Tokyo Bay Volt Watch

Look at this handsome rascal from Tokyo Bay. It’s one of those watches that is somehow retro and futuristic at the same time. Possibly my favourite kind of design really.

The Volt watch is going for a very reasonable $70.00 (about £35 to UK readers) and it’s colorful textured design dial and unique disc time window function make for a rather attractive timepiece.

The case size is 1 3/4" and it’s also available in blue, white, and green as well as the featured black.

BUY IT

Nixon’s The Banks Watch

Look at this handsome devil. It’s a Nixon watch titled ‘The Banks’. It features great design along with simple and effective technology.

It’s got dual time and a second subdial (for those of you who need to synchronise your watches like a ’70s spy). It’s water resistant to 100 meters and made from stainless steel with chamfered hardened mineral crystal and triple gasket crown.

For those who don’t care about all that, all you need to know is that it looks great and will cost you $265.00. Also available in six other colours.

BUY IT

Alessi Kaj Wristwatch

Lots of watches demand to be looked at by being shiny and fussy. However, for those of you who aren’t magpie eyed, you’ll be interested in this cracking Alessi watch. The Kaj collection designed by Karim Rashid is "symbolic of technology, the cosmos and the passage and cyclical nature of time" apparently.

However, the more sensible of you will just think that it looks very nice and the design is clean and simple, and therefore will never go out of fashion. It’s made from polyurethane (case and strap), acrylic crystal and is 3ATM water resistant.

How much for this stylish watch? To you, $85.00 (roughly £40 for UK readers).

BUY IT

Nooka Zot classic watch

Now this is one damn cool watch. So what if it’s really difficult to tell the time – we have mobile phones to do that. The Nooka Zot Classic displays the hours as a progression of 12 dots.
This design feature allows the watch to display the month on the same
display with the date in the seconds window. It’s housed in stainless, waterproof steel
with an LCD backlight. Available from Elsewares (they do ship to the UK) for $250 (around £125) BUY IT

Nooka watches are the brainchild of Matthew Waldman, a New York-based artist and designer.

More wonderful watches on Brandish

The Rotolog watch from Nixon

We’ve featured quite a few watches on Brandish, but none quite as handsome as this. The Rotolog from Nixon will set you back $250.00, and for your money you get a beautiful stainless steel watch with hardened mineral crystal feature, a real walnut inlay and a double gasket crown. The band is custom solid stainless steel with real walnut and a butterfly closure.

There is also a great limited edition version that features some cool skulls on, but that’ll cost you extra. For the featured watch, click here to BUY IT

Cathode Nixie Watch

There are a lot of cool retro things out there, but none as original and unusual as this cathode Nixie Watch from Cathode Corner. The watch uses two nixie tubes – neon display tubes once used in sixties calculators – to display the hours, minutes, and seconds in order through the flicking of the wrist. Not only that, but it’s easily serviceable since the top is detachable and it’s even possible modify the watch’s programming through the downloadable source code.

It’s designed for everyday use and is water-resistant and costs around $400. It’s a little pricey, but if you want to stand out in the best possible way, it’s well worth the money. If you want to see a video of the watch in action and then buy one, click here.

Click here for more watches on Brandish

Equalizer LED watch

As you can see from the photo, this watch’s LED display is designed to look like a graphic equaliser. God knows how you’re supposed to tell the time, but then that’s not the point – you don’t buy a watch like this to tell the time, you buy it because it looks damn cool, in a retro stylee. The black stainless-steel strap is also, to quote Borat, verrrrry niiiiice.

Available from ultra-cool website Audiocubes.

Frank Gehry Fossil watch

This is a quirky little watch, designed by postmodern architect Frank Gehry and developed by Fossil. Hands up if you know what a postmodern architect does? Apart from design watches smart alec! Anyway, this watch has an mental time read out display in Frank Gehry’s own script. If the time is 11:30, the display reads in script, "half past 11" and if the time is 12:54, it reads as "6 til 1". Weird eh? The display also automatically switches back and forth showing a negative screen during daylight hours and a positive screen at night.

It contains the usual stuff as well as a calendar function. For $150.00 you get a brushed titanium case with a silver colored titanium plate around the perimeter of the display, a black genuine leather strap and an 11-year warranty. Not bad eh? Also available in brown. BUY IT

For more watches and cool timepieces, click here.

