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Looking for High-Tech Watches?
M3wThr33 asks: "I currently own a Casio WQV-3, which is a digital camera watch with IR, but lately it's taken a turn for the worse. With the news of Fossil recently scrapping their latest PDA watch, I'd like to know what other kinds of high-tech gizmos I can slap on my wrist? I've recently been eyeing the Matsucom OnHandPC, but am beginning to think that it's outdated. I already have a Palm Zire71, so the watch would be more for the 'ooh' and 'ahh' factor, as opposed to actual usefulness."
MSN Direct watches provide the information needed for today's mobile professionals, and feature software from US largest and most trusted software company Microsoft.
You want something more than the high-school dork calculator watch (I had a few of those)?
Try the Timex GPS watch.
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
I wanted that Fossil PDA watch. I would love to synch it with my computer and have a bunch of information ready to see at a glance. (Such as, my businesss trip itinerary..)
Oh well. I guess I'll go back to my Casio Databank Watch. At least those let me set alarms for any day within the next year.
"Derp de derp."
The SPOT watches will have: a 28 MHz ARM7 processor, 64KB ROM, 48KB RAM, and a 12Kb/sec radio downlink.
You could just wait until someone hacks this to run their own code. It runs a scaled-down version of Microsoft's Common Language Runtime (CLR) environment.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
The best watch that I have EVER seen:
The CEC F88 (alternative story). I would be trying to get one right now if it wasn't $1000. I hate carrying a phone around, stopped wearing a watch because I had to carry a phone - but this is perfect (except that I'm left handed and wear watch on my right wrist).
Also - there's a competitor from DoCoMo but it looks far more clunky.
Get yourself one of the original "Game & Watch" models from the 80's. They may not be up to date, but they're major collectors' items now, so you'll definitely have the 'ooh' factor.
(Spudley Strikes Again!)
Guys, I have a little secret for you.... Women think gadget watches are totally gay. Seriously, I'm not trying to be mean here. I admit, it would be nice to have something like that on my wrist, but only if it looks like a classy watch.
A watch is usually the one accessory that can reveal what type of person someone is, and women look at those things. Ditch your calculator watches for a month and see what happens... my friend ditched his, and women actually started coming up to him and talking to him at bars and parties, which never happened before.
I'm just trying to help out here. If gadgets make you happy, that's cool, they make me happy too. But women make me happier.
http://www.applefritter.com/sell/datagraph.html
Despite carrying a PDA and a mobile phone in my pocket; and a pentorch, penknife, and USB memory drive on my keyring, I wear an analogue mechanical watch. It makes me feel like I'm not quite 100% geek. Anyone else do the same?
How about a nice antique wind-up Hamilton. That will say way more about you as a person then some cheap tchochkie.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
But the reason I chose this watch is because it receives the national atomic clock radio time signal thingy and sets itself every night. So I always know exactly what time it is.
Repeat after me Omega Speedmaster. You must own this watch. It is a work of art and I can almost guarentee that you will receive more comments about this watch than watch PDA/calculator/TV/telephone etc... O, you wanted a "geek" watch... well is this geeky enough for you? That is right, the Omega Speedmaster was the first watch worm on the moon. In addition it was present during the Apollo-Soyuz rendervouz and has since been the watch of choice for the Russian space agency. I could go on, but I think this information will suffice.
Link to the Timex watch has already been modded up (or posted first, I don't know which), but the Yes Solstice watch is the coolest one i've seen in a while.
Last time this was asked, I ended up with a Solstice Ace from YesWatch. A novel way to display time and your place in it, more elegant than the Casio Databanks I'd worn for years, and chicks dig it.
I am a self confessed nerd, but for a watch I needed something that wouldnt scream that from the moon. I brought myself a Tissot T-Touch recently (titanium model). This watch looks like a classic wrist watch with a small digital display, however on closer inspection this watch contains an altimeter, barometer, thermometer and compass. Even cooler is the fact that its all operated via the front face of the watch. Thats right, its a touch screen! If you are a hiker, this is a very handy tool that you can also wear in the boardroom. And no, I dont work for Tissot.
Every person I showed it to loved it.. the model I originally had had a floating map drawn in the LCD that I could make disappear, was a real eye catcher.
Unfortunately Casio doesn't seem to think it was as cool as everyone else I know did, since they make maybe one or two watches now that use the technology. I still wear mine, but wish they would make newer ones or license the technology so other manufacturers could use it to make some badass watches.
