With summer coming and surf season in full swing, I thought I’d take a closer look at the Casio EMA100-1AV Edifice watch with tide graph and moon-phase data. Casio is best known for its G-Shock line of beefy (and some would say ugly) plastic sports watches, so this steel-cased model is a departure for the brand. Casio announced the watch in April and it is on sale now for $250.

So what’s special about the EMA100? First, it is surprisingly staid and classic for a “water watch.” The face is quite dark and the two LED registers — one at 6 o’clock and one at 2 o’clock — are reflective and nearly invisible in low light. Even the blue LED backlight is better at lighting up the luminous hands than the actual registers. The Edifice line uses polished metals to great effect, giving what would be a normal, albeit rugged, quartz piece a bit of class.

The watch has a number of basic features, including stopwatch, timer and alarm. It also has a built-in thermometer that can usually take an acceptable ambient temperature reading (although it will be thrown off if it’s worn on the wrist.) It also has support for 29 time zones and 48 cities, which makes it a nice travel companion. Most important for the water-bourne among us are the tide indicators that show the time to next high tide as well as a high/low tide indicator at 11 o’clock. There is also a moon-phase graph at four o’clock. The built-in calendar is accurate to the year 2099 and the battery lasts three years.

I rarely write about watches here unless I think the timepiece is particularly noteworthy or unusual. I think this piece is both. The Edifice line is Casio’s reaction to Seiko’s classier Sportura line of metal and rubber sports watches and so it is aimed at a different, more refined market. The Edifice is made of steel and is water-resistant to 200 meters, making it acceptable wear for both the office and the beach. The heavy rubber band is quite long, so it will fit a bigger wrist, and the 46mm case, while a bit small for my taste, is boldly styled with a unidirectional bezel and heavy-looking “bolts” in place of the 12, 3, 6, and 9 pips. Even the lack of LED visibility is an asset because it makes the watch look far sleeker than it is. Rather than looking like you’re wearing a helicopter cockpit on your wrist, this Casio leaves a bit to the imagination.

I’ve seen plenty of multi-sensor watches that can tell you your altitude, geographical position, and blood sugar readings (not really). However, it’s refreshing to see a classically styled sports watch focus specifically on a niche — in this case the surfing crowd – with a watch that is both water-resistant and doesn’t look like a plastic hockey puck. At $250 I’m more than willing to recommend this watch to folks who need to know the tide charts and, more important, want to get a little ocean time in between meetings.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

While I kid a bit in the headline, this is actually pretty cool: Swatch, the largest manufacturer of mechanical watch movements in the world, has created a movement that is assembled entirely using automated systems. Why is this important? The watch industry was originally gutted by the rise of cheap quartz watches, making this piece quite ironic, and this means that more people will be able to own higher quality mechanical watches from a trusted brand.

The movement, called the Sistem51, is made of 51 simple parts and has a weight that winds the mainspring. It is made of a copper, nickel and zinc alloy called ARCAP and is anti-magnetic. It’s completely sealed inside the case (making it impossible to service) but a fact that ensures it can stay out of moisture and dust. Another cool thing? Quoth Hodinkee, who got a hands on, “instead of a regulator the special escapement is set by a laser during production and never needs to be touched again.”

Sure, the Sistem51 is basically a plastic watch that costs a little over $100 and will be sold at airports around the world. However, it is an impressive step forward for the company at a time when mechanical watches are making a resurgence. Swatch has been making mechanicals for a while, to be clear, but this is the first time they’ve reduced the price, manufacturing cost, and maintained quality in this way. While it’s easy to get much cheaper movements online (a tourbillon for $24, anyone?) it’s far harder to find a solid, high quality mechanical movement from a trusted brand.

It’s great to see some affordable watches come out of Basel this year and this is definitely step forward in terms of nanomechanics.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Whether you’re fighting mutant cyborg dogs in a hellish, post-apocalyptic wasteland or, more likely, dealing with potentially radioactive substances on a daily basis, the MTM ‘Rad’ watch may be the wrist droid you’re looking for.

