What can you can say about one of the popular watches of all time? We all know the Timex Triathlon as the standard in Walmart watches. It’s familiar black and orange case and large screen has been around for years and has graced the wrist of millions. Timex has gone ahead and spruced up the new generation with a new case style, a more legible screen, solar power, and a robust and tough shock resistant exterior. This is the quintessential entry-level digital watch, and after wearing it around for a little while, its not hard to see why.

One of the good things about a G-Shock fan is that there are so darn many models out there. And they're updated frequently, so if you don't see what you want, it'll be there sooner than you think. We've reviewed quite a few G-Shocks, and think that they represent excellent value and function. Today's review is of the AWG101-1V, an analog-digital watch very similar to the GW-1310. Compared to the 1310, this one uses a red hour hand and reverse LCD displays (black on white) but is otherwise of similar style. As with all G-Shocks, you get a tremendous amount of functionality:

The face of a watch, like a person, often tells you quite a bit about what they are. Sometimes they're subtle and restrained, and sometimes their place in the world is writ large for all to see. The Casio Pathfinder, model number PAW1500T-7V is one of those "this is who I am, got a problem with that?" sorts of watches. After wearing it for a few weeks, I think of it as the go-to watch for the outdoors, especially if things are going to be tough: river rafting, long hiking trips, extreme sports and the like. It's probably the most capable and versatile watch I've yet seen. About the only thing it doesn't have is GPS:

Features of the Casio Pathfinder PAW1500T-7V include:

View the Sinn 856 UTC photo gallery.

In my tireless search for unique, robust, and beautiful watches, it was inevitable that I would someday be wearing a Sinn. I chose the 856 UTC as my first Sinn because it represents a very nice balance between functionality and design.

Before I get into the specifics of the 856, I want to provide a little background on the Sinn brand. Sinn is a German watch company that has been making mechanical watches since 1961. Sinn is owned by Lothar Schmidt who, in addition to having been with IWC and A. Lange & Söhne in the past, happens to be an engineer. I mention this fact because Schmidt's background in engineering clearly manifests itself in the design of many Sinn watches, including the 856 UTC.

Features of the Sinn 856 UTC include:

View the Orient CFT00004B Photo Gallery.

The Orient CFT00004B is a handsome, semi-dressy sport watch which incorporates Orient's own 46R40 self-winding automatic movement. It has a great looking polished case and bracelet, a power reserve indicator, a slide rule, and an "open heart" skeleton dial that shows the balance wheel and the crown and stem assembly.

The Case

This is a well balanced watch with a 43.7mm case that sits 12.1mm off your wrist. The case is polished and has a pleasant shine to it that compliments the fixed bezel and the nicely shaped dual crown system. The 9 o'clock crown is for setting the time while the 4 o'clock crown operates the internal slide rule. As a side note, before you decide to buy a watch with a slide rule, I recommend that you read up on how to use it, and make sure it's something you really want. They are complicated and difficult to use, and tend to make the dial much busier than a simple dive-style timing bezel. The slide rule on the Orient CFT00004B is unique in that it's internal (below the crystal) which means it's operated by a crown rather than rotating it directly. Internal rotating bezels, or reflectors, are usually reserved for dive watches since you don't want the bezel to get bumped and inadvertently adjusted; this is the first time we've seen one one a pilot style watch.

The dial and movement are sandwiched between twin sapphire crystals to give you a view of both the time and the technology behind it. The dial is cluttered but easy to read, thanks to the exaggerated arabic markers at the twelve and six o'clock positions as well as ample markers and long, wide hands. All the markers and hands have decent lume that lasts long enough to be usable, but don't quite give Seiko or Ocean7 a run for their money. The Orient CFT00004B does not have a date feature which is one of my few complaints.

