Infotainment

Japan’s Tokyoflash has made a name for itself with numerous weird and wonderful – or maybe baffling - ways to tell the time. Now, bringing to mind Homer Simpson’s quote of, “From now on Honey, we'll be spelling everything with letters,” when Marge is impressed by a house that has its street number spelled out with letters, German design agency Biegert & Funk is set to release a wristwatch that fancies things up by telling the time in words. Essentially a shrunk down version of the company’s QLOCKTWO wall and desktop clocks, the QLOCKTWO W features a square face measuring 35 x 35 mm (1.37 in) that contains a grid of 110 letters. Press the button on the right hand side of the watch and the relevant letters will light up to reveal the time in readable text – “It is half past ten” or “It is a quarter to seven”, for example. Additional presses of the button will reveal the calendar day, and then the seconds. Biegert & Funk will release the QLOCKTWO W in the northern autumn in st

Despite the fact that it's getting more and more difficult to find someone who doesn't carry a smartphone with them at all times, the notion of the Dick Tracy style watch phone isn't dead yet. In the past few years, we've seen examples from companies such as LG, Samsung, Hyundai and Orange, just to name a few. This week at CES, watchmaker Burg officially added its Neon line of watch phones to that list by announcing two models that will be coming to the U.S. market. The basic model (called the Burg 9 going by the rather confusing information on the company's website) has a simple analogue clock face, with features that include the ability to make and receive hands-free calls, speed dial, voice count, and key lock and unlock. It also has GPS, which could come in handy if a child wearing the watch were to get lost. Prices for this model start at US$99. The other watch (listed on the site as the the Burg 11) is considerably more about the bells and wh