Slashdot Mirror
Touchscreen Watch
SkywalkerOS8 writes "Saw this article on MSNBC about a touchscreen watch(Think touchlamp, not PDA). Instead of pressing a button on the side(that usually stabs your fingertip) you tap a location of the crystal's face. Its called the T-Touch, made by Tissot. It retails for $595, has standard features like time, date, alarm and chronograph, and extra features like thermometer, barometer,altimeter and compass. The author of the review points out that the compass is cool because the three hands of the watch form an arrow that points North and updates continuously. Sounds cool and relatively inexpensive considering all of its features. I also found a page by a T-Touch owner."
I've always stayed away from watches but there's something about
the smooth mechanics of a good watch that amazes me. And last week I got lost,
and had to aim a satellite dish, so that compass would come in handy... but so
would $600 ;)
Ooh... I wanna touch THAT!
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
Now all we need is for it to have a voice chip that will say, "He's dead, Jim!" -- and I'll buy it tomorrow.
-- We live in a world where lemonade is artificial and soap has real lemon.
Apparently you have to wear it with your shirt off to get the full effect.
Poor Baby.
I know the ad campaign is all about "Touch" so it's technically accurate, but using sex to sell a watch?
Been there, done that
... I'd still buy my beautiful Seiko Kinetic Arctura. Words fail me, I love my watch.
i saw a touchscreen watch for 100$ canadien over 4 years ago! Probably nothing special to it though but eh :-)
Who in their right mind would argue for 3 (!) paragraphs that it needs to be more expensive?
Some people and their fsking money trees...
BBK
Save your $600. If you want the novelty of a touchscreen try something like this. Casio have been doing these for a long time.
Back in 1985, I had a Casio Calculator watch which had the buttons down the side like a normal digital watch. However, in calculator mode, the display stuff disappeared and the face of watch became a touchscreen. It wouldn't work with gloves or pencils, but I never had a problem with it.You can find North with any watch. Even the $1 watch from a cornflakes packet.
Try it now
Decent wristwatch: $60
Decent compass: $10
Decent Barometer: $5
Decent Altimeter: $5
Decent thermometer: $3.50 (Walgreens)
Cost of witnessing some dumbass spend $650 dollars to combine all of these devices that will hardly ever be used just because the product's website features scantily clad women?
Priceless.
I guess if you're gonna spend $650 dollars on a watch that can tell the temperature, you wont mind if it's a rectal thermometer, huh?
As the old wisdom goes, the functionality of a watch is inversely proportional to its class. The more it does, the less class.
What a deal!!! Guess what everyone in thy family is getting for Xmas this year!!!
Blarf.
Does it comes with a little cloth to wipe your grubby fingerprints off it every (x) seconds?
A pointed out before, Casio has had them for a while. I've worn mine every day for 2.5 years, and it's great. The buttons even change function in different modes. To me, this isn't something that should make Slashdot headlines.
"No fair, you changed the outcome by measuring it!" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
If they ran a story on those pants w/extra pockets for PDA's etc. you'd have a link to a site for fanny packs and pocket protectors.
That little POS from Casio doesn't come close to the incredible cool of a swiss time piece. Not to mention, quality, durability and the fact that it will look nice. (You know for that crowd that wears something other than a t-shirt and jeans to work or out)
.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
If someone makes a post about how they got Linux running on this watch, then I will be impressed. Until then we don't need to hear about someone running Linux on a used cash register that is really the type of PC that was being used when Unreal first came out.
:)
__NOTE__ Just because I say I'm not impressed doesn't mean this isn't cool, when it is; just like if some girl was able to lick her own crotch. That would be impressive, but not cool
But i seem to have a problem with watches, and knowing you geeks, im sure one of you can help me answer it ;)
Whenever i wear a wristwatch i seem to do something odd to them, they just stop working on me. I can put on any kind of watch, a cheap little 10$ digital job, all the way up to a top of the line Rolex, unfailingly about 4 or 5 hours later it will stop working. If i take the watch off and set it aside someplace for a few hours it will usually start working again.
So my question is, anyone know what causes this, and does any company make a watch that is targetted to people like me? I have never seen one, but would certainly pay a lot if i could find one.
