View the Phosphor E Ink Watch Photo Gallery.

Less then a month ago, I had never even seen electronic ink before. Now I'm reading books and newspapers daily on my Amazon Kindle, and telling time on the new Phosphor E Ink watch. And I hope in another month, I have even more toys powered by E Ink technology.

Electronic ink is a high-contrast, low-power display technology. It is to ink what email is to mail: fast, dynamic, practical, yet still comfortably familiar. However unlike email — which aside from the general concept, is almost nothing like traditional mail — electronic ink is actually a form of ink. Rather than a liquid dye which soaks into paper, E Ink is composed of microcapsules which are about the diameter of a human hair. Each microcapsule contains both light colored positively charged particles and dark colored negatively charged particles suspended in fluid. Electric fields are applied to the microcapsules to cause the particles inside them to polarize: some move to the top where they can be seen, and some move to the bottom where they are hidden. The result is a high contrast monochrome display that can be viewed in most lighting conditions (including direct sunlight), from any angle, and which can retain its image without having to consume power.

eBooks are an obvious use for E Ink technology since you can store hundreds of books, magazines, and newspapers on a single device. But once I saw the Phosphor E Ink watch, it was clear that electronic ink has just as bright of a future in watches.

The main advantage of having a watch with an E Ink dial is that you can easily change the look depending on what you're doing, where you're going, or what you're wearing. The Phosphor E Ink watch lets you choose from among three different hour index configurations, three different date and time modes, and either a "positive" mode (black on white), or a negative mode (white on black). Unfortunately, no mode removes the E-Ink branding at the top of the dial — space which could be better used to allow the simultaneous display of the date and the digital time.

Features of the Phosphor E Ink watch include:

Apple's line of solid-state iPods have long been popular for exercise and sports. The iPod shuffle and nano are shockproof and have a longer battery life than the higher capacity hard drive models, making them a great choice for running, hiking, and general active use. The nano can even be used with the Nike iPod interface which transmits data from your shoe to the iPod's display. Very cool!

So if your shoe can talk to your iPod, why not your watch? Introducing the Timex iControl IRONMAN watch. As you can see from the picture, it looks just like a standard 50-lap IRONMAN, but adds a few more buttons. Combined with a small receiver that plugs into the iPod, the iControl allows you to control your iPod from your watch up to ten feet away!

I can see some serious potential in this. For instance, if you have your ipod strapped to your waist or upper arm, it's easier to place one hand on the watch while running as opposed to groping for the iPod itself. Or if you've got your iPod stashed in your backpack with just the headphone cable emerging, you can still drive the tunes. Another possibility is if you, like me, use your iPod while in your car, the Timex iControl gives you a cool remote control which you're not likely to misplace. An additional benefit is that leaving your iPod out of sight, especially when combined with a pair of generic non-white ear buds, reduces the changes of theft since nobody will even know you have an iPod.

According to the Timex iControl home page, the iControl is compatible with both the 1st and 2nd generation iPod nano, and the 5th generation iPod video. For more details as to how it works, check out the manual (PDF).

As you'd expect, the watch portion of the iControl remains at Timex's highly functional standard, with a readable face and a long list of features: time, alarms, countdown timer, Indiglo, interval timers, etc. Visually, the new buttons are not obvious, so the iControl can easily pass for a standard IRONMAN. However, if you want to stand out, Timex offers the iControl in five colors: blue, green, orange, black, gray, and silver.

If reaching for your watch is more convenient for you than reaching for your iPod, the Timex iControl is available now for $125, so go have a look. Personally, I love the gadget factor, and would like being able to leave my iPod in my backpack while on public transit. Count me in.

Update: Read the Timex iControl review.

By Paul Hubbard

View the Suunto X9i Photo Gallery

If you like your watches with long feature lists, have we got a watch for you! The Suunto X9i is a wrist-top computer, adding GPS to the usual laundry list of modern digital watch features. There's no question that the Suunto X9i is designed for the great outdoors.

Let's get right down to features. The X9i packs in:

• GPS navigation with a 12-channel receiver.
• USB data and power interface, with PC software and a free interface to Google Earth.
• Altimeter.
• Barometer.
• Thermometer.
• Compass.
• Three alarms.
• Stopwatch.
• Dual time (with good multi-time zone support).
• Rechargeable Li-Ion battery, good for about 500 charge cycles.
• Bitmapped high-res display with electroluminescent backlight.
• Waterproof to 100m or about 330 feet (but see below for more on this).
• Tough resin/plastic case with scratch-resistant mineral crystal.
• Integrated plastic strap with metal teeth, vented for warmer climates.