MTM makes so-called ‘Special Ops’ watches which are bold, large, and usually made of coated steel or titanium. However, every once in a while they come out with something unique. This new timepiece costs $1,500 and includes a built-in radiation detector that can sense rate and dose of radiation as well as warn you when you’ve gone over a preset boundary.

The counters are completely self-contained and surprisingly small. The battery should last two years and, although this thing looks big, it’s actually quite light and watch writer Paul Hubbard wore it in a 5K race and on a plane where he got a reading of “3.7 micro sieverts/hour.” You can also transmit readings to a computer via an IR transfer system that is built into the watch.

Who is this for? Hubbard writes:

In short, if you’re in need of a Geiger counter (and, let’s face it, in these Mad Maxian times I think we all are) this may be just the wrist-mounted Pip-Boy for you.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

While I’m not a big fan of ostentatious watches that cost too much and are aimed at buyers with more money than sense (in short, most of the Hublot line) I will give this odd-looking watch a moment of reflection. It is the MP-05 LaFerrari, a tourbillon watch with a 50-day power reserve, a number almost unheard of in the watch world, and a unique styling that is reminiscent of a certain Arashikage ninja.

The watch itself has a custom HUB9005.H1.6 movement and displays the time in a series of vertical registers. There is a visible tourbillon (essentially a rotating balance wheel AKA the little wheel that “spins” in your average mechanical watch) on the bottom of the watch as well as a winding port on the top. To wind it you use this little power drill. Seriously.

A power reserve indicator tells you how long you have to go before you whip out your little drill gun and the entire thing is designed to look like the cowling on the $1.3 million LaFerrari or, more precisely, Cobra Commander’s codpiece. The watch is completely handmade and you can see more photos here. It comes in a limited edition of 50 and you can expect to pay $300,000 for the privilege of strapping it to your wrist.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

It’s a surprisingly rare treat to see inside a very expensive and very unique timepiece. Although the video below is a render, it shows almost every important part of this wild watch including something called the chain-and-fusee, a method used for centuries to improve the accuracy of watches by ensuring constant force is applied to the balance wheel over time.

The watch will be shown at Basel, the annual, 10-day marathon watch show in Switzerland. I’ll be bringing a few of the most interesting pieces to your attention.

Before we get into the science of this thing, just understand that the chain you see is handmade and assembled and each link is made of sapphire to (ostensibly) reduce fiction. It’s a fairly basic watch – it has a power reserve function and just tells the time – but the engineering is what’s most important. Expect it to sell for over $100,000 (although I could see this selling for a bit under the $100K mark).

Now for the watch nerdery. The fussee is a spindle attached to a chain that winds the mainspring barrel. The fussee allows the proper amount of force to be meted out to the “transmission” over time because as a spring uncoils it loses a bit of its power. This system, created by Breguet in the late 1700s, has been in use since then.

This new fusee uses a snail cam that unwinds as evenly as the spindle but allows for a thicker, more robust chain and smoother motion. It’s a very minor change but it’s the first time I’ve seen this sort of cam in a fussee watch.

Arguably this is not a cure for cancer or a moonshot, but R. Gauthier is a perfect example of a hardware startup that works in a very rarified sphere. Building a mar rover is cool, but redesigning something that has existed for 300 years is arguably just a tich cooler. At this price, however, you can either feed your family for most of a decade or visit the website for purchasing information.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

As TC’s resident watch lover, I often find myself browsing the horology forums while alone, scantily-clad, and drunk. However, in this era of connoisseur-nets and always-connected trade, there are few bargains to be found and even fewer ways to find exactly what you want. That’s where Chrono24.com comes in. Founded by serial entrepreneurs Tim Stracke and Dirk Schwartz, the site has been live since 2003 but has just recently streamlined its operations to offer a sort of watch search engine that allows users to find timepieces of note from almost anywhere in the world.

The pair began by buying the site, originally a classifieds forum, in 2010. “We had to pay a steep price for just a domain and dealer contracts. But it gave us a great starting point to change the watch industry,” said Stracke. “Chrono24 is not only an industry changer but also one of the few truly global marketplaces.”