Buy a good cell phone and a year's worth of service. If you ever get lost, just call up your spouse ...
"Honey, I think I'm lost. I'm near a mile marker that says 29.3 or wait, is that 23.9 ... anyway, I think I'm near the valley ... no, not THAT one, I see the Sun up in the sky over THERE, so I think that's where west is ..."
Now, that's a chick I can dig!!!
They sell knock offs for much cheaper $
So I just had fun w/some posts that I think will get a few people riled up. Now I've got to go home-- so I can't reply to your angry responses until tomorrow.
So check back then if you can.
Hopefully somebody will be at least a little annoyed.
.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
For six hundred plux tax, that chick on their website better come with it.
Shit. If I had six hundred and wanted to piss it away, I think I'd be buying the Timex and a really good hooker instead.
I read the page. Is "Slashdot made me do it" a good defense?
Otherwise, it's one neat watch.
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
Barometer, Altimeter, and Depth Gauge are really the same device. Around ten years ago a digital watch (Casio) that displayed pressure in the previous formats was less than US$100.
One of my hobbies is scuba diving and I would use the watch as a backup depth gauge. It's depth was reasonably close to my real depth guage. Comparisons to elevation signs along the highway were also pretty close.
For US$650 the watch should approach a dive computer and tell you your multi-dive no-decompression time limit, tank pressure, download your dive profile to your computer, etc.
and that made me think... $100 for a watch is pretty steep.
And then I read the article - holy crap - who has that sort of money to waste.. er.. spend on a watch.
I'd rather get a new 19" monitor, scanner and new DVD player.
Touch-a touch-a touch-a touch meeee...
I wanna feel dirrrttyyyyyy!
It's an interesting marketing exercise if nothing else.
... get naked.
You heard correct. Whoever you buy this watch for will get naked with you and press her naked body against you.
Notice, the word "her".
I can't work now. Goodbye.
Exactly, 50 cents and you get a free manual too! ;-)
(They can't sell it in the US unless it is that cheap because people couldn't figure out how to operate it
I'll give you $600 to take blurb writing lessons from Hemos. Just tell me where to send the funds.
Or you could use a watch with hands and use the Sun to find North.
Human genome = 3 billion base pairs = 6 GBit. Windows + Office = 20 Gbit. Which is more impressive?
I used to have a touch screen calculator watch six or so years ago. Sadly I lost it somewhere in Yosemite. :( Anyways, my watch had a calculator and an address book. Pretty much the same feature set as those huge casio watches, but since you pressed buttons that appeared right on the screen instead of a little keypad thing, it wasn't absurdly bulky.
;)
So, touch screen watches aren't that new. However, I guess watches that combine a barometer, thermometer, etc. plus an ad campaign involving nude men and women are novel.
Dear Klerck,
Would it be better to contact you through the e-mail address listed on this website, or your postal address in Goose Creek, SC?
Thank you,
AC
A touchscreen...watch..
I'm surprised they aren't selling the watch for 99 cents when you buy a "Toshiba Home Finger Guillotine" and the "Sony(tm) Ultra-Small Prosthetic Index Finger" you'll need to utilize it.
I'll pass. Buying a touch-screen watch makes about as much sense as buying a NetCat. Its an invention that solves a problem that never existed to begin with.
Cheers,
Bowie J. Poag
I've seldom gotten found by using a compass. I can spend a lot less money on a watch that also has a GPS and will tell me where I am.
Casio GPS Watch (PAT-2GP) can be found for $394.00. http://www.shoplite.com/pat-1gp.htm That watch even has something important, auto time correction. I use a watch to know the time. Non-GPS autoset watches can be found for less than $100.00.
The truth shall set you free!
And I'm sure it didn't cost $600. It's mentioned in this article:
I think I'll stick with my 1990 touchscreen VDB-1000. ;)
As described here:
god i'm fuckig drfunk. mod me down. i don'tcare i'll re register. whatever. goddammit. i thik i'm getti a jobp o i eon't needslatdh anyhows. niggas@ foo yeah uhh yedah
There's no emoticon for what I'm feeling!
my g-shock (which is indestructable by the way) had a nice big soft plastic button underneath the display on the watch face. It activated the indiglo-style light for 5 seconds without constant pressure. This was like 10 years ago and only cost $50...
