The Japanese cooked up something devious

Yes. Yes, The Tokyoflash’ «Pimping Ain’t Easy» really is called that and yes, using it is not at all easy, although once you figure out how the Pimp operates, you will never really want to leave.

This is an LED watch that tells you the time the way that 1980s’ Bulova and Soviet Electronika-1 models used to in the good old times when liquid crystals were used for things other than making displays – by the press of a button. Upon the button press the LED squares light up in a Nintendo Gamecube-like animation at first, before settling in a pattern that you have to decipher.
The Pimp makes you really work for it every time.

Believe it or not, this is one of the legendary Tokyoflash’ more straight-forward display designs. Reading it is simple – the left-most column goes up from 1 to 12 indicating the hours, and all the other 5 columns indicate minutes. The minutes stack up from left to right, so if you see two full 5-square bars it is 10 minutes to the hour, if the third bar is also filled with two squares it is 12 minutes and so on. On a second press of a button it also shows the day and date, but I admit that setting and reading that is way too complicated, so I never really bothered to.

It is as impractical as it sounds, but ask yourself, what watch nowadays is more practical than reading the time on your phone? This hobby is all about style, anyway.
And the Pimp has a Cadillac-ful of unapologetic style.

The way the watch looks isn’t even the most unapologetic thing about it. Every 5 minutes or so it does a colorful spin-around animation on it’s display. It indicates nothing, it has no purpose, it cannot be turned off. It is distracting, even. But it is the way that the Pimp rolls, baby! If any one person in the room did not yet catch onto the fact that you are wearing the Pimp, the Pimp will loudly proclaim with this animation that you, indeed, are, via this animation. This watch is not a fashion statement, it is a personality statement. It is it’s own personality.

The most surprising thing about it is the build-quality. It is solid and it feels solid. The material is stainless steel, the plastic screen looks crisp and LEDs shine bright (they are clearly visible, it is just that the camera cannot catch their frequency properly, so it looks blurred on the photo). It is even said to be water-resistant, although I am not the one to test that. The Pimp ain’t weak.

Overall, it is a perfect watch for what it is. It is truly unique, one-of-a-kind, functions great, quirky enough to put a smile on one’s face and simple enough to actually read the time. It is a true conversation starter, although I don’t imagine people would want to continue the conversation once you tell them the watch’ name.

Above all, it is unapologetic. Pimps are’t all about apologies, anyway.

Pros
– No watch is remotely as unique as this
– Pressing physical buttons to tell the time is actually so cool
– Solid build quality

Cons
– Setting the time is quite tedious
-The accuracy isn’t great, you have to set it once a week or so
– You can count on one hand the number of people who’s cup of tea this is

Quality

85

Style

100

Value

90

Wearability

10