The area under the curve is the hours...

I am not sure whether Neatorama's recent post actually does immortalise the 10 Most Difficult to Read Tokyoflash Watches, but it's got to be pretty close.

There are hordes of those things, each cooler-looking and less legible than the last. But I suppose this is just the harmless perversity that afflicts all obsolescent products. For years it's been possible to buy a $5 quartz watch that keeps time better than a $3000 Rolex Oyster, and almost nobody with a mobile phone needs a wristwatch at all any more. So, today, practicality is ruled out from the very start as a reason for almost anyone to purchase a wristwatch.

Anybody who wants to make expensive wind-up watches today, therefore, has to add more complications and curlicues to get attention. And anybody selling expensive quartz watches has to turn them into sci-fi escapees.

(By the way, The Secret Life of Machines has an excellent episode on quartz watches, and their forebears.)

Close-up

See also.

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