Tokyoflash Japan is a watchmaker that we have covered on WWR many times in the past. If you are unfamiliar, they produce digital watches that have playful (or sometime confounding) time displays. The Tokyoflash Japan Kisai Maze Wood LCD splits the line between readable and confounding with alternate time displays, straight forward when you want, and coded when that tickles your fancy.
If you have been reading our site for some time, you no doubt have caught on that I have been a fan of watches that manage to re-use materials. This most commonly takes the form of watches that house old movements brought back to life (ala Archer Watches or the Wrocket ), or perhaps materials being repurposed in the strap. When it comes to REC Watches, the recycled material actually shows up in the dial.
I don’t think that there is a hard corps Star Wars fan alive who does not know that the Lars homestead on the planet of Tatooine was filmed, not in a Hollywood soundstage or back lot, but in the desert of Tunisia in North Africa. So it is not in a galaxy far, far away, but rather on a continent fairly far, far away from most readers. But some enterprising folks have gone out and collected sand from the area and used it to create the Tatooine Sand Watch, now available on kickstarter.
When it comes to the watches from Triwa that we’ve taken a look at, they’ve generally been rather colorful – either in the case pattern (as seen here) or just in the overall aesthetic (as seen in this review). This time around, I want to focus some attention on a watch that’s a bit more monochromatic in its presentation – the Triwa Stirling Hvalen.
I have had quite a few different case materials cross my desk over the last three years, though most of them tend to be a metal of some sort. I have also had a handful of watches with carbon fiber dials, so I’m not unfamiliar with the material. That all said, I have not spent any time with a carbon fiber monocoque case – that is, until the ITAnano Phanton Carbon 43 Quartz came in for review.
Everywhere you look, smart watches are cropping up. The incoming Android-powered watches (and the long-rumored iWatch) of course take the lion’s share of the attention. While those high-tech devices are attention-grabbers, for sure, to focus only on them ignores a whole other slice of the smart watch segment. Today, we’ll be taking a look at one of those, the MOTA SmartWatch G2.
My exposure to new watch brands frequently comes not from traditional watch industry sources, but rather from the world of design and gadgets, especially through other web sites that curate cool new items. When I saw the Matthew Humphries Design MHD02, it really resonated with me. The design is clean, bold, and readable with just a dash of color. I wish it were a tad bigger, but then I would be really tempted to buy one for myself.
What makes a watch cheap, and what makes it inexpensive? In both cases, the watch itself has to be sold at a low price point, but the former only has that going for it, while the latter offers something else, a deign, a point of interest, some reason to like the watch other than the price. The Twigs Woodwear Natural Time is an inexpensive watch, not necessarily a cheap one. At $50 or less, it hits a low price point, but it offers something back in the way of the materials of construction.
Szanto is a new brand, started by the the founder of Luminox, Barry Cohen. They have been on quite a press push of late, getting watches into the hands of several watch bloggers, so there are a few opinions out there for anyone wanting to survey a range of impressions. The sent me three watches to check out, and the first one I thought I would tackle was the simplest of the three, the Szanto 1100 (1104 to be exact in my color combination) an attractive three hand quartz field watch.
I find it interesting when alternative materials are integrated into watches in an attractive way. That is why I am drawn to some wooden watches, and also why I was interested in the Vincero Watches project up on Kickstarter right now. For those of you who’s interests turn more to the solid feel of stone, this project may be something you want to check out.