I haven't been a fan of Swiss Army watches since I paid $100 for an original Swiss Army watch back in high school, wore it on the construction site where I was working, and had it quit on me after filling up with sawdust after only a week. It's been a long time since I earned beer money as a laborer, however, and John over at The Wrist Watch Review has recently posted twice about Swiss Army watches being good values, so I've decided to give them another look. They have some interesting chronographs and divers which I'm now intrigued by, but what really caught my eye was the Night Vision line. The Swiss Army Night Vision watches are simple, inexpensive, decent looking quartz pieces with date windows and built-in LED flashlights above the 12 o'clock position. The flashlight is powered by a second battery, and activated by a button on the left side of the case, between the 8 and 9 o'clock positions. There is also an LED dial light to illuminate the dial in the dark, and just in case the flashlight's battery is dead, luminous hands, as well.

Flashlights built into watches are surprisingly useful. I wrote about the MTM Special Ops Watch some time ago which has LEDs so bright that you are warned not to look directly into them (they are meant to be used for reading maps at night). I also often use the two LEDs in the dial of my Casio G-Shock GW-1310 (my all time favorite G-Shock) to navigate my bedroom late at night after getting up with one of my kids. In fact, I've been known to trip over laundry baskets on nights when I've been wearing digital watches with electroluminescent backlights, or mechanical watches with nothing but a little luminescent paint. Of course, LEDs bright enough to light your path through your bedroom in the dark are a little overkill for illuminating your watch dial, so squinting into them while half asleep can be a rude awakening if you are not prepared. Consider yourself warned.

Bluetooth watches will finally become a reality at the end of October thanks to Fossil and Sony Ericsson's new Caller ID Bluetooth watch. The watch pairs with Sony Ericsson Bluetooth-enabled phones and Nokia series 60 phones running Symbian 7, 8, and 8.1 to alert you when someone calls. Not only does the watch discreetly vibrate, but it displays caller ID information on a small OLED display, and allows you to mute or reject the incoming call. Very slick. It even notifies you of incoming text messages, as well. Here are the details:

• Analog timekeeping.
• OLED displays caller ID information and text message icon.
• Bluetooth 2.0 compatible.
• Vibrating alert (essential to keep you from drawing unwanted attention).
• Rechargeable battery (via USB or AC adapter).
• Stainless steel case and bracelet.
• Water-resistant to 30 meters, or 100 feet.
• Mineral glass crystal.
• 5 - 7 day battery life with power saving function.

In general, I'd say Fossil and Sony Ericsson have come up with a pretty compelling piece of technology. One of my big concerns with Bluetooth watches has always been battery life, but 5 - 7 days is very reasonable. Just charge your watch when you charge your phone, and you should be all set. Of course, keeping an active Bluetooth connection between your watch and your phone will drastically reduce your phone's battery life, but I tend to believe that as long as a phone can make it through an entire day of active use, that's good enough (I think it's easier to remember to charge your phone every night than every 5 days).

My other concern was style, and how an obvious lack of it would affect adoption. Fortunately, I think Fossil has learned the hard way that technology which doesn't come in a pretty package is technology that won't last (see the discontinued Abacus Wrist PDA and Abacus Wrist Net series). In my opinion, the Fossil Caller ID Bluetooth watch is a relatively handsome and unassuming timepiece.

The only thing I would add to Fossil's Caller ID watch is the ability to synchronize with the phone's time. Although I think this watch represents an impressive piece of technology, I actually wouldn't call it a true Bluetooth watch because the watch itself (the portion that tells time) actually isn't integrated with the Bluetooth functionality, as far as I can tell. In other words, the Caller ID watch is basically an analog watch and a Bluetooth caller ID device crammed together into the same case, operating completely independently. If they were integrated, the watch could be synchronized with the phone's internal time which phones get from their networks which is usually synchronized against a time server which, in turn, is synchronized with an atomic clock, which basically turns a Bluetooth watch into an atomic watch, as well.

The Fossil Caller ID Bluetooth watch will be available at the end of October, and will sell for $249. If you're the impatient type, you can pre-order one now from Fossil's site.

Those of us into high-tech watches have been wondering who would be the first to release a Bluetooth watch, and how long it would take. Just when we all thought it was going to be Seiko, Citizen has beaten them to the punch. Starting July 7th, The Citizen VIRT will be the first commercially available Bluetooth watch. Features will include:

• Pairing with your Bluetooth mobile phone.
• Vibrating call alert.
• Caller ID of incoming calls. This feature requires that the you transfer your phone's phone book to your watch in advance. Up to 1,000 records are supported.
• Phonebook. Transferring your phone book to your watch not only enables caller ID, but also allows you to look up numbers right on your watch.
• Dropped link alert. If you phone is too far away from you, your watch warns you that the link has been dropped so you don't end up leaving home without your phone (how dare you!).
• Call log (up to 10 numbers).
• Alarm.
• OLED display (which means it's nice and bright without using too much battery).
• Rechargeable battery capable of functioning about five days between charges (personally, I would expect more like three once the battery gets broken in). The watch takes about three hours to fully charge.
• Available in black and silver.
• Dimensions: 40mm wide, 42.4mm tall, and 14.6mm high. (Not too bad -- I definitely have watches bigger than that.)