In summary, I'm not impressed. Especially for $600.
If you had better tools, you could more effectively demonstrate your total incompetence.
...
true..true
Greetings,
I had a Casio G Shock watch for a few years that does everything this one does, with barometer/altimeter, compass, etc. plus a few other functions that this one lacks. It cost about $120 five years ago and works *great*. The altimeter/barometer is accurate to 10,000 ft/agl (I tested often; I'm a skydiver). The compass is very accurate.
The watch itself is all digital, with an LCD instead of hands. You can probably find it cheaper on eBay than what I paid for it.
Just a thought.
E
http://eugeneciurana.com | http://ciurana.eu
Touchscreen pants: select your pocket locations, and fix wedgies at the flick of your fingertip.
Touchscreen people: Y'know how you're good at pushing people's buttons? Now they're all labelled for your convenience.
Touchscreen cellphones: because dialing, quickdialing, voice dialing, and using the address book are too difficult to understand. (Yes, I HAVE seen people tap their screens.)
Touchscreen full-length mirrors: includes copy of Kai's Power Goo for creative reshaping.
We need these just as much as we need touchscreen watches - quick, get someone on the project!
A watch with a built-in altimeter helped save 13 lives. In 1991 a Canadian C-130 Hercules aircraft crashed a few miles short of the runway at Alert. Canadian Forces Station Alert, located on the north coast of Ellesmere Island in the Northwest Territories, is the most northern permanently inhabited settlement in the world. Amazingly 13 of the crew and passengers survived the crash. SAR Techs jumped in but had to wait for a ground rescue crew to reach them to bring them out. It was pitch dark and too far north for a compass or GPS to work. One of the ground rescue guys had an altimeter built-in to his wristwatch and they were able to navigate by comparing the elevation to the map. No touch screen but it worked well enough to help save those lives.
Today's vices may be tomorrow's virtues.
I have that Casio watch shown, and it's a very classy looking watch, especially compared to the other Casio databanks that are unadulterated nerdwear. Mine's been great for 3 years. One battery change, and many rainstorms later it still looks and works great.
The only problem is that people seem to be inexorably drawn towards a touchscreen of any sort, whether a monitor or a computer.... 'Wow, you're watch has buttons on the FACE? Let me try it out!'
Had a CASIO watch like that 10 years ago. It implemented a calculator that way. Was nicer, as it had the big display while you didn't use the calculator..
Question: why is this news? just because you may see that watch on think-geek soon they have to talk it up? or is this just a slow friday night?
Yeah, me too!
Signal11 is that you?
The first half is pretty funny. The second half is boring as hell. I have yet to be able to make it through without falling asleep.
my friend has one of those they're sw33t!! each 5min section has a function like 5min=timer , 10min=thermometer etc. this isn't the real order but u get the point. btw. this things aren't new, u know...
--tzan
The watch I've always thought was cool and wanted is called the "See Touch Watch". They have a website but it doesn't seem to work. If you search google, you can find this page with a picture of it at the bottom. The idea is that the watch looks like a dominoe, and the bumps move up or down to tell the time. It is really quite cool. I first found out about it on "Next Step" on the discovery channel. That was a cool show, so was Beyond 2000 for that matter. Anyway, I've always thought it's a cool watch but they have never answered my e-mails, and I don't have the $$$ to call Europe. The only time I found a price for it, I think it was a few hundred, but I don't remember. Such a cool watch.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
For those who may not be albe to stomach the 595$ price tag... timex has its own watch with altimeter/baromiter/thermometer/compass which lists at 140$.
4 76 714
http://www.timex.com/bin/detail.tmx?item=048148
the same "technology" found in this "t-touch:"
http://www.lindatellingtonjones.com/
I see a great need (tm).
Need Mercedes parts ?
that said, the watch is neat. the essential problem with these gadgets is that the screen and input sizes need to be so small. within the next ten years or so, i'll wager that some genious is going to come up with a brilliant solution (voice-recognition holograms, anyone?)
