekon this one could take me a while!

• [Petezza]

  “What’s the time?” – “Some pieces past 5″… like binary-LED-Watches and all the other temporal-oddities: this is not just time – it’s showing that u have timeless style or that you are a complete sucker for techno-gadgets OR that you give a rats-a…rearside about your CO2 footprint. What ever works for you ;)

• [JonStewartMill]

  People still wear watches?

  • [Anonymous]

    Yes, just to piss you and all the other “my cell phone is so much better than a watch” folks off. That’s the only reason: we hate you.

    • [djn]

      @Anon:
      Of course, we the cellphone people hate your lot with a passion too. :)

      (Though in my case it’s mostly a case of really disliking the feeling of having something as chunky as a watch strapped to my wrist.)

• [coolvoodoo]

  They are not even able to tell what time their own watch says. On the website the picture of the watch in the bottom left corner shows 1:24 (if I am interpreting the diagram correctly) and just above the picture it says “time=1:23″. Anybody agree? Anyway I think it’s really cool, and I love the colors.