This is the second Orient I've owned. The first was the "Red Beast", a boisterous diver that crowded your wrist and screamed out with its bright red face and massive hands. The CFT00004B seems to be more accurate than its diver cousin, and bears less resemblance to the Miota automatics found driving Invictas and automatic Citizen divers. This is a nice watch with an asian movement that keeps better time then one might think, given the price.

View the Swatch Irony Body and Soul photo gallery.

As an engineer, it's always interesting to me to think about what a watch is designed for. In some ways, it's easy to make "The World's Finest Watch" if cost and time are no consideration. It's much harder, on the other hand, to make a world-class watch for the masses for under, say, $200. Engineering both low-cost and style into a mechanical watch is not a simple task.

Today I'm reviewing a watch that tries for just that. Say hello to the Swatch Irony Automatic "Body and Soul". It's a skeletonized mechanical watch where both front and back are clear to allow an unobstructed view of the ticking heart inside. The movement is an ETA 2841 which is a modified version of the hugely popular 2824-2. Beating at 21,600 VPH, it simply displays hours, minutes and seconds. (VPH stands for "vibrations per hour." 21,600 means that the second hand moves five times per second — a medium rate.)

Swatch made a number of innovative modifications to the 2824-2 to lower costs and reduce part count. The beat was slowed, the date removed, the plates of the watch were integrated into the case, and the ability to "hack" (have the second hand stop when you pull the crown all the way out so you can set the time precisely) removed as well. Of course, you probably don't need a hacking movement in a watch without markings on the dial — this is not a watch for the obsessively precise timekeeper!

View the Casio Edifice photo gallery.

A few months ago, I received an interesting and rather surprising watch in the mail: a Casio Edifice EFX700D-1A1V. I like some Casio models, but as a whole, they usually don't register as one of my favorite brands, primarily due to the styling of their most popular lines. I could never get behind the G-Shocks (unlike Christian), and despite the amazing functionality of the Pathfinder family, I always found them too big for my wrist. In retrospect, it was probably because of this bias of mine that Christian passed the Edifice on to me. I think he wanted to challenge my preconceptions.

I must admit, the watch I received changed my view of Casio in a profound way. The Casio Edifice EFX700D-1A1V (hereby referred to as the “Edifice 700”) is a great looking watch — probably the first analogue/digital combination watch I've seen that actually looks better then the analogue-only version. It's just a flat-out good looking watch by almost any standard, mixing styles and influences, sporting a high-contrast dual display and a very respectable feature list:

• Sapphire crystal.
• 100 meter water resistant (about 330 feet).
• Electroluminescent backlight.
• Dual time.
• Stopwatch with a 60 lap memory.
• 3 alarms.
• Countdown timer.
• Solid stainless steel bracelet.
• $210 retail (which we consider to be very aggressive).

View the TX 730 photo gallery.

When we think of Timex, we usually think of the king of the American bargain bin. Timex is known for inexpensive "drugstore" watches sold in places like Walmart and Target. But they are good inexpensive watches, and because they are such a good value, we like Timex. Besides, any company that has put over a billion watches on wrists over the years deserves and gets our respect.

And now, with their new TX line of premium quartz watches, Timex deserve even more respect. The TX 730 Flyback Chronograph is a watch to stand against the canons of Asian elites like Seiko and Citizen. Like Ford beating Ferrari with the GT40 in the LeMans in 1966, Timex is showing the world that even a good old-fashioned American staple can rise to the occasion.

Features of the TX 730 include:

• PVD coated stainless steel case, and PVD coated bracelet with solid end links (SEL).
• 46mm case.
• German designed 6-hand quartz movement.
• Sapphire crystal.
• Analog time, retrograde GMT, retrograde chronograph, and compass.
• Date between the 2 and 3 o'clock positions.
• 100m water resistance (about 330 feet).
• Retail price of $550.

Case and Hands

Given the price point, the case is very good, and the finish is on par with the Seikos and Citizens that tend to dominate this price range. The crystal is flat and sits over an inky black dial with inlaid markers that are too small to glow brightly in low light. The hands are interesting, unique, and nicely fashioned, however they, too, do not glow as brightly as I would have liked. This is one area where TX has some room for improvement.

