Smartwatches are becoming more advanced. With the sheer number of functions they can perform - health monitoring, games, notifications, etc. - it's easy to forget that they're actually timepieces.
Now, watchmaker Hautlence has released a watch that's stripped of all technical gadgetry - to the point that it doesn't even tell the time. The only thing you can do with it is play a miniature version of the old Labyrinth marble game. And the price of this 'wrist ornament?' $12,000.
Described by Hautlence as "a useless yet entirely essential object," the Playground Labyrinth "offers a new vision of time altogether," presumably by not actually telling you what it is.
What your $12K gets you is a tiny recreation of the Labyrinth skill game that's been around since the 50s, except in this version you have to navigate a forged platinum ball around a solid gold maze using your wrist movements. The idea is to get the ball into the hole, which is then retrieved using a mechanical lift - activated by turning the crown dial on the side of the titanium case.
"Labyrinth may not tell the time; however, it is perfectly aligned with the excellence in watchmaking that is embedded in Hautlence's DNA," says the company on its website.
There are some fairly expensive smart/connected watches available today, including Tag Heuer's $1500 device, Breitling's luxury $8900 Exospace B55, and Apple's $10,000 Rose Gold Apple Watch Edition, all of which are not only cheaper than the Playground Labyrinth but can also tell you what the time is.
If you find the whole thing a bit strange, then have a look at the Playground Labyrinth's equally bewildering, and fairly pretentious, video ad, which features the former soccer player turned actor, Eric Cantona.