Out-of-the-box time telling

Bright ideas are usually born out of boredom. Matthew Waldman’s discovery, the Nooka watch, is not an exemption. While staring at a large wall clock in a London hotel, he wondered why there were so few options when it came to time displays. He then sketched his designs on paper napkins and brought them home to New York where he had his legal team checked and worked on the patent. With New York, USA and Osaka, Japan serving both as his home/work bases, he played with the two words and came up with the name Nooka.

New York + Osaka = Nooka

Instead of the usual clock with hands or a digital clock to tell time, Waldman introduced a fun way to stay on time. His watches, with the ZubZenH model being the most popular, comes in 4 rows with the first two indicating the hours, the third shows the minutes and the bottom row displays the seconds like this faux paper watch that I got below.

There are more styles to check out, each having the same concept but arranging the display in a different way, and all in very hip forms and designs.

Nooka AL watch in cyan is constructed of aluminum

and feature a polyurethane band in bright colors

Nooka Zon watch reads like an hourglass with each block

marking a single minute in time while also offering a numeric digital read.

And my prize—I won this :D Nooka 5^th door afro punk watch

features energetic prints, a stopwatch and alarm.

Not only does it stand out because of it’s very unique way of telling time, its aesthetic designs have brought the brand into a higher level—a global scale, finally arriving on Philippine shores. Waldman recently paid us a visit, with our local distributors throwing him an intimate party. Ten of his watches were also awarded to lucky guests, and I was one of them. Teehee...

Check out the who's who who dropped by at the intimate party held at The Establishment, The Fort:

Nooka local distributor Raffy Florencio with Nooka Inc. founder,

designer Matthew Waldman, and host Tim Yap

Mark Villar, Alana Montelibano, Claudine Trillo show off

their bright-colored Nooka watches, with Niño Barbers

Liza Ilarde of the fash pack, Stephanie Zubiri, Divine Lee,

and Jenni Epperson stood out in shots of pop Nooka watches.

Hudson Rossi, Joey Mead and Anton San Diego

Lulu Tan Gan and Puey Quiñones

Alexander McCaskill, Melo Esguerra and JC Buendia

Vina Morales and Donita Rose

Made a new friend here at the event. That's Chookie who's working under

the ad agency that handles the brand—on the left most; with Rona Capili of

Look magazine and Inquirer who used to be my colleague in ABS-CBN Publishing.

Chookie complimented me by saying I look very "looklet" awww... thanks!

My outfit: top from Taiwan (pasalubong from mom), zippered gray leggings

from Mongkok (Hong Kong), grey platform shoes with ankle straps

from Beijing, Ferragamo tote and my braided cord and chain necklace—I make these ;)

Liza took a photo of me with my winning watch, and I took a photo of her as well. Cute!

*Nooka is currently available at Rafael Jewellery in Edsa Shangri-la Mall, My Diamond stores in Gateway and Glorietta 4, and My Tempo in SM North EDSA and Robinsons Place Manila.