View the Rolex Sea-Dweller photo gallery.

Without a doubt, the Rolex Sea-Dweller is one of my favorite watches of all time. It represents everything I look for in a watch of this sort: simplicity, quality, functionality, and stark beauty.

The Sea-Dweller is one of the less common Rolex sport models. While the Submariner is produced in several combinations of materials and colors, there is only one Sea-Dweller. It is only available in all stainless steel, and only with a black dial and black bezel. Rolex designed the Sea-Dweller purely as a dive tool — not a fashion accessory.

Features of the Rolex Sea-Dweller:

• Guaranteed waterproof to 1,200 meters, or 4,000 feet (that's significantly higher than the 1,000 foot rating of the Submariner).
• 40mm stainless steel case which sits 14.5mm high.
• Ultra-thick synthetic sapphire crystal.
• Unidirectional rotating bezel with a corrosion resistant anodized aluminum insert.
• No date magnifier. I don't mind the "cyclops" on my Explorer II, but I prefer the cleaner look of the Sea-Dweller.
• Helium escape valve. Developed in cooperation with the French industrial diving company, Comex, the helium escape valve allows helium molecules to safely escape without popping the crystal off the watch during decompression (I told you this is a hardcore dive tool).
• Dive extension. The dive extension on the Sea-Dweller is actually nothing to write home about, but it's sufficient. This is one of the biggest improvements of the new Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA.
• Triplock screwdown crown. The Triplock system uses an additional rubber gasket (clearly visible when the crown is unscrewed) beyond the Twinlock system used on many other Rolex sport models like the old GMT Master II and the Explorer II. The crown threads beautifully, and feels incredibly robust and secure.
• Quick-change and quick-set date. Quick-change means that the date changes over to the next day instantly almost exactly at midnight (as opposed to changing gradually over the course of several minutes before and after midnight). Quick-set means that you can set the date while the crown is pulled out to the second position rather than having to change the time in order to change the date.

Some other interesting facts about the Rolex Sea-Dweller, and Rolex in general:

View the Immersion Prowler photo gallery.

Up for review today is a dive computer wristwatch from a lesser known Italian company: The Immersion Prowler. It's a digital data logger, dive computer, and full-featured watch, all in a 200m (660ft) water-resistant housing.

Let's start with the feature list:

• Stainless steel case with rubber side guards.
• Integrated rubber strap with machined buckle and clever strap retainer. It's also long enough to easily go over a 1cm wetsuit.
• Swiss-made depth sensor.
• Dive mode which starts automatically by the pressure sensor on the left side (more on this below). In dive mode, it logs the min and max depths for each dive.
• Always-visible temperature sensor, in Celsius or Fahrenheit.
• Film supertwist nematic LCD. These are the ones with a brilliant green hue from certain angles which makes it very readable.
• Electroluminescent backlight for the entire display.
• Battery life indicator. Around the outside of the dial from about 5:30 to 9:30, there is a 11-bar battery "gas gauge" that shows remaining battery life. In a safety-critical item like a dive computer, this is a great feature.
• In dive mode, the backlight comes on automatically when you tilt your wrist, as do many Casio G-shock watches. Nice touch.
• The dive log records a total of 50 dives, with log date & time, max depth, min depth, and temperature at each recorded data point.
• Sleep mode. You can have the display turn itself off after a configurable interval, to be instantly activated on any button press. Also an excellent idea, especially for a watch that you may only break out a few times a year.
• Fast ascent warning. An alarm warns you that you are surfacing too rapidly and are risking the bends.

There is also a full complement of digital watch features:

View the Ball Engineer Master II Diver photo gallery.

If you're looking to put something a little different on your wrist, you owe it to yourself to consider a Ball.

