It’s not uncommon for there to be great anticipation when a new product is announced, and then we anxiously wait for it to actually hit the market. The watch industry is certainly not immune to this effect, and there’s been one mechanical watch that has been generating a lot of buzz over the past months – the Swatch Sistem51.
The other day I wrote about 2 new smart watches that are driven by a single purpose, one to give you the score for your favorite soccer team, and the other to help you track your fitness. Today’s watch goes in the other direction, a connected device that has the goal of being a complete interface with your smart phone. The Moment Smartwatch is more of a full screen smart bracelet that interacts with your phone, and also tells the time.
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a TRIWA watch on our pages – the last one we looked at I deemed to be a perfect watch for summer, so I think it’s a bit fitting that we’ve got another one landing on the pages with summer waiting in the wings. Now, you might be tempted to think that the TRIWA Walter Lansen Chrono is part of the “Sort of Black” line (which Matt covered here), but it’s definitely not.
TokyoFlash has made a name for themselves creating digital watches that can be… a wee bit tough to read. With one of their latest designs, the Kisai Rogue Touch Silicon, they have bucked their own trend a bit, and created a watch with two time zones that is actually readable at a glance, with a minimal amount of training.
Kickstarter has been good for the Padron Watch Company, so they are back for their third (hopefully) successful campaign on the site. The Hennepin watch is a chose-your-own movement project, with options for Swiss quartz, or Chinese, Japanese or Swiss automatic movements in the watch. In 2012, the hand wound Vuelta was launched, followed by the automatic Tessera in 2013. Both these watches far exceeded the funding goal, and with the Hennepin at more that 50% less than a day in, it looks like this will be 3 for 3.
OK, maybe not finally, and I am sure that Project O1, a new watch that popped up on Indiegogo, is not the first watch in existence with a clear case (cue the Swatch fans..), but it is still fairly unique. And kind of cool. It takes the concept of skeletonization of an automatic watch to the next level.
Trintec Industries Inc. lays claim to being the first company to produce modern aviation instrument themed watches, dating back 30 years. Now, I don’t want to wade into debate here, but they make a pretty decent argument. And with that, they also make a pretty cool looking watch. With their current Kickstarter campaign, they are also making two interesting 30th anniversary watches, the altimeter inspired 9060SE and the airspeed indicator inspired 9061SE.
Melbourne Watch Company was kind enough to send over 2 copies of their Finders watch for me to wear for a while, one a black dial on a black strap, and the other a ‘white’ dial on a brown strap. Patrick wrote up the watch when it was still in the project phase on Indiegogo, so now it was my turn to get an impression of the watch. And, to cut to the chase, I liked it.
OK, in the words of Douglas Adams, Don’t Panic. You still have a few days to get the dad(s) in your life a gift, thanks to WWW and fast shipping. But what do you get, and is it going to break the bank? Mmmm, maybe… Here are a few ideas for last minute Father’s Day gifts based on things we have reviewed, or that I own or covet. I will try not to go too deep down my fantasy wish list.
When it comes to watches that you strap on before heading off into the great outdoors, you’ve got no shortage of choice. Then again, when there are a class of watches known as field watches, well, that seems like an appropriately named device. While most brands might have one or two models in their lineup that could be called a field watch, Bertucci actually opts to keep their whole lineup conforming to that mold. As you’ll see in our review, however, they do manage to mix things up a bit within that singular design idea.