I took a look at the Timex Competition today, and I'm starting to realize why Ron called me at 5:30am last week ranting about this competition. Let's do a quick analysis.
Wrist Based
The winner for the wrist segment was basically a snap bracelet that could take pictures, had a thumbprint reader, and could sync to satellites to tell world time...WTF? yeah, these might be good ideas, but in 150 years?..cmon. Look at this century; 150 years ago there were no cars, no satellites, no internet(s), and no snap bracelets. This person wasn't even trying to see the future, and they obviously didn't know about Moore's Law that says that technology doubles every 18 months. Let's just look at that real fast. 150 years=1800 months=100 Moore Cycles, and 100 Moore Cycles is basically 2^100 times what technology was when it started.
Oh and did I mention it's solar powered and waterproof up to 5000 meters(or 5km), so you're safe to wear your watch on the outside of your f#$%ing compression suit when you're playing in the Abyssal Plains of the ocean where the water temp is about 0 and there is no light(let's hope it has indiglo). Survey says...F
Next we have these generic pieces of wizardry.
I can hear the judges now, "It's a bracelet...that's a watch...yay!"
and "It's a sweatband...that's a watch...brrrilliant!"
Wearables
The wearable section was full of tripe such as a thumbnail watch, an ear watch, the omni-present contact lense gizmo, and the sticker watch(that's real consumerism for you...now everyday when you throw away your sticker you can really say you're wasting time). I don't have the energy talk about this section, but if you want to look, go here.
Conceptual
In the conceptual section you have another sticker watch, and the opposite of the consumer sticker watch, the "earn your vacation watch".
Okay, I think it's neat that the guy made a swept circle bracelet in Rhino/Alias, and then offset that surface, and made it glass to have a thermometer effect, but the idea is a little 1984 for me. According to this there is now a global government that controls all of our free time and doles it out when we've been ecological enough to deserve it...that's fucking psycho; I'd rather stab myself in the face then wear some kind of eco-thermometer, mark of the beast. I bet this person also made a 2 minutes hate watch that never made it.
Notables
In the notables section, I actually liked these:
I think that the style for the left one is a little too tech for me, but I think that I could easily see it in a sci-fi movie. And the fur one is cool in that it's...well...fuzzy.
However, the "Little Ben" watch made me feel queezy...
Conclusion
I'm aware that I didn't enter this contest, but my concepts wouldn't have been lasers, holograms, or stale ideas pulled from a 50's sci-fi movie. I swear that I will enter the next contest on Core just to throw my hat in the mix, but with winners like the "eco-clock", "sticker watch", and "slap bracelet" on this one, I don't really feel like I have a chance of winning.
In conclusion, shake machine broke.