-------- -praktike
I know that I hit the top of my normal default generic watch lots of times. Wouldnt having a touch screen thing result in lots of 'button' pushage, eg, when sleeping, when reaching into pockets for wallet, you know, general stuff that happens.
The more expensive the watch, the bigger the chump.
This watch being advertised as the first "touch screen" watch is pure, unadulterated BS.
<a href="http://www.joblessjimmy.com">Work is dumb and so is Jobless Jimmy.</a>
"If someone makes a post about how they got Linux running on this watch, then I will be impressed."
Am I the only one who is like super burnt out on seeing 'Linux installed on so and so device'? It sounded cool at first, but I never seem to find anybody doing something cool with it. If somebody said "We got Linux installed on this watch and then made it act like a Tricorder from Star Trek", then that'd be the start to me thinking it was cool again.
Sorry about the OT rant. There's so much potential when getting Linux to run on something, but damn never anything ever comes from it.
"Derp de derp."
Did everybody here think they'd be the first to post "I won't buy it because it's expensive."?
I'm a little surprised this story made it to Slashdot. Thing is, this watch appears to be geared towards the Rolex crowd as opposed to being made for the general purpose. In that case, I think it's pretty cool that they made it. I had $100 burning in my pocket a couple of years ago and I wanted to get a nice dressy watch, preferably one with style to it, and maybe a techie doo-dad or two. I found a nice watch that , well, told time. But it was pretty, looked a little like the one Will Smith wore in MiB. $400. My attitude was "Uhhh, for $400, I want my watch to run MAME too." I ended up with a Timex watch, which I'm still wearing today.
What's my point? Well, I imagine there is a market for people to spend $400 on a nice looking watch. And why not? If you want to look good, money is no object. Yet, the people paying $400 for that watch, really only have the demand that it tell time. Well, one day I plan on having lots of money to spend on things like ridiculously fashionable watches. To pay $600 for one with an electronic compass plus thermometer etc would be far better than to pay $400 for one that just tells time.
Think about it. It's not really geared for the Slashdot crowd, it's geared for the people who use $20 bills to wipe their butt with.
"Derp de derp."
Imagine a beowulf cluster of these!
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
google: "casio touch screen watch"
T-Touch the first touch screen watch, the third listing in a google search. . .
Doesn't anyone else remember the Casio (?) touchscreen Calculator Watch from the 80's? I can't remember the model number, but it employed character recognition to let you 'draw' numbers on its glass face with your fingertip, along with +/-/x/[divide], then two horizontal strokes meant "equals?". It was only about $100, too, IIRC. I wanted one, but high schoolers didn't have that kind of money in those days...
Perfectly Normal Industries
GPS, in some form, was operational in 1991, it was used in the Gulf War.
Was it just me or did that article read like an ad? Yeah, it's a cool watch, but I started gagging when he tells the Tissot guys they should charge more for it.
like a want a watch that costs big bucks, is heavy and looks like a geeks wet dream - jeez. For the same price I can get a light weight pulsar solar AND a GPS - ok so that combination won't tell be the weather and the temp but you know what - for some strange reason I can tell hot from cold and detect blizzards without conculting my wrist!
I used to have a watch with a built in thermometer. The only way to get an accurate temperature was to take it off for 10 minutes so my body heat wouldn't throw it off.
Not that great from my point of view.
I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people. - Jack Handey
I remember working in a physics lab a long time ago (1985) and one of my coworkers brought back an interesting watch from Hong Kong. It was an analog watch with a small LCD panel just above the 6. The interesting thing was, it was a full-function calculator watch with a touchscreen instead of all the buttons of a "normal" calculator watch. It was really quite small and elegant. To use the calculator, you would draw the numbers on the face of the watch with your finger. So if you drew:
5 x 6 =
the display would show 5 and then 6 and then finally 30 after you drew the = sign.
I was always surprised that I never ever saw anything like this watch again, even after all these years.
Anyone heard of this or anything like it?
We've had this watch in stock way over in New Zealand for a couple of months now. This thing has been around for quite a while.
Does lots of stuff, little of which is useful.