I came across Ball watches when I was looking for something distinctive and unique; something that combines the tradition of a good automatic movement with modern functionality; something that stands out without being ostentatious. The result was the Ball Engineer Master II Diver you see here.

The best way to appreciate the Engineer Master II Diver is to consider its impressive list of features:

• ETA 2836-2 automatic movement.
• Tritium gas tube illumination (more on this below).
• Inner rotating timing bezel with gas tube illumination (more on this below).
• Beautiful domed sapphire crystal.
• Day and date, both large and readable.
• Shock resistant to 5,000Gs.
• Antimagnetic to 4,800A/m.
• Water resistant to 300 meters, or about 1,000 feet.
• Dual screwdown crowns (one for the movement, one for the inner rotating bezel), as well as a screwdown caseback.
• 42mm brushed stainless steel case, and a unique brushed stainless steel bracelet with a hidden clasp.

As you can see, this is an extremely impressive set of features for a $1,899 Swiss watch (Ball watches were once American made, closely associated with the emergence of the railroad, but the brand was purchased by a Swiss company in the 1990s). Of particular note is the tritium illumination system. The Ball Engineer Master II Diver has no fewer than 53 individual micro gas tubes, making it the most nighttime-readable and functional analog watch I've ever seen. Even the inner rotating bezel and bezel pearl use tritium tubes for diving in dark conditions.

View the Kobold Soarway Diver photo gallery.

I've wanted a Kobold watch for pretty close to three years now. The first Kobold I fell in love with was the Polar Surveyor since it has both a chronograph, and a 24-hour hand. When I went through a military watch phase, I was dying for the Kobold Phantom. And I've always been a huge dive watch fanatic, so the Kobold Soarway Diver SEAL was a big temptation. But when I was recently fortunate enough to get my hands on almost the entire Kobold collection at one of the very few authorized Kobold dealers, the one that seemed to make the most sense for me was the Kobold Soarway Diver (non-SEAL version).

Kobold watches are known for their substantial cases which are usually between 41mm and 44mm wide (without their prominent crowns), and 15mm to 17.75mm tall. That's a pretty big watch for my relatively small arm. The Kobold Soarway Diver uses the very slim ETA 2892 movement, however, which allows the case to be a mere 10.25mm high — in my opinion, the perfect size.

I was also lucky enough to find a very special Soarway Diver. It turns out that James Gandolfini of Sopranos fame is a big Kobold fan, so when the show ended last year, he ordered 400 custom made Kobold Soarway Divers for the cast and crew. A very small number of these watches ended up being sold by crew members who, having little appreciation for fine timepieces, decided they'd rather have the cash than the souvenir. Being a huge Sopranos fan, when I was lucky enough to come across one, I snatched it up immediately.

View the Casio G-Shock Gulfman GW-9100 photo gallery.

The new Casio G-Shock Gulfman is an interesting new addition to Casio's G-Shock line. It has the same set of features as all the G-Shocks I review:

• Atomic calibration.
• Solar powered.
• 200 meter water resistant (about 650 feet).
• Automatic calendar.
• Electroluminescent backlight.
• 48-city world time.
• 5 daily alarms, 1 snooze.
• 60 minute countdown timer.
• Stopwatch.

However, it also has a couple of new tricks:

• Multi-band atomic. That means it can calibrate in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan (most previous G-Shock models only calibrate in the US and Japan).
• Titanium case and caseback. Most G-Shocks use stainless steel, so the GW-9100 is slightly lighter, and slightly more corrosion resistant.

I like the new features of the GW-9100, and I also just really like the look. I like the texture of the titanium case, and the nice large LCD. It also has extra large buttons which makes it easier to operate than most G-Shocks.

If you're already happy with your solar atomic G-Shock, I don't think the new Gulfman represents such a big improvement that you need to rush out and buy it right away. But if you're thinking of getting into the G-Shock game, the GW-9100 is a very good place to start. It certainly makes a fine addition to my G-Shock collection.

