The
1259 trademark was firstly used in our 1259 series LED
watch in 2003. By that time, no one make LED watch. We
have inspired this LED concepts from 1970s antique LED
watch pictures. Based on LED using in the 2003 industry,
the Surface-Mount-Technology was not common. We have
searched GuangDong Province in China for quite many
factory and no one is interested to carry such kind of LED
on PCB assembly.
Finally, we have to fly over to Shanghai and luckily that
a factory near Shanghai delta area was willing to try for
us. After the first project, we continue to make quite
many different LED watches.
The OVO watch concept was inspired by a 1986 movie of
"Castle in the Sky". In that movie, there was a robot have
a round head and LED nose. The 3 LED on OVO watch is also
inspired from this.
The real Tic-tac-toe game and
Yes/No Random decision mking function featured on the
display of 640 dot matrix LCD gives a robotic feeling.
This 640 dots are not a rectagular LCD display. We specially made it as a "oval" shape. When we present to the LCD factory, they think how can you see the graphics in such a distorted way ? But they made for us.
In 1999, this OVO watch got an award of Certificate of Merit in Consumer Product Design from the Federation of Hong Kong Industries.
The POPHalo watch concept was inspired by a 1990s TV
cartoon series of "Dragon Ball". In that TV, there was a
"weapon" using the energy to generate a big power ball and
hit the enemy on the air. This big power ball inspired to
use the Electroluminescence (EL) back light and using
multi segments, it should be able to get an attractive
flashing effects.
During the development, we encountered quite a few
difficulty to adopt this EL technology. This is because
the EL need to use high voltage of 100V or up to make it
light up. We have been "shocked" by the static when we
accidently touch the circuit board.
We have even think of how to use this "shocked" feeling such as to make any key-chain device for kids to protect them as a kind of self-defence tools. But it also a bit danger if bad people use it as bad thing or kids accidentally shocked themselves. So, we finally give up this idea to further making this key-chain.
In 1998, this POPHalo EL Flashing watch got an award of Certificate of Merit in Consumer Product Design from the Federation of Hong Kong Industries.
In 1997 this POPHalo EL Flashing Watch won The Grand Prize of the 44th Tokyo International Gift Fair.