The submitter of this story mentioned having a camera watch. I just wanted to ask, what did he find himself using it for? (That question is aimed at anybody with one?) I'm not asking "What's the point", but rather, "gimme inspiration!" I have a cell phone with a built in camera, and have found it to be enormously useful. Just curious if the watch camera is useful in more ways because of it's 'always on your wrist' property?
"Derp de derp."
I find it interesting that Fossil is dumping the PDA watch that was supposed to use the Palm OS. Yet, in my latest issue of Maxim, there was this nice little pullout for the Fossil/MSN watch. I wonder if Microsoft had anything to do with Fossil dumping the Palm-driven PDA watch. No fair...I thought that would have been pretty cool. Monopolies...I tell ya...
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
I started a discussion about them from my submitted story yesterday. They have been around for ages and I still use one today over PDAs.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Or you could see if you can find a Hydraulic Watch
Depending on what exactly you want out of a "high-tech" watch, you may want to look at the Suunto line. Their watches combine time features with compases, altimeters, barometers, and (on some models) far far more (including GPS). http://www.suunto.com has their entire line. One nice thing about their products is that they hold up (they are fairly popular among the gadget-loving backpacking crowd) and many of their models actually look good (the Observer line in particular).
http://www.suuntowatches.com/compare.htm has a very nice comparison chart of all their models.
Friends who bought Omega's had serious problems with them. Seiko Kinetic is cheaper but needs servicing every few years to keep the generator in good order.
The Omega's still look the part though.
My hyperlinks aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
your tastes might veer more towards hamilton, otherwise try a halter barnes Time Machine. or maybe even something rare and cool like the vulcain jump hour. failing that, try searching for skeleton watches.
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. hmmm
The Atomic Solar G-Shock automatically synchronizes itself with an atomic clock signal (thus the "atomic" part of the name), uses solar power to recharge the built-in lithium ion battery (thus "solar"), and could probably withstand being stepped on, swallowed, digested, and defecated by a brontosaurus (thus "G-Shock"). It's also water resistant to 200 meters.
At just under $100, I'd say that's not bad, especially since I may never have to buy another watch for the rest of my life.
Polar (http://www.polar.fi/), another finnish company besides Suunto makes some fairly interesting watches. Their speciality is heart rate monitors, but they've packed quite a lot of other functionality into their top of the range watches.
"Democracy is three wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner."
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/watches/5a1a/
My hyperlinks aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
I use this and as far as PDA is concerned, I use Treo 600
Maybe that was the wish list...
You need one of those watches with a LCD that shows the phase of the moon for the watch face.
with this watch http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/601-4595773-2 279358?asin=B00005QEME i assigned an email address to the watch and used the account to sign up for email alerts with cnn/msnbc/weather channel etc. The downside is that i get spam on my watch (what time is it or do i want to enlarge my . . .
My wife bought me a Citizen watch for my birthday last month. Happened to be the one I sent her an email about :)
:>)
The EcoDrive Skyhawk has multiple time zones, analog and digital display, UTC display at all times (quite handy when going over logfiles sometimes), 24-hour hour display, split chronograph and countdown timer, plus three alarms. Also water resistant to 100 meters, and a slide-rule outer bezel (extra geek points if you can actually use it
Not only does it look sleek, but never needs winding or batteries. Just let it see the light of day to charge it (also charges from ambient light from flourescents; Don't Panic). If there isn't enough light for it to charge, it will shut off the LCD and second hand, while still updating the other hands. Turn the lights on and the hands spring to life. All in all, neat watch to look at, and quite functional.
Three dits, four dits, two dits, dah!
Radio, radio, rah rah rah!
Hey, all - does anyone know of any decent digital pocketwatches? I've looked all over, but found nothing... :(
Haven't seen the watch in person, but it looks like a good geek-model. Their wristwatch dive computers and sports watches are better than anything else out there!
Suunto
Quite honestly nobody, not even your geek friends, are going to be impressed by a digital watch.
... but you already have toys that do that - get yourself a Rolex, a stainless steel Submariner if you are looking entry level, or a two tone Daytona if you are a mid- to high- end professional.
Invest in a nice Swiss made Superlative Chronograph - Officially Certified - Rolex Submariner.
Cost you about $2,500 used, or somewhere in the $3,800 range new.
Doesn't use batteries, it is self winding as long as you wear it.
Sapphire crystal. Pretty much scratch proof while you are wearing it - anything that can scratch that lens would blow off your arm in the process.
Stainless steel one case. Waterproof down to 1000 feet (330m).
Odds are you will never need to buy another watch in your lifetime, and it will be a good one to pass down to the next generation.