View the Casio G-Shock Gulfman GW-9100 photo gallery.

View the Seiko SKA367 photo gallery.

One of the things I enjoy about wearing Seikos is that there's so much to discover post-purchase. Often, a watch will have a coherent style that you find you enjoy long after it originally caught your eye. Let's take a closer look at a mid-line Seiko Diver to see what I mean.

Meet the Seiko SKA367, a yellow-faced Kinetic quartz dive watch with a typical complement of features:

• Waterproof to 200m (660ft).
• Stainless steel case with Hardlex mineral crystal.
• Quick-set and quick-change date window at 3 o'clock.
• Power reserve button to check battery level.
• Six month power reserve if not worn, with low-battery warning.
• Screwdown crown and caseback.
• 48mm wide by 15mm high.
• Stainless steel bracelet with dive extension (also available with a rubber strap).
• Lumibrite (Seiko's very bright luminescent paint) on the hands, bezel dot, and indices for nighttime readability.
• List price of $475, with street price of around $360.

When you first see the Seiko SKA367, the yellow face and high-contrast black hands leap out at you. The dial is eminently readable, and a very cheerful yellow color. The crown also has a yellow highlight band that matches the dial and lends the watch a nice stylistic coherence.

View the Citizen Skyhawk A-T photo gallery.

Most pilots and aviation enthusiasts tend to be gadget lovers. Whether it's an entirely new digital avionics package in the cockpit, or one of the most advanced aviation watches on the market, we lust after it. So when the Citizen Skyhawk A-T was announced last year, my interest was piqued. While the Skyhawk line of aviation watches has almost 15 years of history and refinement, the combination of Citizen's Eco-Drive movement with atomic timekeeping technology (as denoted by the A-T moniker in the name), and a new design, this watch not only makes a great companion while in flight, but looks great and gives you something to brag about back on the ground.

Features

The Citizen Skyhawk A-T is the third generation in the Skyhawk line, and represents a major step forward in features. While you do lose one alarm (from three alarms to two), you gain functionality such as atomic timekeeping, perpetual calendar, LCD backlight, and world time pre-programming for 43 cities and time-zones. Additionally, the watch is now rated to be water resistant up to 200 meters (about 650 feet), versus the 100 meters of the previous generation.

Features of the Citizen Skyhawk A-T include:

View the Orbita Tourbillon photo gallery.

The Orbita Tourbillon is the Porsche of watch winders. It's modern, sleek, sexy, and it ain't cheap. But for the enthusiast who wants the best for his watches, the Orbita will keep them running with both style and precision.

The Orbita Tourbillon looks a little like a bomb from a Die Hard movie with its exposed circuitry and extremely bright LEDs. The chassis is made from four 10mm thick pieces of glass joined together by clear epoxy. Inside, three circuit boards are screwed in place and support two fantastically bright LEDs, and two stainless steel rollers. On top of the rollers rests the barrels inside of which your well wound and precisely rotated automatic watches are tucked, wrapped snuggly around self-conforming foam cushions. Although the barrels are stainless steel, they are lined with soft and gentle plastic which won't scratch your steel, gold, or platinum bracelets, and the rollers have rubber gaskets for securely and quietly gripping and turning the barrels.

Each circuit board contains two LED readouts. The one on the left tells you how many times the watch has been turned, and resets itself automatically at midnight. The LED on the right is actually a highly accurate quartz clock which makes perfect sense as it allows you to calibrate your less accurate automatic watch as you're putting it on in the morning. Bright blue LEDs are soldered below the circuit boards and flash in configurable patterns to draw even more attention to this modern piece of functional industrial art.

View the Ocean7 G-2 Photo Gallery.

After our review the Ocean7 LM-2, we were anxious to get our hands on more from Ocean7. This time, we thought we'd trying something a little different: the Ocean7 G-2 Dive Chronograph. I've always been a sucker for dive chronographs like the Seamaster Pro Chrono and the Panerai Luminor 1950 Flyback diver, so I was very pleased when the G-2 showed up at my door.