The site brings disparate watch markets and forums together and allows sellers to submit items for sale. Dealers in new and used watches – the so called grey market – submit their timepieces and users can then search for pieces from around the world. Many forums, for example, have sales boards but they are usually limited to fans of a specific type of watch or brand. BobsWatches, for example, has made a business out of selling Rolex and has even created a widget for users to assess the value of their pieces. Chrono24, on the other hand, is more all-encompassing in their approach.

The company recently acquired to competitors and they see about 130,000 visits per day. Mobile visits have risen to 20,000 per day and they’re doing transactions of up to 300 million Euro per year.

The company is expanding, as well. They have created a personal “buying agent” that scours the listing and notifies you when a specific watch appears and you can even call in and speak to an advisor who will tell you what to buy and wear. More important, however, is the plan to build an escrow system for buyers and sellers. When you’re dropping $62,000 on a Rolex you want to ensure your payment isn’t going to end up in some oligarch’s back pocket.

“One of our most relevant projects for 2013 is establishing a ‘Chrono24 Trusted Payment’ system where Chrono24 will act as a trusted escrow agent. All this differentiates us from eBay and current and future competitors,” said Stracke.

Stracke is proud of his place in the horology niche and even prouder of the fact that the company is based in Germany. “We are one of the few German Internet start-ups that are global market leaders. And we are not a copy cat.”

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Sensor-laden watches that electronically measure the temperature, barometric pressure, and magnetic north are fairly cheap. A nice Casio can be had for about $200. But if you’re one of those high-tech, post-IPO types that wants to feel like Phileas Fogg for a minute or two each day, you can shell out $150,000 for the Breva Génie 01, a mechanical watch that measures altitude, temperature, and predicts the weather using tiny moving parts.

Why, you ask? Because they can. And because you can afford it.

The Génie 01 looks like any other high-end watch that costs more than our cars combined. It is clad in white or rose gold and includes a small chamber that expands or contracts depending on barometric pressure, thereby allowing you to predict rain. It also has a power reserve indicator that shows the energy left in the mainspring. As befitting a timepiece, they’ve been kind enough to add a small hours, minutes, and seconds indicator.

Why is it so expensive? Probably because each of the 405 pieces is handmade and it is literally a unique work of art, made in limited series and available only to the creme of the watch-buying oligarchs. While it won’t survive a fall quite like a Casio, you’ll at least be able to stop your entourage of lantern-jawed men and beautiful women, consult your watch, and say, in your captain of industry voice, “Y’all going to need umbrellas.”

You can check out more on the watch here or pick up one of the 110 made at your local watch shop (not really.)

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Proposing that entrenched sub-cultures should try something new is dangerous. Going into guitar forums with a new idea is a prospect fraught with peril for anyone who dares move beyond the six-strings-and-a-dream mentality of guitar purists. The same goes for folks who pitch wine in a box at a vintage tasting session and those who might want to add some new technology to a classic car. In short, the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it crowd will tell you to get out of here with your fancy new concoction.

Sadly, I’m a member of that dour, nay-saying crowd when it comes to smart watches.

As reviews percolate up for the Pebble and other smart watches and the rumors swirl about a potential iWatch, I’ve been thinking about what a real smart watch will require and why we’re not quite there yet.

First, remember that wristwatches are the epitome of micro-engineering. Barring a few duds along the way, clockwork and then quartz wristwatches do one thing amazingly well – tell the time – and we humans are accustomed to using them in that particular configuration. Some watches show elapsed time, the phases of the moon, and the like but, for the most part, your basic Timex Ironman is literally the epitome of the art and the art hasn’t changed much in five centuries. That’s why entrepreneurs like the space: they think they can do better.

And they will be able to, but not yet.

Why are standard watches so good – or, at least, so well-engineered? They are compact, do a few jobs very well, and last a long time on their own power. They are also dead simple and are easily usable without much investment of time or effort.