Citizen will initially limit production to 5,000 pieces, probably to gauge market viability, and no word yet on price. Of course, none of those 5,000 watches will be sold here in the US. I just hope us poor backwater yanks can one day get our hands on some innovative wrist technology like this.

Related articles:

• Is the World Ready for Seiko's new Bluetooth Watch?
• The Current State of Wrist-phones

According to this press release (translated), Seiko Instruments has developed a very interesting Bluetooth watch prototype. With the addition of software installed on your Bluetooth-enabled phone, the watch can do all of the following:

• Alert you with a sound or by vibrating when someone calls.
• Show you the name of the caller.
• Allow you to mute the phone's ring.
• Allow you to reject the call and forward to voice mail.
• Indicate that you have new mail on your phone, and display the subject of the message.
• Inform you if the Bluetooth connection between the watch and your phone is broken.
• Use the phone to calibrate the watch's time.

I think this is a hugely interesting experiment, especially considering the fact that a lot of people I know have replaced their watches with their mobile phones. And why not? In many ways, mobile phones make better timepieces than most watches. The time is always correct, they automatically adjust for daylight savings and time zone changes, they usually have built-in alarms and calendars, most of them can be configured to vibrate rather emit annoying beeps, and most of us have been trained to keep our phones charged and with us at all times. Glancing at a phone isn't quite as convenient as glancing at a watch, but for many of my friends, phones seem to be convenient enough.

John over at The Wrist Watch Review got his hands on one of the new Fossil Atari Asteroids watches. These things look like a lot of fun, especially if you used to be an Atari 2600 junkie, like myself. The watch isn't playable, unfortunately, but it is animated, which means the asteroids (blobs) and the ship (triangle) do actually move. The Fossil Atari Asteroids watch runs $125, and is available on Fossil's site. If these types of watches appeal to you, don't wait because this is a limited edition of only 5,000 pieces total, and only 2,000 slotted for the US.

Similarly geeky watches from Fossil include the:

• Clone Wars watch
• Darth Vader watch
• Droids watch
• Superman Street watch
• Batman Legend watch
• Lord of the Rings watch

All are limited editions, for better or for worse.

I've been waiting for this watch. I'm a big fan of the Casio Pro Trek line, especially since they went solar, and even more so now that they've gone atomic. That's right: an atomic solar Casio Pro Trek. That makes for quite a list of features:

• Atomic timekeeping. That means this watch is automatically calibrated through radio waves transmitted by an atomic clock.
• Solar powered. Solar cells around the face keep the watch's battery charged, and a sophisticated power-saving function will keep the watch going for up to 20 months with no light. (It seems every time I write an article about a solar Casio, that number gets higher.)
• Thermometer. The temperature range is from -10° to 60° Celsius.
• Compass. Direction is indicated by a second LCD that hovers above the main one. Very cool effect. The Casio Pro Trek supports magnetic declination correction for true north as opposed to just magnetic north. (See my review of the Tissot T-Touch for more information on magnetic declination.)
• Barometer. Atmospheric pressure can be measured in the range of 260 to 1100 hPa (hectoPascals). Barometric trends over the last 30 hours can be displayed as a graph.
• Altimeter. The altimeters on Casio Pro Treks are barometric altimeters which means they work, but you have to know how to use them. See my review of the Tissot T-Touch for more information.
• World time. Keep track of a second time zone (30 cities supported).
• Stopwatch with a resolution of 1/100th of a second.
• Auto-repeating countdown timer. After time and date, the most useful function a digital watch can have.
• 5 daily alarms, and an hourly time signal.
• Battery power indicator.
• Signal strength indicator (for the atomic function).
• Electroluminescent backlight.
• Available with a resin case and strap, or in all titanium.

View the Tissot High-T photo album.

Up until now, I had reviewed SPOT watches from all the MSN Direct watch manufacturers (Swatch, Fossil, Abacus, and Suunto) except Tissot. And now that I have finally had a chance to put the Tissot High-T through its paces, I can honestly say that I have saved the best for last. There are things about all the SPOT watches out there that I like, but the Tissot High-T is by far the highest quality, most feature-rich, and best looking. At $725 retail (and very few discounts to be found), it's also the most expensive, but this is definitely a case where you get what you pay for.

Note: I'm not going to cover the MSN Direct service in detail in this review. For a very detailed overview of the MSN Direct service (including screenshots), see my review of the Swatch Paparazzi.

Before I break down the features of the Tissot High-T, I'm going to lead with a little watch-related anecdote. Part of my interest (some call it an obsession) with watches is in some ways a search for perfection. I am much less interested in the volume of watches in my collection than I am with the quality of those watches, and how close each watch comes to my vision of perfection. So one day, I decided to try to define my vision of perfection for several different types of watches. In the bulky, digital, geeky category, this is what I came up with:

View the Suunto n6HR photo gallery.