Let's start with the specifications on this beast of a diver:

• Brushed Stainless Steel case and five-link bracelet.
• 42mm diameter.
• 17mm thick.
• 4mm thick sapphire crystal (same thickness as the crystal on the Rolex Sea Dweller).
• Water resistant to 660 feet, or 200 meters.
• Swiss quartz movement.
• Carbon fiber dial.
• $449 directly from Ocean7.

The Ocean7 G-2 Chronograph is a professional tool dive watch that brings Ocean7's design philosophy together with a highly accurate quartz chronograph. From the moment I first pulled the G-2 from its wooden box — actually, from the moment I first lifted the box — one thing became very clear to me: this was no lightweight timepiece. You can forget about every other heavy watch that comes to mind because the Ocean7 G-2 probably has them all beat. It perches proudly, prominently, and massively on your wrist, though it does tend to wear slightly lighter than it feels in your hands.

The Nike Amp+ iPod control watch is unusual for many reasons. To start with, it only displays hours and minutes. No seconds, no date, no alarm, no stopwatch. And to see the time, you actually have to press a button to illuminate the LED display.

But the Amp+ isn't designed to be an all-around running or fitness watch. It's specifically designed for runners who already have the Nike + iPod kit. Similar to the Timex iControl we recently reviewed, the Nike Amp+ is a remote control for your iPod Nano, however unlike the Timex, the Nike Amp+ uses the existing Nike + iPod gadget that plugs into your iPod, so you're actually adding the iPod remote control to the Nike iPod system.

Ok, I know that's a little confusing. Let's slow down and start from the beginning.

You're a runner or walker who wants to track your workouts electronically, and easily control your iPod. After installing a special wireless sensor in your Nike shoes, the Nike + iPod kit let's you use your iPod to:

View the Casio G-Shock GW056A Photo Gallery.

I think of the Casio G-Shock GW056A as the G-Shock for people who don't like G-Shocks. It's certainly the most subtle and unrecognizable G-Shock currently in the lineup, and most importantly, the slimmest.

It has the same octagonal case as many of the older G-Shocks (and the new retro tribute G-Shocks), but the brushed stainless steel bezel makes the shape much more pronounced. In fact, the shape is the first thing you notice about the GW056A. My wife calls it my Battlestar Galactica watch because the unconventional shape is similar to the shape paper will apparently assume if the world is ever destroyed by Cylons (of course, I'm talking about the new Battlestar Galactica).

The extremely slim and lightweight design is really what sets the GW056A apart. In terms of features, you'll notice that it's on par with all my favorite G-Shocks:

• Atomic calibration (US and Japan).
• Solar powered.
• Shock resistant (naturally).
• Water resistant to 200 meters, or about 650 feet.
• Automatic calendar.
• Electroluminescent backlight with auto EL function (meaning it can automatically illuminate when tilted to about 40° in the dark).
• World time (48 cities, 29 time zones, and automatic daylight savings adjustment).
• Four daily alarms and one snooze alarm (which keeps sounding until explicitly disabled).
• Countdown timer (up to 60 minutes).
• Stopwatch with split time (resolution of 1/100th of a second, and a maximum time of 59:59.99).

I've owned my GW056A since they were first introduced in Japan about two years ago (which means mine is actually a GW056J — the identical Japanese version), and it still gets regular wrist time. I like to wear it in the winter because it fits nicely under my coat sleeve, and when I ride my motorcycle since it slips easily beneath a glove. Although I love each and every one of my Casios, sometimes its nice having all the G-Shock functionality without all the G-Shock bulk.

View the Casio G-Shock GW056A Photo Gallery.

View the Ocean7 LM-2 Photo Gallery.

Ocean7 Watch Company is the brainchild of owner Mitchell Feig who knows that to make it in the watch business, you need to produce a unique and endearing product, carve out a niche, and stick to your core competencies. As the name suggests, Ocean7 makes watches designed to function in aquatic environments; their current lineup consists entirely of dive watches.