It is one accessory that is instantly recognized by anybody that is looking, and anybody that is going to be impressed by a watch will be impressed by this one.
Does one thing, tell time, and it does that fairly well. Doesn't surf the web, track contacts, tell you where you are, keep a list of phone numbers, take pictures, or play music
You will love it, and you will continue to love it forever.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
I've been searching for a similar product. In fact, I ordered the Abacus Palm Watch from CDW.com
D C= 533395
:)
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?E
However, it hasn't shipped. In fact, CDW is starting to wonder what happened and why they haven't received stock.
So, short answer, yes! You can order a Palm watch now. Long answer: I have no idea when it will be available.
Why do I want a Palm watch? I don't just want phone numbers... I want calendar, and reminders. I want data input and true synchronization with both Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Entourage for OS X. Nothing else out there comes close to the functionality of this Palm Watch, for such a small size. It even runs regular Palm 4.1 compatible problems...
IF IT EVER SHIPS!!!
So, please, tell me if you see another similar watch elsewhere. I'll order.
I've been using Timex pager watches (http://www.beepwear.com/html/BEEPWEARPRO.html for examples) for a couple years now. Since I'm on-call this is handy because I don't need to remember to keep some other peice of hardware (cellphone, pager) with me all the time. Also helpful because I'm losing my hearing - the pager watch vibrates on my wrist. I have my server/network alerting system page my wrist directly when problems occur. Finally, if I need to be reminded of some appointment, just set up Yahoo calendars or equivalent. Viola, no more forgotten birthdays!
have been a big casio fan, and am currently on my 8th casio watch. among my favs was the databank telememo 300. but those watches had an upper limit of only 8 alphanumeric characters - and you soon realise that it makes more sense to store names and numbers on your mobile, instead of the watch. the other fav was the touchscreen watch. forgot what the model number was... but it was a cool show-off! you know how it goes - you walk up to a person (preferably a gal), point to your watch, and go "look no buttons!". unfortunately, not many gals seemed to care! anyway, am currently using casio prg-50 (http://world.casio.com/pacific/wat/collections/pr otrek/lineup/triple_sensor/prg50_1v.html). it is big , bulky and in-your-face. nah, you just can't miss it!! also, when you press the compass button, you get to see a cool-blue circular movement. it also has a barometer, thermometer, altimeter... and of course, it shows the time - in big bold fonts. but, for reasons beyond my comprehension, it lacks a stopwatch, countdown timer, etc. maybe casio did not want to put too many functions in it - why would anyone buy a new casio watch if all functions were available in the previous one?
anyway, happy hunting for your watch! reminds me of the spy kids movie (part 2?) where the watch has all kinds of advanced functions. only prob, it does not tell the time!
- Some calendar functionality. (display and alarm would be sufficient but data entry capability would be nice.)
- Sync data with PC. Must not use secret proprietary protocol (e.g. the Timex watches)
- Battery life of at least one year
In addition to the minimum it needs one or more of the following:I just got the Titanium Observer for Christmas, and while it's not as geeky as you probably want (only has therm, barom, alti), it's the sharpest looking watch on the market after the super expensive Breitlings.
Flying is easy, just throw yourself at the ground and miss. -Douglas Adams
Oooh, very nice! But I'm very fond of my Breitling Aerospace--made of titanium, it's incredibly light when compared with steel watches. And it has all the usual features: chronograph, countdown timer, alarm, multiple time zones, etc. And it looks trick as hell.
Depends obviously where one puts the focus on:
The german watchmaker Junghans manufactures a range of watches that have a solar cell covered face, so you don't need to care about energy. They adjust by radio, so you don't care about the 'right' time. They have a treatened glass and ceramic housing, so they are virtually indestructible.
Sure, it has no GPS, Calculator, IR sender etc. But it's probably the best watch you can get for knowing the time. Plus, it looks good. Although probably more geared to the grown up geek. The one who doesn't have 17 dock apps running and Laetitia Casta as his desktop wallpaper...
..or an omega seamaster (the "bond" watch).
it'll hurt for a month after you buy it as they're not cheap, but they'll last forever and you can hand it down to your kids. Plus everytime you look at your watch you'll get a little frisson of satisfaction which I keep telling myself means the price per look is worth it!
For the more practical among you, good mechanical watches are also a way of ensuring that whatever happens, you've got a months' rent round your wrist in the event of an emergency...
http://www.timex.com/datalink/
End of discussion!
http://www.casio.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=products .detail&catalog=Watches§ion=Pathfinder&product =PAG50%2D1V