A watch that will make it easier to talk to people

Mar 18, 2015 12:14 GMT  ·  By

Tokyoflash is a company specialized in designing weird looking watches. They aren't smartwatches that measure your pulse or tell you how many calories you consumed in a day, but some of them are bundled with some nifty feats (for example, the Intoxicated model can measure the alcohol levels in your blood, but ultimately fails to do so too accurately).

Anyway, Tokyoflash is famous for equipping its products with cryptic displays that tell the time in an atypical fashion, making it impossible for you to discern the time without reading the booklet the watch comes equipped with beforehand.

Take, for instance, the Tanmetsu watch, which pretty much looks like a stoplight strapped to your wrist. That’s because the OLED-based device uses three different types of LEDs (green, yellow and red) to display the time of day (or night).

Right now, you’re probably asking yourself how a bunch of colored dots tell you what time it is. Well, as it is explained in the booklet, the red LED indicates 15 units, the yellow one 5 units, and the green one 1 unit. Now, where do we go from here?

How to read the actual time on this thing?

The watch is designed to show you the time (hours/minutes) but also the current month or date. The time and date are shown in sequence by color.

The watch has two main buttons, which are dubbed A and B. So you’ll need to press the A button in order to display the time. Time is set in 24h format only.

As you can see in the schematics we have attached for you below, you will have to make some calculations every time you want to know the hour/month and date.

Reading the time/date on the Kisai Tenmetsu
Reading the time/date on the Kisai Tenmetsu

Once the top red LED flashes 5 times in a row, you can go on adding the colored dots to find out hours/minutes. After the top two LEDs flash 5 times, you can read the month and date.

How do you set the time?

Each setting mode will be displayed in the following sequence: hour, minutes, month and date. You will have to press the B button in order to go to each setting mode.

1. Setting the hour

Press the B button once, then press the A to increase the LED lights. Press button B again to confirm the entry and move on to minutes.

2. Setting the minutes

Press button A to increase the LED lights. Press button B to confirm and set the month.

3. Setting the month

Press button A to increase the LED lights. Press button B to confirm and move to date.

4. Setting the date

Press button A to increase the LED lights. Press button B to confirm.

All this colorful LED blinking and flashing might be confusing at first, but after a few days of use, I finally started getting the drill and managed to get the time right straight off the bat on a few occasions.

Which isn't particularly helpful if you're on a deadline and trying to figure out how many minutes you have left until your big presentation.

There’s also an animation mode

If you can’t have enough of the LED lights flickering at you, Tokyoflash is also throwing in a so-called activating animation. Meaning the LED lights will animate once every minute for 12 minutes after the time is displayed.

What the Tenmetsu feels like on your wrist

The watch is manufactured of aluminum and supports a maximum wrist size of 220 mm. Like with previous products, Tokyoflash has produced a pretty big watch which proves too large even for some gentlemen.

Yes, the bracelet can be tweaked, but in order to do that you need to bring your own tools into the equation. The case’s dimensions are 23mm x 52mm x 10 mm / / 0.9 x 2.04 x 0.39 inches, while its 100 g / 0.22 lb weight makes it sound quite light on paper, although in real life, it does put a toll on your wrist, especially if you’re a girl.

To be frank, the Tenmetsu looked better in images than it does in real life. It seemed sleeker, more compact, but that’s not really the case when you actually have it in your hand/on your wrist.

So, is it worth it?

Tokyoflash prides itself with coming up with the most innovative designs for its products. But the wow effect is not all when it comes to delivering a pertinent product to your customers.

It’s funny how the product teaser is centered around a guy talking about how the Tenmetsu gave him an opportunity to interact.

He goes on to explain that girls invited him to hang out because they wanted to hear all about the watch, how it worked, how it felt. And the one time he showed up without this magical device, they asked in dismay, “Hey, what are we going to talk about now?”

It makes me wonder: so, in a world over-saturated by technology, is showing off a fancy looking piece of gadgetry the only way you can talk with a fellow human being? I certainly hope not.

The bottom line is that you have to ask yourself: is $150 / €141 the price you really need to pay for getting to know other people?

I’m not saying this is not a fun product you might feel good about in the first few days, but sincerely, I’m not sure this elation will last you more than a couple of weeks.

Attention readers: Tokyoflash and Softpedia are giving away a free watch of your choice. Just check out Tokyoflash’s official page, pick out your favorite model and tell us in a few words why you chose that particular watch. Best comment wins, is as simple as that! The contest ends in a week's time (on March 30).

UPDATE: And the winner is... r3flex3. Congratulations, you will be contacted by TokyoFlash to arrange shipment of your prize.

Tokyoflash Kisai Tenmetsu LED Watch (9 Images)

Kisai Tenmetsu frontal view
Kisai Tenmetsu with boxKisai Tenmetsu with leds on
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