If you're interested in this watch, I can make the decision really easy for you. As always, I'll go into all kinds of detail below, but for the majority of you, this first paragraph will be all you need. Here it goes: If you're an athlete who wants to optimize his or her workouts by monitoring your heart rate, and you're a geek who wants to be constantly connected via MSN Direct, then buy this watch. Don't hesitate. There are no other watches out there with this combination of functionality, so don't even bother looking. However if this does not describe you, then don't buy this watch. If you're an athlete without the geek part, check out the Suunto t6 or the Nike Triax. If you're a geek without the athlete part, then check out the Suunto n3i, Swatch Paparazzi, or the Tissot High-T. That's really all you need know. But if you came here determined to find more information on the Suunto n6HR, then read on.

View the Abacus Wrist PDA photo gallery.

The first thing I'd like to do is congratulate Fossil for finally bringing the Wrist PDA to market. The Fossil and Abacus Wrist PDAs have been in the works for at least four years, and now they have finally arrived. Thanks, Fossil, for not giving up on the Wrist PDA. In my opinion, it was worth the wait.

Before I get into specifics, I want to answer the biggest question I had when I first started reading about the Abacus and Fossil Wrist PDAs: yes, they do actually work. I don't just mean that they function, but they really do actually work. The screen is big enough, the fonts are readable, the handwriting recognition is impressive, the synching functions as expected, and the battery life is sufficient. That's not to say the Wrist PDA is perfect, however. There are still some bugs to be worked out, and a few rough spots that can definitely use polishing (all of which are described below), but generally speaking, yes, this watch really does put a PDA on your wrist, and yes, it is actually usable. Now let's look at the details.

View the Abacus Wrist Net photo gallery.

There are two things which distinguish the Abacus Wrist Net from the other dozen or so MSN Direct watches currently out there: 1) It is the cheapest ($129 retail), and 2) it is, in my opinion, probably the best looking. If you've been toying with the idea of taking the MSN Direct service for a spin, the Abacus Wrist Net might be just be the price point you've been waiting for. And now that MSN Direct watches get national news and high and low temperatures in your area for free, you can even get a taste of what it's like for your wrist to be constantly connected before committing to a subscription.

In terms of functionality, the Abacus Wrist Net is identical to the Fossil Wrist Net (FX3005) that I recently reviewed. In fact, to get the full story on the Abacus Wrist Net, you should definitely check out my Fossil Wrist Net review since I'm going to try not to be redundant in this article. The three primary differences I found between the two watches are:

1. Appearance. Although the designs of the Abacus and the Fossil Wrist Net watches are similar, there are a few subtle differences. For instance, the Abacus comes with either a black or brown leather and rubber strap while the Fossil is only available in black; the buttons on the Abacus are elongated while the buttons on the Fossil are round; and the Abacus lacks the screws in the four corners of the face which give the Fossil its distinctive look.
2. Watch Faces. The abacus comes with 18 watch faces while the Fossil comes with 26 (not including the two user-selected faces). If you're wavering between the Abacus and the Fossil, I wouldn't make the number of faces a deciding factor, however, since both come with a nice and perfectly sufficient selection (far more extensive than the Swatch Paparazzi).
3. Price. The Abacus Wrist Net retails for $20 less than its Fossil counterpart. The next closest in price is the Swatch Paparazzi which retails for $150, and then the somewhat outdated Suunto n3 which generally goes for around $200.

View the nTren MP3 watch photo gallery.

The nTren MP3 watch is a welcome addition to the rapidly growing world of wrist MP3 players. Ironically, what sets the nTren MP3 watch apart is not its prowess as an MP3 player, but rather its surprisingly good looks. Just when most watch geeks had resigned themselves to having to strap hideously conspicuous devices to their arms in order to get their constant technology fix, nTren subverts the stereotype with what I think is a pretty darn elegant looking MP3 watch. If you're into MP3s, and you're also into not looking like a geek, the nTren MP3 watch could be your next new toy.