Ocean7 Watch Company is what we call a transparent operation which means they keep close, even personal, connections with the people who have bought, and will eventually buy, their watches. From the beginning, Ocean7 started building not only watches, but watch collectors. Daily, one can find Mitch conversing with owners, collectors, and soon-to-be both on the Ocean7 forum and the Watchuseek Ocean7 forum. This is how Mitch gets input and advice from the most important watch connoisseurs in the world: his customers. The idea of a watch company listening to its customers about case size, dial style, hands etc. seems simultaneously amazing and painfully obvious, and has lead to increasingly impressive timepieces.

Just a few days ago, I received the Ocean7 LM-2, a titanium clad beast of a watch that is best described as striking. Let's start with some specifications:

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:

View the Traser Classic Automatic Photo Gallery.

For way too long now, I've been lusting after a watch with H3 tritium vials. I've always been a sucker for things that glow in the dark (my first watch was the original Timex Indiglo, after all), and luminescence is a big part of why I collect dive watches. A friend of mine recently bought a Ball Fireman, and after being completely mesmerized by the little glowing glass tubes inside, I decided it was time to get serious about tritium.

I looked at everything from Ball to Luminox, however my curiosity was particularly piqued by Traser H3 Watches. Traser is owned by mb-microtec, the company that actually holds the patent for tritium H3 illumination technology. They have an entire lineup of watches that include divers, chronographs, and military watches. Buried deep in their web site I found the Traser Classic series: plain and simple stainless steel watches that house the fantastic ETA 2824 movement — the same movement found in my Bathys 100 Fathom and my Tissot Seastar 1000.

The Classic Automatic is the only automatic model in Traser's lineup, and it comes in four styles:

1. Stainless steel with a white dial.
2. Stainless steel with a black dial.
3. PVD with a black dial.
4. PVD with a black dial and blue tritium tubes.

Coincidentally, my collection needed a white dialed watch, so the decision was easy.

View the Casio Giez 1000BJ Photo Gallery.

We first mentioned the Casio Giez 1000BJ almost a year ago, but we didn't have much to say other than its very cool looking, it's only available in Japan, and its insides are almost identical to the Oceanus 5 Motor (OCW600TDA-1AV). Now that I actually own one, however, I can finally give you a proper review.

The biggest difference in functionality between the Oceanus and the Casio G-Shock Giez is the fact that the Giez is not a worldwide atomic watch. In other words, the Giez 1000BJ only receives atomic time signals in Japan and the US — not in the UK and Germany like the Oceanus.

There are a few more obvious differences, as well. The style of the Giez is pure G-Shock with ion-plated black metal clad in durable black rubber. It's a very functional looking watch, and with the white hands over the black face, it's quite legible, as well. Casio muted the usual G-Shock promotion with the bezel lettering simply inset rather than painted; the result is a much more restrained look than your average G-shock.

Personally, I'm a big fan of tough analog watches, and I was really looking forward to this one. Not only does it have the legendary toughness of the Casio G-Shock family, but it's solar, atomic, and it even manages to pack in five motors. Shock-proofing motors is a lot harder than it sounds, and this watch represents an impressive technical achievement for Casio.

View the Seiko Velatura SRH005 photo gallery.

I've always been a big fan Seiko Kinetic watches. There's something about generating power through physical movement that I somehow find more intriguing than a static and stationary solar cell. I like how you can hear the rotor turn, and even feel the friction that generates the power. And I like how the power reserve indicator let you know if you've been giving your Seiko Kinetic enough wrist time. It may sound strange, but there's something a little more alive about a Kinetic watch than its solar or battery powered counterparts.

