Japanese Train Watch

It looks just like the Clocks above the tracks on a Japanese subway line - it's the Japanese Train Watch!

As everyone knows, Japan has some of the most high-tech, high-speed passenger trains in existence.

They are truly fascinating.

One of the most well-known train lines is the Yamanote Train Line (山手線),, and it can be found in Tokyo, though it connects to a lot of other big cities in Japan.

Yamanote means something like “inland foothills” in Japanese, but don’t let that fool you: the Yamanote Line runs throughout a lot of major urban centers in Tokyo and throughout Japan, as well as through the hillier part of western Tokyo.

The Yamanote Train Line is one of the most important and well-known train lines in all of Japan. It runs over a total of twenty-nine stations and connects most of the major parts of Tokyo with one another, as well as connecting to other important train lines at its stops.

The Yamanote Line runs actually in one very big loop, and is used by tons of commuters in Tokyo. During peak running times, the trains run every 2.5 minutes apart, so if you miss one train you have just a little more than two minutes to wait before the next train comes.

To anyone who’s ever been to Tokyo, the Yamanote Line is synonymous with the city and with life there. That’s why it’s so cool that someone has designed a novelty watch which lovingly reproduces the clocks and bulletin boards which can be found above the train tracks on the Yamanote, in miniature format.

Well, if you’re a huge fan of Japanese high-speed trains and the signboards and clocks that can be found there, you can now proudly display one on your wrist by wearing the Japanese Train Watch:

And here’s a second video which shows pretty much the Japanese Train Watch alone, without some scenes of the actual trains on the Yamanote Line in the background:

If you think, however, that the Japanese Train Watch also provides you with some kind of updates regarding train schedules or times – think again!

Here is an official Features List for this interestingly designed watch:

It shows you the time.
It shows you the date.
It looks, uhhh…., like a subway clock.

That’s it! Yes, unfortunately, though it looks real neat, this clock can only provide you with the current time of day and the date.

There is no further information such as some kind of digitally scrolling information about the trains on the Yamanote Line. Nothing.

For this reason, Online Clock will have to take a pass on buying this particular clock.

It’s clever – but not clever enough.

We’ll be waiting for version 2.0 which will hopefully add some more functionality reminiscent of the real Yamanote Train signs.

But if you happen to know someone who loves everything about Tokyo, or who might be nostalgic for anything related to the Yamanote Subway Line, you might still want to purchase one of these watches. You can find them for sale online here.

So now, if you’ll excuse us – Online Clock has a train to catch!

And we don’t want to have to wait around a full 2.5 minutes until the next one!

Tags: Crazy Clocks, Japanese Alarm Clocks, japanese novelty watch, japanese subway watch, japanese train watch, Yamanote Subway Watch, Yamanote Train Line, Yamanote Train Watch, 山手線