Features of the nTren MP3 Watch

• Quartz analog timekeeping. In other words, the watch actually tells time in addition to playing MP3s. Since the emphasis of this watch is obviously not on precision timekeeping, I didn't rigorously measure its accuracy, though I did notice that it only gained a fraction of a second over a 24 hour period, making it a very adequate and standard quartz watch, and plenty accurate for anyone who would want to store MP3s on his wrist.
• Built-in MP3 player. The nTren MP3 watch stores and plays 128MB, 256MB, and soon, up to 512MB of MP3s at compression rates of between 32kbps to 256kbps.
• USB data storage. Not only can you store and play MP3s, but you can use the nTren MP3 watch to store other types of files, as well. You can use the watch to back up important files, or as a convenient way to transfer files from one computer to another.
• 10 hour battery life. That's what nTren claims, anyway. My tests indicated they are actually selling themselves short since I was able to get 10 hours and 11 minutes out of a single charge! Very impressive. The battery takes about 3 hours to fully charge, and has a life expectancy of about 3 years.
• Water resistant. The instructions say the watch is water resistant to 3-10 BAR. I've never seen a pressure rating expressed as a range before, so I'm not sure whether it's 3 or 10, but I strongly suggest assuming that it's 3. 3 BAR is the equivalent of 30 meters or 100 feet, so that's plenty, and actually very impressive for a watch like this. Too many high-tech watches are being sold today that are barely splash proof which, in my opinion, is a disaster waiting to happen.
• 5-mode equalizer. Choose between normal, pop, classic, rock, and jazz equalizer modes.
• Persistent preferences. The nTren MP3 watch remembers your settings (volume, equalizer mode, and the current track), and will recall those settings the next time it's turned on.
• Automatic shut-off. If a track is paused for more than 10 minutes, the MP3 player will shut down automatically in order to preserve battery life.
• Red and green light indicators. The nTren MP3 watch has two and only two very small, very discreet lights at the 6 o'clock position to indicate what the watch is currently doing. It will tell you if it's playing, transferring data, charging, whether it's fully charged, or whether the battery is low.
• Separate batteries. The MP3 player and the quartz watch do not share the same battery which means you can kill the MP3 player's battery completely and not have to worry about the watch stopping.
• Luminescent hands. They aren't overly bright, but they will probably get you through a movie.
• One year service warranty.

Fossil has finally brought to market the long awaited Fossil Wrist PDA (FX2008). The Fossil Wrist PDA has been in the works for quite some time now, and was even showing up on Fossil's website and on Amazon as long as two years ago. I wrote a small piece outlining the history of the Fossil Wrist PDA back in November, in case you're interested in ancient history.

But for those of you who prefer to look forward rather than back, the new Fossil Wrist PDA is actually immediately available on Fossil's site, and if you can wait 5-7 business days, they will even ship it to you for free!

Fossil does not go into a lot of technical detail about the Wrist PDA on their site, but here's what I've been able to gather so far:

• 160x160 grayscale LCD touch-screen.
• 66MHz processor. That's twice the speed of the 2-year-old original.
• Palm OS 4.1 (same as the original).
• 8MB of memory (up 4x from the original).
• Stylus integrated into the buckle.

All I can say is thanks, Fossil, for not giving up on this watch. I'm sure some very heated and ugly internal battles were fought and won in order to keep investing in this piece of technology. The Fossil Wrist PDA is not the first watch with an integrated PDA to hit the market, but it's the first to be backed by such a big company, and certainly looks to be the best. (I'll let you know for sure once I get my hands on one.)

View the Xonix MP3 Watch photo gallery.

The Xonix MP3 watch is essentially a simple quartz analog watch embedded inside a small and equally simple MP3 player on top of a 256MB USB storage device. Although the Xonix MP3 watch packs a fair amount of functionality into a single device (including the USB cable, tucked neatly away in the band), Xonix manages to keep both the size and the price very reasonable. If you're really into watches, or you're really into MP3s, I'll warn you right from the beginning that the Xonix MP3 watch will seem like too much of a compromise in both respects. However, if you just need something that tells time, and you just happen to want to have a few of your favorite albums with you at all times, the Xonix MP3 watch could be exactly what you're looking for.

Features of the Xonix MP3 Watch

• Built-in MP3 player. The Xonix also plays Windows Media Audio (WMA) files, and WAV files.
• 256MB of storage. At least my model has 256MB. The capacity of Xonix MP3 watches ranges from 32MB to 256MB. (There's a table below that shows how capacity actually relates to music quantity.)
• Portable hard drive. The Xonix MP3 watch stores more than just MP3s. You can copy any file that will fit onto the Xonix and use it as a backup device.
• Built-in voice recorder. There's a microphone built in next to the headphone jack that allows you to record up to 18 hours of voice notes. Listen to this sample recording to get a better idea of the quality.
• Simple analog quartz watch. It's not fancy, but it does its job.
• Multiple equalizer modes. Choose between pop, rock, jazz and classical.
• Built-in 2.5mm headphone jack. You won't be using your Bose QuietComfort headphones with this watch without an adapter, but 2.5mm is still a standard size, often used for things like phone headsets.
• Built-in USB 1.1 jack. The Xonix MP3 watch actually has a short USB 1.1 cable and jack tucked into the rubber strap (the watch comes with a USB extension cable for less accessible USB ports). The USB cable is used for both recharging and data transfer.
• Five hour battery. This is no exaggeration. I tested the battery and found it lasted almost exactly five hours. It takes about two hours to fully recharge.
• Automatic power off. Stretch that five hours out as long as possible. When the MP3 player is paused, it will automatically shut off after two minutes. It will also shut off two minutes after all the tracks on the watch have played, just in case you've fallen asleep.
• Upgradable firmware. Firmware is software that runs in read-only memory and usually manages specialized and relatively simple devices. As the name implies, it is somewhere between software and hardware. You want firmware to be upgradable so bugs can be fixed without having to replace the hardware. The process of upgrading the Xonix MP3 watch's firmware is very simple.
• Sequential and random modes. Either play tracks in order, or let the watch decide what track you hear next.
• Simple file management. When you plug the watch in to your computer, it gets mounted just like an additional drive or volume (Mac) as though it were a digital camera or a portable memory card. Once the watch has been mounted as another drive or volume, just drag and drop or delete MP3s and other files from Windows Explorer or the Macintosh Finder. (After deleting files, be sure to empty your trash so that the files are actually removed.) You can also delete tracks and voice notes from the watch itself.

