As an admitted time-piece fetishist, I truly dug this ‘fuzzy’ time-telling device. How dope is this:

‘This is the way they work. The first watch, called “AboutTime”, gives you an approximation of the time. “Going on quarter past one”, “almost six”, “a bit past three”, etc. Perfect if you want to take life a little more easy.

Then, there’s the “Timeline” watch, in which you’re only shown the hour, and not the minutes. Then, the numeral will slowly make it’s way from the bottom the the watch’s face, to the top. The minutes are thus expressed as a proportion of the distance traveled. In other words, if the number 2 is halfway up, you know it’s 2:30.’

[from The Talus Watch via OhGizmo]

 

And on the flipside, a decidedly non-fuzzy, mechanical wonder (and only 220,000 bones, too):

‘This really spectacular architecture seems to be absolutely original. The mechanical design of the Cabestan, including its tourbillon, is totally transversal. The indications (hour, minute, seconds, and power reserve) appear on the cylinders located at the four “corners” of the watch.

Starting from the lower left, we find the barrel, which transmits its driving power to the movement by the intermediary of a chain. This chain is connected to a second cylinder, at the upper left, made up of one part of a fusee (placed horizontally as opposed to the traditional fusees that are always vertical), and the other of the cylindrical power reserve indicator (a total of 72 hours).

Still on the upper end, but this time on the right, we find two cylinders next to each other, providing the perfectly readable hours and minutes. In the lower right hand corner, we can see the tourbillon, which is also placed vertically and is directly linked to another cylinder, which quite logically gives the seconds indication, as the tourbillon makes one rotation per minute.

This completely original mechanical movement, with manual winding, a fusee and a tourbillon, integrates six ball bearings into its operation. It is also water-resistant to 30 metres. The entire movement is visible from above and from the side, under a double sapphire crystal (”Trimaran” model) with three recessed and curved sides, taking the form of a “hood”, all in a very sturdy design.’

[from Europa Star via BoingBoing]