Watches Archive

  • Bremont U-2 watch review

    Bremont U-2 watch review

    Posted on June 14, 2010 | No Comments
    ABlogToRead has another in-depth review of one of our favorite watches, the Bremont U2. The watch is styled after the instrumentation of the U-2 spy plane and includes a specially protected movement inside a special material that allows the watch to survive - get this - a freaking cockpit ejection at full Gs. There is even another little treat for those in the know:
    Like the MB1 watches, the seconds hand has an emergency eject handle as the counterweight. This handle would rest between your legs in a Martin Baker ejection seat - ready to be pulled in the case of an emergency. It has no such function in the watch! Imagine an ejection lever that would eject the movement from the case. That would reach new heights of pointless complications.

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  • A new HourTime episode, straight from JCK in Vegas

    A new HourTime episode, straight from JCK in Vegas

    Posted on June 8, 2010 | No Comments
    Warning: Podcast includes extreme watch nerdery. Download MP3 Subscribe in iTunes

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  • Toyko Flash’s Changing Lanes Watch: Changing the way you view your time

    Toyko Flash’s Changing Lanes Watch: Changing the way you view your time

    Posted on June 8, 2010 | No Comments
    Many times during the day, I look at my watch. It’s a rather easy thing to read. Its functionality and simplicity has remained for years. However, that notion wasn’t good enough for one company, namely Tokyo Flash.

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  • CrunchDeals: Final 15 Buscum Ducis BDIs for $149 each

    CrunchDeals: Final 15 Buscum Ducis BDIs for $149 each

    Posted on May 22, 2010 | No Comments
    Our buddy Sven at BD is offering his final 15 BDI watches at a considerably discount – $149, about $70 off the regular price. We reviewed the piece, a quartz with custom styling by Sven himself, back a few years ago. Beautiful watches at a great price. Sale Page

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  • HP developing “next-gen” wristwatch for the military

    HP developing “next-gen” wristwatch for the military

    Posted on May 21, 2010 | No Comments
    Printed circuitry on plastic isn't very new, but what is interesting is that HP is commoditizing it and creating wristwatches using display elements and chips etched right onto a roll of soft plastic. The printed faces can also contain solar cells to power the watch.
    HP Labs has been developing a process to "print" the plastic display components for 10 years. The company originally intended to use the technology in portable memory drives, but creating larger screens out of plastic turned out to be a more economical and feasible venture, Taussig said.

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  • CrunchDeals: Watchismo’s stock of vintage mechanicals on sale

    CrunchDeals: Watchismo’s stock of vintage mechanicals on sale

    Posted on May 19, 2010 | No Comments
    Mmmm... I love me a jump hour. Mitch at Watchismo is holding a sale on most of his vintage stock including a crazy Jaeger LeCoultre Masterquartz LED and a bunch of Jump Hour "digital" watches from before the era of digital. This crazy Sicura is particularly amazing with its battery lamp lighting up a handwind movement.

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  • Columbia gets into the sports watch market in a big way

    Columbia gets into the sports watch market in a big way

    Posted on May 19, 2010 | No Comments
    Columbia just jumped head first into the sports watch buisness with nine different model lines spanning three distinct market segments. Chances are that if you need a watch for an outdoors activity, one of these new watches will fit the bill as they feature everything from an altimeter, to a barometer, to a compass — [...]

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  • Kisai Round Trip watch: All that’s missing is the fob and aluminum top hat

    Kisai Round Trip watch: All that’s missing is the fob and aluminum top hat

    Posted on May 18, 2010 | No Comments
    There's an old O. Henry story, The Gift of the Kisai that recounts a tale of a young man who sells his Kisai Round Trip LED pocketwatch to buy his wife a hairbrush and his wife cuts and sells her hair to buy her husband a pocketwatch chain. The story, a classic in the oeuvre of "how-the-other-half-lives" fiction, is heartbreaking in itself, but fear not: you'll never have to go through those privations. There are plenty of $72 LED pocket watches to go around and their affordable for even those in relationships bathed in irony and penury.

