Designer Marc Tran sure knows how to come up with something different. His "Ringen" timepiece concept uses a series of tiny spheres rolling across its face to tell time. So, here's the hard part of this post: explaining how you tell time with this thing.

Down in the gallery you can see the watch face (first image), and a closer view of the balls and their tracks after that. The bright blue circle inside are your hours, the silvery "tracks" along the watch's face keep track of minutes, and an orbiting ball along the outside rim of the watch face ticks off the seconds.

The way Ringen handles minutes is what's really cool, though: the ball rolls across from left to right along the watch face's curving surface, and each track accounts for two minutes. It may not be the most accurate way to tell time, but it'd definitely eye-catching.

Tran's design is but a concept, of course, but we'd love to see something like this in motion. If it could even be made with today's technology, that is. Maybe we'll have to wait for some form of anti-grav tech to get off the ground, first.

See the Ringen from every angle in the gallery below.

Marc Tran, via Yanko Design