It’s that time of the year where there are all manner of parties occurring, with plenty of libations flowing. While I’m sure our readers quite know to stay away from the wheel of a car after those parties, there’s nothing wrong with trying to quantify how bad of an idea driving would be, right? If you’ve ever wanted to have a wrist-mounted breathalyzer, the TokyoFlash Kisai Intoxicated is the watch for you.
This is actually the second edition of this watch (you can see what I thought of the original right over here), showing up this time in what should be a lightweight ABS case paired with a silicone strap. The guts of the watch seem fairly much unchanged, just with a new skin (let’s call it snow or slush, to keep the theme going).
As far as TokyoFlash watches go, this is about the easiest one I’ve seen to tell the time with; it also offers niceties like a date display, alarm mode, and USB-rechargeable capability. Then again, that’s not why you’re looking at this watch, are you? No, the differentiator for this model is how it can tell whether you really had “just one drink” – or not.
The more indirect method the watch has to tell this comes in the form of a game. For this, you’ve got a line that scrolls across the screen, and you’re trying to stop it as close to the center of the display as possible. Now, this is something I’d likely have some difficulty doing spot-on when I’ve only been drinking water, so I imagine the results would be a bit less accurate after a few barley pops. If you’d prefer to quantify your level of inebriation, though, they do have a breathalyzer on board.
For this, you set the watch into this mode, and give it a moment for the sensor to warm up. Once it signals it’s ready, you can blow into the port that hides under a cover on the right side of the watch. Your approximate BAC is displayed on the right-most portion of the display, and is comprised of two components. First, of course, you’ve got the 10 breakdowns going from 0 to 1. As with my earlier writeup, this scale is still a bit confusing to me, but I suppose it works as intended (ie, not an official instrument).
The LCD will also light up in one of three different colors to help you decipher where you’re at if you’re having trouble focusing on the small display. If it lights up green, the scale is at .40 or under, and it’s indicating you’re sober. It’ll hit yellow for .41 to .60, indicating a buzz. After that, the display turns red, indicating that you’re drunk. Now, obviously this sort of a device is intended solely as a fun “toy” of sorts, helping you quantify just how much you’ve had to drink.
Then again, if you’re using a watch like this on a night out, you probably already have a feel for where you are on the green-yellow-red spectrum, I’m guessing. Regardless, it’s an interesting little party trick for the watch, and at a price of $149, it’s an affordable trinket to pick up. Will this be your everyday watch? Quite likely not, especially with the raised eyebrows this timepiece would likely garner in the office (once they knew what it did, that is). And, whether you pick this watch up or not, just remember to stay safe out there, especially when you’re enjoying a few drinks. tokyoflash.com