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  • Review: Marvin M103 Chronograph

    Review: Marvin M103 Chronograph

    Posted on May 13, 2010 | No Comments
    There are a few classic watch styles. There's the GMT and there's the three register chrono. But one of my favorites is the day/date chrono powered by the Swiss ETA Valjoux 7750. That's the movement that powers the Marvin M103 and, at about $1,790 with a favorable exchange rate. The watch is a standard three-register chrono with a seconds hand and a 12-hour register. The action is quite smooth and the large, handsome crown offers a nice bit of steel to grasp for setting the time and date. Marvin has created a very sporty chrono here and, although I wouldn't take this particular model under water, it is water resistant to 5ATM.

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  • A closer look at RGM’s new American tourbillon

    A closer look at RGM’s new American tourbillon

    Posted on May 5, 2010 | No Comments
    If you’re into watches, you know that the tourbillon is the nitrous charger of the watch world – you’ll probably never use it, it doesn’t make an amazing amount of sense, but darn it if it isn’t cool. RGM Watches is a small watch company in Pennsylvania and they just launched their own manufacture tourbillon, [...]

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  • Watchismo sells Satanic watches from Barcelona

    Watchismo sells Satanic watches from Barcelona

    Posted on May 4, 2010 | No Comments
    If you saw the 9th Gate you’ll know where I’m heading with this. Although I love Watchismo, their support of Satan and all of His Works is abhorrent and this watch is a bit to expensive for a nice quartz with what amounts to a Mystery Dial. Barcelona Watches does a little hand waving and tries [...]

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  • Citizen Japan to release new i:Virt M Bluetooth watch for cell phone control

    Citizen Japan to release new i:Virt M Bluetooth watch for cell phone control

    Posted on April 29, 2010 | No Comments
    Citizen in Japan has two new models in its oddly named i:Virt M series of Bluetooth-enabled wristwatches ready [JP], the TM84-0351V (108g, leather band) and the TM84-0352V (178g, stainless steel band). The last update i:Virt M happened about a year ago. Owners can use the watches to interact with their (Japanese) cell phones, i.e. by noting incoming calls, controlling the phone camera (the shutter button, to be more exact) or displaying emails.

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  • Marvin M103: A crazy cheap automatic chronograph

    Marvin M103: A crazy cheap automatic chronograph

    Posted on April 29, 2010 | No Comments
    I haven't written about Marvin yet but these guys make some striking, classic pieces at prices that are actually astounding. Take this <A HREF="">old girl here, the M103. This is a Valjoux 7750 chrono movement with day and date register and it costs $1,790. This is the same movement that is in almost every watch you see out there including a lot of the stratospheric $6000+ brands. The watches are assembled in Switzerland and shipped out of the U.S.A.

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  • Longines opens their first online store

    Longines opens their first online store

    Posted on April 21, 2010 | No Comments
    The world of fine watches is a benighted place. Strange hang-ups masquerading as tradition are the norm and historically watch companies have looked at every new improvement to their business with trepidation. Consider the quartz movement, for example. Texas Instruments approached a number of Swiss companies when they first created the miniaturized quartz watch but no one wanted it - it was beneath them. China and Japan, however, bought the movements by the truckload and ate old horology's lunch. For years, watch companies have only allowed their wares to be sold through authorized dealers. This meant you had to go into a frou-frou shop, get talked down to by a snooty salesperson, and then pay over retail for a watch that was worth, in terms of parts and materials, about half of its sticker price. Pretty nice scam, huh? The Internet came along and those authorized dealers hit on a nice scam. They'd "sell" their watches to real people - shills, usually - and those real people would resell them online. Swatch Group, for example, is currently fighting this grey market in the Supreme Court. However, another part of the Swatch Group, Longines, is taking to the Internet like a duck to duck sauce.

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  • Essex Watches make some divers I could get behind

    Essex Watches make some divers I could get behind

    Posted on April 20, 2010 | No Comments
    Mmmm... GMT! Essex is a German company that makes ETA divers on rubber straps and beautiful grains-of-rice bands. They're a little pricey - the standard three-hander is a little over $2,000 and the GMT clocks in at $2,545 - but they have a cetain 1970s aesthetic that I like. The watches are originally German and they're selling them online at Essex-Watches.com. Click through for press release.

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