Watch This Space

Watches watches watches. Always relevant within design due to their essentially invariable style, perceived value and necessity. The above picture provides one of the many current designs of a wristwatch - it manages to cater to most of the modern preconceptions. The mobile timepiece has gone through few real progressions bar the wrist-strap and conversion to digital. Why is this? Is this through laziness or because it is good design?

This Japanese flash watch has its own way of telling time through different colours and sequences. I like this watch, it manages to differentiate itself from the other million models already on sale. It cannot really be classed as lazy design as it has pioneered its own interface. I do like the blue sky thinking behind the product, however, it is regressive - it is much harder to tell the time as opposed to existing watches. It shows no progression, like the jump from analogue to digital.

This LED Watch from Phillipe Starck shows good innovation. It challenges preconceptions and shows progression. It challenges the architecture of a common watch and does away with the screen completely. I like this from-the-ground-up-design and I believe it should be implemented much more frequently. Although it is not a huge leap it is indeed a step in the right direction. It is definitely not lazy and it is not being greedy by stealing other designs.

It seems everyone and their dog wants an all-in-one gadget, this is the reason for the market being flooded by camera/MP3 phones and MP4 players. Some companies have taken it to the next level and made a camera/phone/watch. This is an example of a model from a company called Telson. This is lazy AND greedy; they made it big and ugly, they obviously rushed it to production before technology had reached a reasonable level as to be 'pioneers' and, believe it or not, they stole from another design...

...this is The Lancashire Ladies Watch Camera, and being invented in the 19th-century, it must take the roll of the original multi disciplined gadget.