Update (1/30/2005): Wrist Watch Review just posted a good review of the n6HR.

Suunto Watches (the website, not the actual manufacturer of Suunto watches) has started taking pre-orders for the long-awaited $399.99 Suunto n6-HR Microsoft SPOT watch which is supposed to ship January 6, 2005. It looks like the Suunto n6-HR, if it indeed materializes, will be the first MSN Direct SPOT watch to combine a heart rate monitor with the MSN Direct service which offers wireless connectivity through FM radio waves to deliver things like news, weather, stocks, movie times, instant messages and more, directly to your watch.

The Suunto n6-HR looks very much like the Suunto n3i, though with a redesigned band, and a heart rate monitor. Features will (allegedly) include:

• MSN Direct compatible.
• Heart Rate Monitor (with two customizable limits & three training zones).
• Stopwatch with multiple lap and split times.
• Training Logbook with 20 logs.
• Chrono with three training timers.
• Interval timer.
• 3 programmable daily alarms.
• Dual time (shows the time in multiple time zones, and updates automatically as you move from one time zone to another).
• Water resistant to 100 meters (10 BAR, 10 ATM, or 330 feet).
• Plastic case with a scratch-resistant mineral crystal.
• Suunto n6-HR Training Manager PC Software included.
• USB recharger included.

View the Fossil Wrist Net photo gallery.

Update (12/13/2004): Fossil has lowered the price of the Wrist Net FX3005 discussed in this review from $200 to $149 which, in my opinion, makes it much more attractive. Well done, Fossil!

Fossil recently polished up and re-released their Wrist Net watch in an attempt to wrap the MSN Direct service in a slightly more fashionable package. In their own words, the Wrist Net now has a "stylish new look" with its new integrated leather and rubber strap, redesigned buckle, additional watch faces, and slimmer case. I recently reviewed the new Swatch Paparazzi (probably the biggest competitor to the Wrist Net), so I was anxious to see how Fossil's efforts measured up. And since the Wrist Net is only the second MSN Direct watch to be redesigned since the original lineup (the first being the Suunto n3), I was also interested in seeing if I could discern the direction in which the MSN Direct watches are evolving.

I don't touch on the MSN Direct service itself in this review, nor do I get into the features of  MSN Direct watches, since I cover both in pretty painstaking detail in my review of the Swatch Paparazzi. And since I don't have the original Fossil Wrist Net watch, the sole purpose of this review is not to compare the old and the new side-by-side. Rather, I approach the new Wrist Net from a fresh perspective, comparing it to the Swatch Paparazzi where appropriate.

View the Watch Report wrist-phone photo gallery.

People have been fascinated with the concept of embedding communication devices into watches for years. There have been countless experiments, prototypes, demonstrations, promises, and even a couple launches. For a pretty comprehensive view of just about everything related to wrist phones out there, check out the Watch Report wrist-phone photo gallery.

With everything that's being embedded into watches these days -- GPS receivers, cameras, thermometers, barometers, altimeters, TVs, MP3 players, remote controls, miniature globes, solar cells, PDAs, USB drives, FM receivers, voice recorders, even atomizers -- what's taking so long to get a viable mobile phone on our wrists? The key word here is viable. Reducing GSM technology to the size that it can be comfortably worn on the wrist is not so much the challenge as creating a product compelling enough that it will replace or supplement the pretty impressive mobile phones most of us already use. Consider these factors:

• Battery life. I think we're just going to have to live with charging these contraptions nightly, but they will still needs to handle enough talk and standby time to get us through the day.
• Reception. Even talking on the newest, most advanced mobile phones can be extremely frustrating. What kind of signal will we be able to get on our wrists?
• Privacy. Presumably, you will be able to use a headset with your first wrist-phone, but will fumbling with a headset every time you receive a call outweigh the convenience of wearing your phone on your wrist?
• Size. With early adoption often comes conspicuousness, and plenty of eye-rolling from friends and significant others.
• Functionality. People have come to expect quite a bit from their cell phones. Personally, I use mine extensively for talking, email, instant messaging, SMS, pictures, personal information management, and a fair amount of web browsing, all with a nice QWERTY keyboard. That's obviously way too much to fit on a wrist, and a lot to have to live without if I swap it for a wrist-phone.

Fortunately, despite these challenges, the vision of convenient, instantly available communication continues to inspire the most imaginative, innovative, and entrepreneurial among us, and that vision has led to three fairly promising models.