The PIMP watch

Wanna act like a pimp? Or better still, wanna act like one of those robots from Battlestar Galactica? Well, let me introduce the most mental watch ever. The PIMP is the world’s first high quality LED watch using 72 LED lights. The watch is plated with 18k Gold for the ultimate stylish pimp ass look! It’s pretty well crafted and brings cutting edge design and technology into your bling.

This rude bwoy is part of a limited run, so if you like it, act swift! $189 and available in three designs. BUY IT

Paul Frank killer calculator watch

LOOK AT THESE BAD BOYS! This is, without doubt, the coolest watch ever made. Harking back to those ace eighties digital watches, the super dapper Paul Frank Calculator Watch makes all that modern looking garbage look redundant and dull.

The watches are available in a range of colours, from dark green to a pink thing which probably won’t sell as well with the lads. The watches have all the functions and things that you’d expect of a digital watch (which means you can set the time and date by pressing fiddly little buttons) as well as the fully functioning calc’. You can also go swimming in it too, and for £40 (ish) you’d be a moron to avoid buying. BUY IT

[via Retro To Go]

Nixon Rotolog watch

Something a little different to finish the week, a wood-panelled timepiece from Nixon – the Rotolog watch.

Known as a surfer company, Nixon also has a fine line of seriously quirky watches – and for me, this is the best. This Rotolog features a Japanese quartz movement, stainless steel case and a real walnut wood inlay, along with a custom stainless steel band, with real walnut and a butterfly closure. And as it’s from a surfer firm, it’s obviously water resistant.

Available from Nixon dealers for around £200. Other non-wood variations also available.

Nixon UK website

Via Retro To Go

Paul Smith Jumping Date watch

I’ve stuck to the classic styles and brands so far this week, so here’s something a little more contemporary from a brand not usually associated with watchmaking – Paul Smith’s Jumping Date watch.

This a limited edition piece with a Swiss quartz movement in a stainless steel case. The name’s down to the unusual date feature that jumps around 3 date positions on the dial. Also worth noting is the slightly off-centre casing, which has a Paul Smith engraved sketch on the rear and a dial that’s protected by a synthetic sapphire crystal in orange.

Not cheap at £399, but definitely a head-turner.

Paul Smith website

Tissot T-Touch watch

Tissot has a strong watchmaking heritage – check out the driver’s PRS 516 from the 60s for a timeless timepiece. They’re still doing it too – combining classic looks with state-of-the-art technology, most recently ith the Tissot T-Touch.

A big, chunky watch and bracelet packed with all manner of functions, all accessed via a touch-sensitive screen. These include an accurate Altimeter (in feet and metres), Chronograph, Compass, Alarm, Thermometer (in ºC and ºF), Barometer as well as Date and Time (choice of 12H and 24H).

The T-Touch Polished Titanium model retails for around £455, with a black strap version available at £435. The most expensive watch I’ll be recommending this week – but a solid investment from a quality watchmaker.

Tissot website

Mondaine Swiss Railway watch

How about a watch with a heritage, that’s a design classic and still costs less than £100? You get the lot with the Mondaine Swiss Railway Watch.

The watch is modelled on the Swiss Railway Station Clock which has been displayed in every Swiss railway station since the 1940s – and originally designed by Swiss Federal Railways employee Hans Hilfiker. He designed the face to be easily readable from a distance, with a red second hand to enable passengers to judge precisely when trains would arrive and depart.

This smart timepiece also has a quartz movement and water-resistance and is available online for a very affordable £98.

Buy it at the Design London website

Via Retro To Go

Sekonda One watch

After featuring the highly desirable (and highly priced) TAG Heuer Monaco watch last week, I thought I’d use this week to feature some stylish watches with more realistic price tags, starting with the Sekonda One range.

Launched in 1966, Sekonda has been the biggest selling watch brand in the UK for the past 18 years, with the One range introduced last year. Prices for this range vary between £40 and £75. The 3792 model (pictured) is something of a throwback to the 70s with a big, slightly stretched face and chunky brushed metal bracelet, giving the impression of a timepiece retailing for much more than its asking price – which is £50.

Certainly worth a look as an everyday watch.

Sekonda website