What time is it? Watches and horology

Starting from $349 so expect the Dubai edition to be much much more.

naaaah.. don't fall for the marketing

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can he do one handed skids? don't think so...

Everything I need from a functional watch I have in my G-Shock. It's also accurate to a silly degree, solar powered, chrono, world-time, alarm, and the face is 100% analogue (no LCD on this).

Everything I need from an aesthetic watch I have in my Sinn. It's beautiful, looks understated and refined with suits and in high class settings. It looks great and tells the time pretty well (and as with all automatics has a little drift on time over time... so you ignore it being out by 10-30 seconds here and there).

All of the smart watches, for me, solve a problem I do not have. Reaching into a pocket to pull my phone out, this isn't a critical problem I need solving.

If I want anything from technology, it's not a watch. It's probably more a Star Trek badge, the Culture terminal. It's a lapel badge, brooch or pendant that can be tapped (doesn't passively listen - saves battery), wakes up and listens for a voice command. It then issues the command to something else (tablet, phablet, phone, etc) which deals with figuring out the request, generates the response (if needed) and then speaks it back to me.

Whatever it is I want from technology, it doesn't have a "face", there is no screen to it.

Smart watches can frankly >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

They're all DOA, as they solve a problem that doesn't exist, and do not solve a need that does exist.

I bet you said that about smart phones and tablets at one time.
At some point, probably soon, enough of the problems will be solved, and someone will develop a killer app that makes the smart watch suddenly make sense.
(For me, personally, for the iPhone it was iTunes Remote + Airplay, and for the iPad it was GarageBand.)
Apple have just hired Marc Newson, so the next iteration of their watch may be interesting.

New tech often takes three generations to warm up. No doubt it'll be the same. I'm looking forward to have a wrist mounted holographic projector instead of a phone. One day....

Just think, drivers wont have to look in their laps to read texts anymore!

Just think, drivers wont have to look in their laps to read texts anymore!

#wouldrep

I already don't have to do that. My car reads them to me with Siri integration.

Actually, I usually just mount my phone on the dashboard anyway. Watched the the whole LotR trilogy on a long drive the other day.

As a watch, the apple watch is a bit chunky isn't it. The depth makes me think it'll get snagged on edges and be destroyed in not much time.

Having said that, having a watch on my wrist than can give me directions while riding (don't have a garmin) or pay for things with NFC could be quite useful.

But mostly just meh.

Why does the strap wrap inside instead of out like convention? So it looks clean?

Sums up Apple for me.

Skin pinching idiots.

I have a pebble which I rarely use.

The things I do find it useful for are notifications when I know I'm going to be somewhere loud (football, pub, whatever) or I'm in a meeting where I can't look at my phone. I can miss my phone in my pocket but won't miss it buzzing on my wrist.

Google directions are also pretty useful on your wrist when you're walking round and don't want to have your phone in your hand. Although, to be honest, it's not much better than earphones where it speaks the directions to you.

One with NFC would be nice, swiping it on the tube when your hands are full for instance.

On a separate note, from the link above re: modded Seikos, this is one I have from yobokies:

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I bet you said that about smart phones and tablets at one time.

I didn't at all.

About Smart Phones I roughly said, "Yes, awesome", I already had a taste as I'd been using the Ericsson m600i before the iPhone arrived and it was so damn close... and in many ways that bettered the iPhone for years (it had cut and paste and the iPhone keyboard remains fairly shite even today). It's only really the last 2 years that I've felt smart phones are finally delivering on their promise and that the productivity has gone beyond the older smart phones.... the potential remains largely untapped even with the disruption we've seen.

About Tablets I roughly said, "It'll end up replacing the magazines left in the loo" - and for me they have. I personally think smaller and lightweight laptops like the Air have had more of an impact.

About Kindle I roughly said, "Hell yes, want it now".

About iPod I roughly said, "Can it play FLAC?" and still I use a Cowon.

About Google Glass I roughly said, "What's the point when there is a smart phone in your pocket?".

About Smart Watches I roughly say "What's the point when there is a smart phone in your pocket?".

And about a lapel badge/brooch/pendant in the style of Star Trek/Culture Series... then I'm going to be saying "Hell yes, gimme now" and tolerating whatever rough edges may come with it.

If a Smart Watch evolves into the Star Trek badge... then I'll jump on board, but let's be clear, it wouldn't be the watch element that made me jump on board... it'll be the 100% voice based interface to a very rich IFTTT level of functionality. I'd wear a freaking bluetooth ear piece if it offered this... this is the thing I want.

less talk, more wristies plz

PMd...

wristies

fnar

After wearing my Swatch Sistem 51 pretty much constantly for the last couple of weeks, i've noticed that the date wheel is progressively out of sync with the time by two hours in every 24.

That means that on the first day, the date changes at 2am, the second at 4am, the third at 6am etc etc. It's "losing" a whole day on the date wheel every 12 days.

I've contacted Swatch but i'm unlikely to get anywhere as you can't buy it in the UK at the moment.

Annoying.

I bet you said that about smart phones and tablets at one time.

Even Steve Job said this when asked about putting videos in the iPod;

“I’m not convinced people want to watch movies on a tiny little screen, to paraphrase Bill Clinton, ‘It’s the music, stupid, it’s the music!’ Music’s been around for a long time, will continue to be, it’s huge.”

Blah blah blah...

I bought my casio whatsit on your advice!

Damn you!

Want!

yobokie boy right here.

This is for aggi not big man v.

https://huckberry.com/store/shop/the-watch-shop?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=The+Perfect+Fade&utm_campaign=20140909_m122063848_The+Perfect+Fade&utm_term=Watch_jpg_3F1410225500

This arrived in the post this morning. Lovely thing, nice and weighty, and beautifully made.

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About Google Glass I roughly said, "What's the point when there is a smart phone in your pocket?".

I sat in on a pitch for a smart glasses technology. For me the standout use was professional rather than personal. Having a team overseeing, advising, delivering info and generally acting as a force multiplier seems like a no-brainer once you think about it... first responders, military, police, mining, the list goes on. Even though the guy pitching was good and had lots of reasons why there would be 'civilian' take-up I wasn't really convinced there would to the same degree as smartphones. Still I'll be curious to see what happens in 5 or 10yrs and if I'll be eating my words.

#hotwatch