More Tissot news! While I was scouring Tissot's site for additional information on the Navigator 3000, I came across a new look for the High-T. There's no evidence that anything other than the color of the band has changed, but it certainly makes a dramatic difference. I thought this was an interesting decision since the High-T is intended for a higher-end (read richer), more conservative market while the Swatch Paparazzi has the younger, hipper urban crowd covered (Tissot and Swatch are owned by the same parent company -- Swatch Group), but then I remembered that even the T-Touch is available in several different colors, so why not the High-T, as well?

In case you're unfamiliar with the High-T, it's my personal favorite MSN Direct watch at this particular moment. Although I don't actually own one (yet!), I have played with them several times in the past, and they are very impressive. Feature wise, they are pretty comparable to the Swatch Paparazzi, with two important distinctions:

1. The High-T has a touch crystal, which means rather than jabbing at the mode button to navigate, you need only gently tap the fine sapphire crystal. I have a T-Touch (which also has a touch crystal), and I love the technology.
2. The High-T has a vibrating alert. Personally, I think this is a fantastic feature. MSN Direct watches are big enough and draw enough attention to themselves as it is that they really don't need to be beeping all the time in response to alarms, appointments, news alerts, and instant messages. A subtle vibration is far more preferable, if you ask me.

The only problem with the High-T is that it's not easy to get your hands on. It's not that they are in short supply, but Tissots are not sold in your typical mall jewelry store. You may have to call around a bit and do some additional driving to claim one for your own, but believe it, it's worth it.

• View the Paparazzi photo gallery.
• View the MSN Direct photo gallery.

The Swatch Paparazzi is a refreshing and welcome addition to the existing line of MSN Direct watches.  It's not that the existing models from Suunto, Fossil and Tissot are lacking -- in fact, I think they range from good (Fossil) to better (Suunto) to amazing (Tissot) -- but the Swatch Paparazzi brings a hipper and more urban feel to a line of watches which thus far tend to be associated with, at best, business men, but more typically, geeks.  Plus, the Paparazzi has put Swatch back on my radar screen from which it has been conspicuously absent since about middle school.  Not only am I wearing the Swatch Paparazzi on my wrist right now as I type, but I'm loving it, and not looking forward to the inevitable moment when I must put it away and move on.

Before I continue with the review, I want to mention that I had initially planned to review the watch and the MSN Direct service separately, however I have since decided to combine the reviews into one since, as is the case with any well integrated hardware and software, the two are largely inextricable.  Still, I will dedicated a section of this review wholly to the MSD Direct service which should be relevant to any MSN Direct watch.

Features of the Swatch Paparazzi include:

• Customizable watch faces.  As with all MSN Direct watches, choose the face that best suites your mood or situation. Try pressing the enter button (middle button on the right-hand side) while viewing your favorite watch face. While arbitrarily pushing buttons to see what might happen, I discovered that some of faces can have a couple of different modes.  If the face does not support multiple modes, it will let you know by beeping at you.
• Stopwatch (chronograph). I discovered that the Paparazzi supports up to 99 splits.  Although hundredth of seconds are not displayed after the first ten seconds (to preserve battery life, I assume), they are recorded and displayed once time has been stopped.  I found the stopwatch will go up to 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds before flipping.
• Two fully customizable alarms.  By fully customizable, I mean either alarm can be configured to sound every day, on one specific day of the week (every Monday, for instance, to make sure you remember to go back to work), or on any specified date.  I love this feature, and find it extremely useful.  It's a great way to remind yourself of something without bothering with your PDA.  The backlight flashes in addition to the audible alarm, in case you turned the sound on your watch off in order to avoid being rude in a movie or at a wedding (though if you did, you need to get your priorities straight!).
• Countdown timer.  No digital watch is fully complete without one, in my opinion. The range is from one second to 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds.  Backlight flashes in addition to audible alarm.
• Calendar.  Of course you get the date, but the Paparazzi (along with all MSN Direct watches) also gives you a full calendar.  This is another feature I absolutely love.  Check out the Paparazzi photo gallery to see it in action, but basically, you get a full seven-column calendar which you can scroll backward and forward.  No more counting on your fingers and toes trying to figure out whether your birthday falls on a weekend this year.
• Wireless time calibration. All MSN Direct watches are calibrated through the MSN Direct network (via FM radio signal), whether you have subscribed to the MSN Direct service or not.  If you're the type of person who is perpetually late, don't worry -- you can even configure a +5, +10, or +15 minute offset to make sure you're always on time or a tad early.
• Free wireless content.  The Swatch Paparazzi receives a limited amount of content from the MSN Direct network even if you don't active the watch. Free content includes entertainment news (specific to your current geographic region), general news headlines, and local weather conditions.  You will find the Paparazzi to be fairly feature-rich before ever giving Microsoft your credit card number.
• MSN Direct Service.  The MSN Direct service takes your wireless content to the next level.  Although it's a very decent watch without the service, adding MSN Direct gets you the ability to install new watch faces, synchronize appointments with Outlook, and to receive surprisingly detailed news, messages, weather information, stock quotes, sports scores, horoscopes, movie information, "diversions," and lottery numbers.  (More on the MSN Direct service, and each individual channel, below.)
• Internet Time.  Internet Time is to time what the metric system is to measurement. The downside is that it only seems to be supported by Swatch.  More on Internet Time below.
• Water resistant. Only to 3 ATM, though (3 BAR, 30 meters, or 100 feet). My recommendation would be to try to keep this watch as dry as possible. Don't worry about getting caught in a rain storm, but don't wear it while swimming the English Channel or diving for sunken treasure, either.
• Rechargeable battery.  Don't panic.  This isn't as bad as it sounds. If you're as much of a gadget freak as I am, right now you're thinking that you need another charger in your life like you need a tax audit, but it's really not that bad.  It's small, light, portable, and after a two hour charge, your watch will be good to go for between four and five days, depending on its configuration.  I think I could actually squeeze six days out of it if I really wanted to, but there's no sense in trying to set a world record, especially if it could mean having to be disconnected until you can get back to home base.  I know a watch charger is just one more thing you have to remember to pack (and re-pack after the security personnel at the airport remove it from your bag), but it's better than keeping a hefty supply of hearing aid batteries on hand (remember the Timex Messengers?).
• Separate power for radio receiver.  That's the most elegant way I could think of to say that you can toggle the watch's ability to receive FM signals independent of the watch's main power, making it kosher for in-flight use.
• Settings.  I'm not sure this qualifies as an actual feature, but I think it's worth mentioning.  The Paparazzi (and all MSN Direct watches) have a very cool settings/configuration screen more reminiscent of a PDA than a watch.