Current smart watches assume that the brains of the operation rests solely in the phone. This argument, while solid, forgets that the watch isn’t an accessory, it’s a standalone device. At some point the watch will be separated from its brain and the results can be disastrous – the time could change or the watch could run down, becoming useless. A watch that cannot tell the time is not a watch, it’s a bangle.

This means that a watch that lasts about a week on one charge is not usable as a daily-wear watch. You can be as careful as you want about maintaining the charge but at some point you will revert back to a quartz/mechanical solution or no watch at all. This, in short, is my primary problem with current smart watches.

Consider sports computers, for examples. Devices like the Nike+ watch and various models from Suunto and Polar assume the user will strap on the watch only during a particular activity. Wearing a Suunto GPS watch for any length of time, while fun, isn’t possible. There are watches that you could wear while hiking and the like, but the battery is the main consideration when it comes depending on these devices in a life-or-death situation. I would argue it can’t be done yet.

So how are we supposed to trust the Basis watch, for example, a watch designed to stay on the wrist for weeks at a time? You’re going to have to pull it off at some point to charge it and at some point the user will just stop putting it back on.

The small, postage-stamp sized screens of most watches is also a detriment. While I could definitely see the value in a heads-up-display like Google Glass constantly flitting in and out of my vision, a buzzing beeping watch that requires Tamogotchi-like attention sounds like a chore and not a user-interface improvement.

Smart watches also have very few compelling features. While I don’t want to use this as an example (it’s clear the author, Jonathan Greene, likes his watch), I find this telling:

You will obviously retort that the platform is still nascent and that Pebble can’t be expected to make compelling apps a few weeks after launch and I would agree, to a degree. A solid platform needs compelling applications. The promise of the smart watch is fine but, in actuality, it will take a while for this promise to come to fruition. By that time, I suspect, the mass of Pebbles will be lying at the bottom of a dresser drawer.

Could Apple beat this malaise with an iOS-powered iWatch? Maybe, but I doubt it. First, it would require more processing power than, say, an iPod Nano (an iPhone’s processor might be overkill) and a battery that would last months. It would need a readout that can show the time at a glance and a low-power wireless connection to the phone that will stay connected without issue for weeks. It would need to be water and shock proof and look good on the wrist. In short, it has to beat a G-Shock or your Dad’s old Hamilton mechanical.

When looking at a smart watch I would propose something like the Butch Test – can this watch retain its value as a timekeeping instrument and item of value even after spending seven years in a place unconducive to a delicate object? If it can, it’s a watch. If it can’t, it’a fad. iPods of a certain vintage, for example, are still usable, as are some computers. My Palm watch, amazing in its day, is a cold hunk of metal and my SPOT watch rests forlornly on a clipped branch of smart watch evolution. Most watchmakers abide by strict standards of usability, ruggedness, and quality. Few smart watches, on the other hand, are rugged, strong, and useful enough to match the utility of an “uncomfortable hunk of metal” on the wrist.

I want smart watches to exist. I really do. But right now, with the technology we have available to us, I’m still not convinced we’ve cracked the problem.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Editor’s note: Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research and blogs at Techspressive. Each column will look at crowdfunded products that have either met or missed their funding goals. Follow him on Twitter @rossrubin.

Last year, Kickstarter launched a bumper crop of smart watches that connect via Bluetooth to your smartphone. The field was led by the record-setting Pebble, but also included products such as Cookoo, the MetaWatch Strata, and Martian, all of which have shipped by now. Recently, though, a number of timepieces have surfaced that bring us back to basics when it comes to telling time.

Backed: CST-01. Briefly mentioned in last week’s column amidst CES alum Tethercell, the CST-01 is certainly a high-tech timepiece that tackles several challenges with smartwatches — girth, complexity and short battery life. Like the recently shipped Pebble watch and the still-delayed Touch Time by Phosphor, the CST-01 uses e-paper technology to display the time. Unlike those watches, though, that’s about all it does  — no Bluetooth, no touchscreen, no launching of poison darts into the neck of the enemy spy.

