Quark LED cufflinks!

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Design submitted by Logan from the USA.

Logan says: The inspiration is “Tokyoflash formal wear.”  The result is LED watch cufflinks.  Let’s call them Quarks.  Like the particles, they are small and come in pairs.  I present the Up and Down Quarks.

LED watch cufflinks necessarily have a small display area, presenting a design challenge for clearly communicating the time.  The Up and Down Quark cufflinks, which are worn as a pair, offer two solutions.  The Up Quark cufflink shows the four digits of the time in sequence using an LED segmented display that fills as much of the display area as possible, while remaining easy to read.  The Down Quark cufflink counts each of the digits on a 3×3 array of LED dots (0 is displayed by a quick diagonal animation).

The white LEDs shine through a smoked lens, like S-Mode Oberon.  The lens is touch-sensitive — tap to display the time, hold to enter time-setting mode or switch between 12-hour and 24-hour display.  The body is silver-plated stainless steel.

The display part of the cufflink twists off of the base to reveal a circular battery compartment for a small button cell.  The outside wall of the compartment could be threaded like a screw, or have a slot in which a pin travels, to make the closure.

It might be a technical challenge to make the cufflink as thin as is shown in the diagram.  How much thickness is really needed for the electronics and battery?  The Retsu watch, which Tokyoflash released many years ago, was only 8mm thick.  How far has the technology advanced since then?

When you celebrate your IPO, when you’re at the Embassy Ball, or when you want to add a little class to your office meeting, Quark cufflinks will set you apart.

From wristwatches to pocket watches to cufflinks — a natural progression in formal wear.  Quark cufflinks are in the tradition of elegant Tokyoflash designs like Denshoku, Oberon, and R75 that can be worn on the most important occasions.

20 thoughts on “Quark LED cufflinks!”

  1. In a word; stylish! =)
    It’s a cool idea, no doubt about that. The thing that gives me pause is (as usual) the practicality aspect, namely ‘how easy is it to read’? With the display on the outside of the cuff you’d have to grab hold of it (the cuff) and twist your arm more than with a wristwatch in order to see the display properly. Not that one couldn’t get used to it of course…
    As for fitting the tech into it, I know Sony Ericsson (R.I.P.) made a phone a number of years ago, I think it was the W880i if I remember correctly, which was no more than 5 mm thick. So it should certainly be possible to shoehorn a watch into a cufflink. It might not be quite as slim as in the images, though…=)

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    • Thanks for your feedback, Anders. Yes, it probably takes a little more effort to read than a wristwatch. On the other hand, that will get everyone wondering, “What the heck is he doing with his cufflink?”

      Thanks for the Sony tip, didn’t know about that.

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      • True, I hadn’t thought of that…=)

        No worries, I only came to think of it because the description mentioned the 8mm watch…

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  3. Niiiiiice, sophisticated, fashionably geeky, cool name!

    I would say, the left cufflink shows the time while the right one shows the date. Or the left one shows everything and the right one is for anmiations (but maybe too cheesy for the Embassy Ball, but on the Physicist Ball that would rock).

    I like the numbers style and the smoked lens blurring them a bit. Good luck Logan!

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    • Thanks, Sam 🙂 Showing time on one and date on the other was my original intention, but then I thought it might be more fun to have two display options for reading the time/showing off. I don’t know what’s best. Personally, I rarely check the date on my watch. Maybe, animation on one, like you suggest, is a good alternative.

      Smoked lenses are great, even if I can’t illustrate them so well. But anyone can check the Oberon to see what it could look like.

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    • You know what would be really cool is if you could add the odd coloured block to the grid design, it would look very “De Stijl”

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    • Thanks, Pete! An option with subtle color would be great, if there is enough room for the electronics for more than one color.

      About De Stijl, a looong time ago I submitted a design like that, called Piet 3. The display had 7 segments arranged in the style of Mondrian, black/yellow/white/red/blue, and told time using trinary. It was one of the very first designs I submitted, but didn’t make it onto the blog. I still love the way it looks, but it’s hard enough to sell binary, let alone trinary.

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      • Regarding the room for the electronics, could some of it bee in the cam part that goes thru the cuff? perhaps a small diameter button style battery, this would help make room in the main cavity for the clever stuff.

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  5. It’s a cool and fresh concept indeed. Be more creative, the tablet watch can be used as pocket watch, wrist watch or like this… just need to design the pinning mechanism. This can be very good accessory of modern life, but when you wear this, you have no excuse to be late for meeting. L+O+G+A+N ~~ thinking~~ result = 5*.

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  6. Great ‘outside the box’ thinking…or maybe ‘outside the watch’ thinking is more appropriate! I think this definitely appeals to the wider gadget market. Good job.

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  10. That is such a cool design. A TokyoFlash fan myself I get so inspired by this creativity. And this co-creation blog just keeps me up to date with what is goin on at the front-line of gadgetism. I would definitly consider buying these, as I have to wear dress shirts a lot visiting clients. As for readability: I don’t really care… My phone will tell me the time in easy to read format…

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