Maintenance indicator

A maintenance indicator, comprising:

• a photosensitive element;
• the maintenance indicator storing an information bit string, the information bit string encoding at least a section of a piece of maintenance information of a component of a cutting tool in binary, the information bit string having a plurality of information bits, and each information bit having an information bit state;
• in an activated display state, the maintenance indicator emitting flashes following the information bit states of the information bit string and thus displaying an information signal;
• in the activated display state, the maintenance indicator displaying an announcement signal, the announcement signal announcing the information signal;
• and
• said photosensitive element configured to film the information signal while maintaining an air gap.