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Watches for UberGeeks?
eyefish asks: "My trusty old watch recently gave up on me, and now I want to buy a new one. This time though I want something a bit more functional that my simple analog-digital watch. If you were to buy a new watch, and you are the geek type, which one would you buy? I'm interested in anything from watches with built-in GPS to built-in video or MP3 players and calculators. Or simply anything that looks really cool, or is really light, or syncs with my palm pilot. You get the drift." A watch that could sync via GPS? Never have the wrong time again! But seriously, what nifty new technologies have had the shrinking ray applied to them so that they fit nice and comfy on the wrist?
I just recently got The Matrix Binary Watch, a great combination of different and inexpensive. This has been mentioned here before here and here.
The ordering process is now pretty normal. The watch itself is a bit chunky, and appears to be well made. The included band is leather, but not quite big enough for me (not unusual). The watch band is a less common size (19mm) so it took several different stores/malls, but eventually I found an extra long band.
"But actually trying to use m4 as a general-purpose langage would be deeply perverse" --ESR
Dirk
I am thinking of buying a yeswatch myself - see www.yeswatch.com
It features a single hand plate (hand does one round in 24 hours); shows you day/night time where ever you are on this planet; moon phase and some more.
"We'll reach that bridge when we find it" - Suzy Romer, prime minister Netherlands Antilles '98-'99
try this watch/cell phone combo here
I was brought up on a digital clock (real old (atleast 30 years) but it did 24 hours military time).
:-) .
I've always been more comfortable with a digital clock. It takes more time to understand where I am in the day on an analogue clock face.
So digital is easier for me.
There are smaller digital watches these days (tissot had nice ones with both faces, and I always looked at the digital part).
it fits in with unix being digital
It all depends on personal preference and what you're used to
Personally, I find bulky watches with millions of features and complex digital displays cumbersome and outright dorky. Yes, we are nerds here, but we can have a LITTLE style, right?
.
:)
The perfect watch, as far as I'm concerned, is the Junghans Atomic Solar line. The styling speaks for itself, and technically they're a marvel. Since they're solar powered and sync to the NIST WWVB radio station, all you have to do set your time zone once - and never do anything ever again. No batteries to change, no daylight saving to worry about, no time drifting ever. Junghans, being a German company, also makes watches that can sync to European time standard stations.
Check 'em out here and here. Unfortunately, at just under $1000, they certainly aren't for everyone.
I certainly can't afford one (yet), so I have to be content with my trusty Timex for now.
Ian
Makes people think you are rough outdoorishy type :)
And they look cool (Execpt that GPS type, looks like a piece of dung on your wrist). Mine is the first watch I am really happy with. Analog, with clever in-glass LCD.
I agree. I didn't get a Seiko, but I did get this watch. I like not having to buy batteries or remember to wind it up. I've had a few people comment that it was a cool watch because one can watch the gears and pendulum move.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
It is a watch from Timex that receives pages (and Yahoo! instant messages). Works via skytel. My main problem is that I hate carrying around my pager, and I don't necessarily have it with me when it goes off. If I had a pager that was a wrist-watch, it would have that problem.
Go get yourself a hunter case Waltham, Hamilton, or similar. You can generally get a pretty pristine early 20th century gold filled pocket watch and a decent pocket chain for under a couple hundred bucks..
Myself, if I were just starting in them, I'd get what they called $10 watches; A sturdy, plain watch they mass produced for the common fellow..
I started instead with a expensive open-face in solid gold, and I cursed myself everythime I cracked a $120 crystal.
.sig: Now legally binding!
I've got a Casio PC Unite HBX 100. It's essentially a data bank with an IrDA port to allow syncing with your PC. It's a little on the chunky side, but still within acceptable limits for me, which most of the geeky watches aren't.
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
Also, Fossil used to make a replica of the original LED watch. Looked terrible, with those blocky red calculator numbers. I loved it. I wonder if they still make it. Anyone have a link?
Got Rhinos?
Traser sell such a watch.
Tom
I have discovered a wonderful
For that modest sum I have an essentially perfect timepiece. I do nothing to it. I don't even have to adjust for daylight time. I look at it and it always, always, without exception, tells me the true time. Oh yeah, and date too. For $110 US.
I'll admit that changing the battery is a hassle. You have to put the watch through a goofy little recalibration routine, and then either wait until it manages to resynchronize or set the time manually. But that's only every three years. I'm good until 2004. My watch battery will probably outlive my car.