I don't know the exact Name of the model, but Casio has had a Touchscreen Data Watch for quite some time know. It has a suptantial amount of storage (dunno the exact amount). It even looks quite classic - something of a indistinct 80s design - and it seems to be a part of a kind of classic line that Casio is maintaining beside of that Flashy Postmodernistic Techno European G-Shock style stuff.
Anyway: If you're looking for Touchscreen Wristgadgets, I'd look out for this one.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I am having a Casio Protrek watch (PRG40 to be exact) which has a compass, barometer and altimeter as well. I buy the Casio watches because these are one of the only one surviving my arm on long-term usage
I have seen the T-touch and found the watch less usefull than the Protrek.
The Protrek comes in 2 versions, a Protrek and a Seapathfinder. The Seapathfinder has the mooncycles built in and the Protrek has a altimeter.
These 2 casio watches have:
- 100 meters watertight (T-touch 30meter!)
- 365 degrees compass with digital layer
- barometer
- altimeter (except the SeaPath finder)
- temperature (in Farenheit and Celcius)
- adjustable ring
- (auto) Backlight (on the letters, like the palm V)
- 4 daily alarms
- stopwatch
they can be bougth with leather, titanium and leather-with-cotton (which I have). Touching the buttons is almost like a touch pad, no heavy touching is needed just tap one of the keys and it switches instantly to compass/barometer/altimeter.
To my opinion this watch has a lot more functions and shows the compass a lot better than the T-touch. (it has 2 layers, one digital layer for normal displaymode (date, time) and another layer for the compass with 365 degrees movement mode. While you are in the compass/baro/altimeter you can still see the time in small; the only major downpoint is that you cannot use the compass while using backlight.
There is one major difference, the watch is completely digital while the T-touch is analog with a small digital screen.
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
It was the Casio TC-600, and it had a large LCD display that converted to a calculator. Perfect for sneaking into tests where calculator watches weren't allowed. Eventually, the touch screen went bad and the 3 "key" wouldn't work, but it was a very cool watch.
Was that out loud?
if it doesnt have the ability to show the time in binary it is a piece of crap.
Kidding aside... I personally think my binary matrix watch is the best watch I have ever owned, the band sucks and had to be replaced with a real leather one within a month but the watch still looks new runs perfectly and has spend time in hot-tubs, showers and pools along with servers,workstations and fiber racks.
And many of the women at work like how it looks compared to the junk available here in the states... I get compliments daily on it.
Besides... What the hell can a $600.00 watch do for me that is WORTH spending $600.00 on it?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I bought a touch screen watch about 8 years ago now, and it was unbelievable at the time. Dot matrix display, phone book, scheduler, memo pad, reminders, stop watch, calculator, and not one physical button. Oh, and you could change the language displayed between English and Japanese.
It was called an Aegis Telepad, and it cost me the equivelent of about 20 dollars brand new at the time. I still haven't seen a watch that can come anywhere near beating it.
J.
Here is the link to Casio's touch screen watch. It had 2 LCD's on top of one another so the watch display would turn off and the calc display would turn on when entering calc mode. I had one way back when, and it was nice. I only wish they would have re introduced the databank line with this technology.
I wouldn't be surprised they're using lots of the same OEM stuff inside. The Suunto watches are kind of large. Though, in the old "Right Stuff" test-pilot days, big watches meant -- oh, never mind...
---------- Financial Crypto is the Only Crypto That Matters
I paid 70 bucks Canadian 2 years ago for a Casio watch that held phone numbers and various IP addies for a number of the major machines around work. What's so newsworthy about this one?
tinfoilmedia
I bought a timex expedition watch on sale for $9.20 at target last fall. Has a digital compass and works fine! Don't see the point of spending $600 for this thing.
I would like to change the world,
but they won't tell me the source code.
I have a Tissot PR50, which is their bottom of the line. Pretty basic stainless steel case with a sapphire crystal and a nice quartz movement. Bought it at the height of the dot-bomb era from a place called newwatch.com for like 40% off. :)
:)
:)
First watch I've ever owned that has received "nice watch" comments from women.
I am definately considering buying this T-Touch. Although I haven't found any dot-bombs selling it for 40% off.