Hopefully Fossil is serious this time about their new Wrist PDA: a full Palm OS (4.1) built right into a watch. Actually, I'm sure they were quite serious the first time they announced the Wrist PDA and took "Best of COMDEX" in the mobile devices category nearly two years, though it seems circumstances conspired against Fossil, and the watch disappeared from their site as suddenly as it had appeared. I believe Amazon had even started taking pre-orders, though presumably, everyone's money was safely returned, and I'm sure there were no hard feelings.

Don't worry, Fossil -- I'm not writing this to accuse you of false promises and vaporware. On the contrary. I'm writing this to congratulate you on getting the project back on track. I believe it's in everyone's best interest that bleeding edge devices like the Wrist PDA not be released until they are ready, and I also believe this product is no less impressive and relevant now than it was when it was originally announced. In other words, I'm still dying to have one.

Features and specs:

• Palm OS 4.1 (English).
• Motorola Dragonball VZ 33MHz. Not much by today's PDA standards, but pretty darn impressive for a watch.
• 2MB of RAM. The first PDA I ever owned was a special "upgraded" version with 4MB. Again, very impressive for a watch.
• 16 level grayscale with backlight; 160x160 pixels.
• Address Book, Date Book, To Do List, Memo Pad, Calculator, and even the time.
• Support for most Palm OS 4.1 compatible applications.
• Customizable watch faces.
• Touch screen input.
• Miniature stylus concealed in the watch's band. Slick!
• Built-in page up, page down, and back buttons.
• Three-direction rocker switch (aka jog dial). Well done, Fossil.
• USB interface.
• Infrared data transfer.
• Internal rechargeable battery and an AC power adapter to recharge it.
• 4-5 days of battery life. Sounds fairly comparable to an MSN Direct watch.
• Wrist PDA SDK for the software developers among you (a free download from Fossil's site).

So hopefully the wait is finally almost over. As soon as I can get my hands on one, you can be sure I'll post a detailed review.

It looks like Suunto has shifted their focus slightly with the new n3i. The n3i is a modest redesign of the n3, and my feeling is that they have shifted their target market slightly toward the business user. The two primary differences between the n3 and the n3i are the size and color of the watch. Both are noticeably more conservative in the newer model. The n3i is 3mm thinner than its predecessor which allows it to more easily slip beneath a starched cuff. It is also silver and gray with stainless steel buttons, giving it a lower-key, more mature look. Here's a comprehensive breakdown of the changes:

• 3mm thinner. Shaving some height off this substantial timepiece makes it slightly more compatible with office attire. (Note that the face of the n3i is still the same circumference as that of the n3.)
• Silver and gray as opposed to the old (and more conspicuous) gold and black.
• Interchangeable leather strap. Substantially more elegant than the n3's black plastic band.
• Stainless steel buttons replace the old plastic ones.
• Improved audibility. The n3i is louder than the n3. That may seem inconsistent with its shift toward the more conservative, however the faintness of the n3's alarm was a frequent complaint.
• Addition of a logbook function within the time channel. The logbook allows you to easily review splits and lap times recorded with the stopwatch.