Design submitted by Lance from Australia.
Lance says: One night after a long day at work I parked my car in the city street and then proceeded to try and read the parking meter in the dark. I pulled out my trusty phone to use the LED flash as a torch so I could read the meter. Sure enough I dropped my phone on the concrete (smashing its screen in the process!). After I got over the anger, the idea came to me. Why not have a flash light built into a watch! I’ve never seen someone drop their watch!
The design is inspired by my love of old digital watches and flip style clocks. The time is read normally however it remains hidden until the wearers wrist is flicked and then the ePaper display springs into action updating the digital display with the current time in “flip style” animation. The design is simple clean and asymmetrical with the hidden LED flashlight located in the iconic crown position.
I see all types of people wearing this watch. From young to old, from suits to construction workers. The simple design remains elegant and the colour range suits a wide audience. It’s a modern take on a classic design which also features environmental design solar charging. The hidden LED flashlight might even save you from dropping your mobile phone!
I think my design is functional and unique. Having the LED positioned in the crown (3 o’clock) position it allows a bright beam of LED light to shine towards your hand helping you to see clearly in the dark situations. Saving time while telling the time! I think that it’s a simple yet very useful and practical design. A must have gadget watch and maybe even future classic.
Tokyoflash Japan 
We don’t get too many gadget watch designs, so it’s nice to see something like this.
The built-in torch is a great idea & as anyone who lives in the countryside knows, getting the key into the lock in the dark is harder than you imagine!
I like the power-save mode too. As a suggestion it could also have a 5 or 10 min delay mode, so the time only updates periodically 10:40, 10:50, etc – that would be a 90% power saving per day, but you can still see the ‘rough’ time.
Additionally I think it would be good to include at least one alternative time display in addition to your classic flip digits.
Great concept & thanks for sending it in.
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Many thanks Tokyoflash for publishing my concept!
I like your power saving idea. I think it would work well to auto update the time every 5 or 10 minutes. When people ask for the time, most people tend to either round up or down by 5 minutes =)
I will try to think of alternative time display options to add. I look forward to hearing ideas from the tokyoflash community =) and thanks again for the feedback!
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Hi Lance, the idea of the torch integrated in the watch has crossed me the spirit and you did it, it is well.
To save energy, I know if the ePaper consumes much?
In any case your score is very good, this project interests many people.
5*/Y.
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Thanks Patrick I appreciate your comments! I think ePaper shouldnt consume too much energy. However the led would need at least 3volts I think from either rechargeable battery or stacked coin type batteries. Its tricky as there are many people who love rechargeable type watches and many who much prefer coin type. I guess a combination of both would be ideal but im not sure if it would fit easily. Ps. I like the 3D watch renderings on your flickr Page!
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Lance thank you, on my Flickr page the rendering is done with “Shark FX,” I had not yet “KeyShot”.
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Great concept and design. Cool flash light design!
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Hi Lance, welccme to the blog! Nice idea having the integrated torch! I am currently working on a coop with Lewis which also features a torch (apart from other features) so GMTA. When it eventually hits the blog please dont think we have have copied your concept. Epaper is a sensible option for low power consuption. Nice concept, best of luck sir! 😀
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Thanks Pete! I look forward to seeing your design concept on the blog :). Yes GMTA (I had to google GMTA hahaha)
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Hi lance welcome to the blog. Good idea but with the torch being in the right side of the watch it would render that function useless to me as I always wear my watch on my right arm and so the light would only be great for illuminating my forearm lol.
Maybe if the torch was placed on the top of the watch then it would be more practical for use with both arms? Regarding Epaper…not sure if the display would need to disappear after a while as once the Epaper has been activated it will stay on with no added drain to the power.
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I was waiting for someone to say they wear their watch on the right hand! I just had an idea! Being a digital screen a “flip or rotate screen function” might even work. It would simply mean the solar panel would feature on the top of the screen when worn on the right arm. The band could even be made so that it can be flipped where it joins the watch face =)
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Hee hee I had to be the spanner in the works huh?! Curse my choice of wrist lol.
I see where you’re going with the rotatable watch face idea and flipped screen but overall it might make the technical side a bit cluttered with unneeded extras whereas a light elsewhere would be a more minor change yet still produce as effective a result.
Maybe the torch could be on the strap close to your wrist and THAT could swivel around?!
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Cool idea and you’ve obviously thought this through.
I like the idea of a torch in a watch, but my first concern was how quickly it would drain the battery. You’ve covered that with the combination of USB chargeable battery and solar charging, along with power saving on the other functions.
To cover Justin’s point about right-arm use, maybe there could be an option to rotate the display through 180 degrees, so that the solar panels can be at the top and the display below. Then the torch would still work on the right arm.
Good luck and 5y.
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Thanks Nev. I actually just responded to the comment above and now just read that you suggested the same thing!! GMTA!
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I probably should have included my LED light specs into the design (although they are ball park estimates). I now often use an LED keychain light which is very small and uses four LR44 batteries which are about 180mah each in capacity and stacked in series to 6 volts total. This outputs 25 lumens of light (illuminating around 20 metres). With a battery life of 4-5 hours. So my idea was to use an LED around half the size of this and power it by the same style/type of PL301517 rechargeable battery used in the Kisai Blade (which I just received in the mail today thank you Tokyoflash =D). Although I don’t know what its capacity is.
My other thought was to use a rechargeable PD3048 or LIR3048 lithium ion coin cell which is 300mah capacity and provide 3.7 volts which should give the watch an LED flash light which lasts for 2 or more hours of continuous use and should provide around 10 lumens (lighting around 10 metres!). With the bonus of being recharged around 300 to 500 times. I’m not very “flash” at electronics so these are just estimates, although they are used in gps watches and last for 5 plus hours on average. But the question remains would it all fit into a watch without making it to bulky. (In my mind ePaper is thin like paper hahaha)
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You’ll get a lot of GMTA here because there are many great minds at work…and then there’s me dunce in the making lol.
Have you tried google sketch up for your 3D drawings?? It’s what I use and it is such an easy program to get to grips with!! Free too!!
Couple that with a free renderer from the “extension warehouse” and you’re laughing buddy!
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Thanks heaps for the tip!! I hadn’t even heard of them before. I look forward to trying them out! Dunce in the making. no way!
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The torch in the watch is a nice idea. Last week, I saw a blog article of a new watch that include a torch. (made for cops/military)
I like the “flip clock” display.
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