Our friends over at Weird Worm have compiled a list of the Ten Tackiest Things Only The Super Rich Can Afford, with the following disclaimer: ‘If you’ve got it, flaunt it. A rule that the super-rich increasingly take to heart. Lest you thought rich people deserved respect, here’s a sample of what they’re spending their money on’. It includes, unsurprisingly, this garish Rolex Leopard print watch, which will set you back roughly the same amount as a ‘pretty good luxury car’. Cool! Let’s buy it.

SPONSOR

The team at Toy Watch USA have unleashed the Jelly Watch: Mix and Match Men’s and Women’s watches, with a selection of colourful rubber straps, so you can design your own and be the coolest kid on the block.

Inspired by the unique digital clock apps created by the designer, Sean Zoega, the i-toc watch is a colorful physical manifestation of digital ideas featuring bespoke two-disc Japan quartz movement. The outer gradient displays the minutes while the inner gradient shows the hours. The rings interact, creating an ever-changing pattern of design and colour. We have them for sale in our online store.

Quiksilver, the surfing apparel company, has just released what is being considered the world’s first eco-friendly watch. Made of sustainable ebony wood and running on automatic movement instead of batteries, this limited-edition watch is green down to the shipping of the raw materials. Every raw material used in making this watch is recyclable (the aluminum, the steel, and the mineral crystal are all 100% recyclable), and it also includes solvent free links and is shipped by sea rather than by air. The Ray has a five-year warranty, meaning that it has a longer life than normal watches.

is it TooLate? Is it? Never! This Italian-made watch has a beautiful minimal design, comes in lots of colors, is water proof and goes for less than $30. Hot damn! 10,000 of them were sold in the first ten days after their release and half a million in it’s first year of distribution. Apparently the Italians are wearing two or three of them together as part of some bizarre fashion clique. Wonder if the rest of the world will catch on?

SPONSOR

There’s ethnic tat, and there’s ethnic tat. On your first round-the-world trip, you’ll buy up the standard drapes, masks, bongs, drums, and so on. You’ll come back the proud bearer of rare and previously unseen items, before realising the exact same products are being sold in your local fairtrade shop. So on your next trip you’ll branch out a bit, and scoop up some lotions and spices you’re sure the organic market in town doesn’t sell. But it’s only when you mature to a higher level of foresight and gall that you’ll chance upon the pinnacle of ethnic tat: the Chairman Mao watch. On the last check it was still only available in China (or via mail order, but who wants that?), and therefore guarantees a genuine look of surprise and admiration upon unpacking your bags, for you must have traversed the mystical heights of the Himalayas and dodged the all-seeing eyes of the Communist Party to bring something of the other world back with you.

We have featured Tokyo Flash watches before but they recently launched a new generation of time keepers, which are innovative and ahead of its time [pun intended]. The first new watch is the Rogue, which has a vivid green LED light guide that presents the time through a labyrinth of connecting LCD blocks. The outer ring of small dots represents minutes, with every fifth dot being slightly smaller to distinguish five minute groups. The other new watch is the Pimp Star Performer, a beautiful concept based around the twin pursuits of drinking martinis and making money! With its solid stainless material and glass made out of mineral crystal with mirrored digits, this really is a ‘pimp’ watch.

We used to depend on sundials back in the day, but now there are multiple ways to tell the time. And Tokyo Flash has just invented another one. Based on LED technology, these watches are not only stylish but futuristic and wildly innovative. They even have a watch from minimalist designer Naoto Fukasawa that is more than just your basic timepiece. The Tokyo Flash site says that their watches are supposed to ‘resemble the various moods of a human’, and they’re definitely an attention grabber. These are watches to take us right through to the 22nd century.

It doesn’t transform or actually play music, but this watch with a face that looks like a cassette tape, is still pretty cool. One reel tells the hour, and the other tells the minute, and at about $75, it’s not killer expensive, so we can’t complain. Not sure if I would actually wear one of these, but it looks like a great collector’s item at very least.

SPONSOR

I’m not a watch wearer, but if I was, then I’d be rocking the wickedly cool new range of Diesel timepieces. The Basel 2008 collection is a sparkling, futuristic, retrotastic anagram of style, character and precision — of the digital variety. My favorite? The 1980s-themed watch above, with its ‘silver metallic leather cuff’ and ‘reflective shine’.

Australian-born creative, Marc Newson, is considered to be one of the most influential designers of the past few decades. Having originally studied jewellery and sculpture at Sydney College of the Arts, ‘he started experimenting with furniture design as a student and, after graduating in 1984, was awarded a grant from the Australian Crafts Council, and staged an exhibition — featuring the Lockheed Lounge — at the Roslyn Oxley Gallery in Sydney’. Since then he has ‘won commissions from prestigious European manufacturers including Flos for lighting, Cappellini and Moroso for furniture. He formed a joint venture, the Ikepod Watch Company, to manufacture the watches he designed, and produced limited editions of aluminium furniture including the Event Horizon Table and Orgone Chair. During the mid-late 1990s, Newson also designed a series of restaurants for Coast in London, Manchester’s Mash and Air, Osman in Cologne and Canteen in Manhattan, the interior of Syn, a Tokyo recording studio, and a retail system for Belgian designer, Walter Von Beirendonck’s W.&.L.T. street wear label’. He is currently Adjunct Professor in Design at Sydney College of the Arts.