The result is what project originator Central Standard Time claims is the world’s thinnest watch at 0.8 mm, one that dispenses with traditional straps and clasps with its bangle design. Unfortunately, the slim profile makes for some compromises. The watch requires a base station in order to be charged, which needs to take place about once per month, and the power cell is slated to burn out in about 15 years so forget about passing this on to the next generation that futurists say will be able to tell time simply by looking at their phones.

Thin is in and the CST-01 has already more than quadrupled its goal with about 10 days left to go in the campaign. Watches are still available to backers in black or what passes for white in the e-paper world for $129 and are slated to ship in September.

Backed: The Big Face Woody. This creation of Hawaii-based NFNT (pronounced like the synonym for “eternity,” not “baby”) can claim the cheekiest name for a Kickstarter design product since the MorningHead hair moistening aid of a year ago. The Big Face Woody (endorsed neither by Mr. Allen, Mr. Harrelson nor Mr. Woodpecker) is a watch made wholly of bamboo save for the steel clasp.

Bamboo is one of the most favored crowdfunding materials up there with silicone and aluminum. The wood, so notes the Kickstarter campaign page, is strong and lightweight. The Big Face Woody weighs in at only 50 grams, although that’s still four times the weight of the wispy CST-01’s 12 grams) and eco-friendly. The social consciousness of the design team is also reflected in a couple of paragraphs talking about student financial hardships, although there is no direct connection made between raising the funds and helping those students, even by employing them to help make the watches.

Like the CST-01, the Big Face Woody is water-resistant but not waterpoof. NFNT has met all its stretch goals as it has already collected more than six times its original $11,000 funding goal. The watches, in a range of face sizes, can be preordered for $75 with an extra fiver netting you a date function. Early backers can grab their Woodys as early as March; it would surely be inauspicious for a watchmaker to ship late.

Whacked: Heritage Watch. It’s not unusual for mechanical watches to be offered to backers for hundreds of dollars; such is the case for the recently listed Coastliner watch that be claimed for £375. Things seemed to be going well for the effort led by New York-based Field and Crew. The Heritage Watch would be distinguished by a “smart pin” system that would enable quick changes of wrist straps without any tools. Its entry reward tier included the watch and two bands for $199, a steep discount over the estimated $500 retail price. The campaign had raised over $16,000 — well above its $9,000 goal — and was on pace to pick up more before its February 17 ending date.

Alas, this looks like another Kickstarter campaign that has gone askew. The site has suspended the campaign and the project owner has not provided any official updates since the suspension, although backer chatter indicates that he has claimed he has not heard many specifics from Kickstarter on why funding was suspended while vowing to go to other sites to raise money if it is not resumed. The stoppage may have something to do with the similarities that have cropped up between images of the Heritage Watch and images of other watches.

Things don’t look promising as the website for Field & Crew has gone offline. Perhaps “Chris” has been inspired by the watch-worthy words of REO Speedwagon when they sang, “I believe it’s time for me to fly.” If the project has turned out ot be a scam, though, no money will have been lost by backers as they have not yet been charged.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Whether you’re polishing your magnetic death ray or powering up your Stargate, the effects of magnetic fields on your watch can be quite destructive. Back in the old days when scientists wore suits and nice watches to work, they would bring their timepieces too near certain pieces of equipment, rendering the movement useless. Rolex solved this by wrapping its movements in non-ferrous metal but their watch, the Milgauss, could only handle up to 1,000 Gauss.

That was then and this is now. Omega has decided to blow Rolex out of the water with their new Seamaster Aqua Terra. This watch movement is actually made of non-ferrous material that can stand up to 1.5 tesla or 15,000 gauss, about twice the magnetic output of a subwoofer, while an MRI can hit up to 70,000 at its peak. This, incidentally is what happens when you get metal near your MRI.

The watch is a fairly standard three-handed timepiece but the new movement, the 8508, is what makes it special. The watch will ship this spring with pricing to be determined (expect something in the $10,000 range if not lower). Sound a little pricey? Tell that to yourself when you accidentally fall through a magnetic space-time vortex and your Timex stops ticking.

via Hodinkee

Article courtesy of TechCrunch