With the introduction of the new Kinetic Direct Drive movement which appears in four of Seiko's new Velatura watches (two available in the US — the SRH001 and the SRH005), the Kinetic experience gets even more interesting. Kinetic Direct Drive movements allow the watch to be "hand wound". Before the Direct Drive, there were three ways to charge your Seiko Kinetic:

1. Wave it back and forth for a minute or two to spin the rotor. Anyone who has ever owned a Kinetic is probably familiar with this motion.
2. Wear it. Daily use is more than enough to keep a Kinetic watch sufficiently charged. It's only when you have a Kinetic that is part of an extensive watch rotation that you have to concern yourself with keeping it charged.
3. Place it on a Kinetic charging unit. You can buy charging stands which conduct power directly into the capacitor through the case and dial of the watch to essentially "quick charge" it.

But now with the Kinetic Direct Drive, you can charge the capacitor directly simply by turning the driving wheel. The procedure is certainly much more natural and subtle than the martini shaking motion of the past.

The Seiko Kinetic Direct Drive takes what I love about Kinetic movements to the next level by making the charging process not just active, but actually interactive. Shortly after you start turning the drive wheel to charge the watch, the power reserve indicator jumps to life and turns into a real-time power generation indicator. It's a bit like a Kinetic tachometer, you might say. Here's how it works:

View the Timex iControl Photo Gallery.

MP3 players are becoming an increasingly standard piece of workout equipment. Music can help keep runners "in the zone" or help keep weight lifters' adrenaline pumping, and audio books and podcasts can help us make more efficient use of our workout time. Now that MP3 players are small enough, battery life is long enough, hard drives and flash memory is large enough, and prices are low enough, just about any athlete can have access hours of audio content anywhere their workout takes them.

But not all the problems have been solved. Although the iPod's user interface is widely considered revolutionary for its simplicity and intuitiveness, there's no getting around the fact that interacting with an MP3 player while working out is usually not very convenient. Removing your iPod from wherever it's stashed can be tricky while running, and after you've managed to retrieve it, the controls can be clumsy to use and the screen difficult to see. Of course, the risk of fiddling with your MP3 player too much while working out is that it can easily break your concentration and flow.

Enter the Timex iControl watch. Timex IRONMAN watches have always been designed to make interacting with them while running as simple and natural as possible, so why not extend the functionality of your watch to also control your iPod?

The Timex iControl watch is a fully functional IRONMAN with the following features:

View the Luminox Navy Seal Photo Gallery.

I look at a lot of different metrics when evaluating and reviewing a watch, however there's one metric that I hold above all others: wrist time. Wrist time is simply the amount of time I wear a watch beyond the amount of time needed to review it.

The Luminox Navy Seal does very well in this category. Although I can't pinpoint exactly why, I've been wearing it pretty consistently for weeks. I think it's a combination of comfort, tritium gas tube illumination (which I've really come to love), high-contrast readability, and overall value. How do I judge the overall value of a watch? Let me put it this way: the Luminox Navy Seal isn't the most sturdy watch I own, but if I ever managed to destroy it, I would have no problem spending the money to replace it, and would probably do so at the first opportunity.

That's not to say I expect to destroy it. The Luminox Navy Seal is a relatively inexpensive watch made from relatively inexpensive materials, however it's quite sturdy (don't confuse inexpensive with cheap). The polymer case is very solid, the crown is protected, and the mineral glass crystal should stand up to anything but a hard direct impact.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again: I love the tritium gas tube illumination system which allows the hands and hour indices to glow brightly and consistently for 25 years without having to absorb light. Since I don't use an alarm clock, and since I have kids who feel compelled wake me up throughout the night, I love always being able to easily read off the time. The Luminox Navy Seal is more than comfortable enough to wear to bed, so I've gotten in the habit of putting it on at night (if I'm not already wearing it), and wearing it all the way through my workout the next morning. Now that I have other watches to review, it usually has to come off when I get out of the shower, but occasionally I'll continue wearing it throughout the day.

Features of the Luminox Navy Seal 3001 include:

View the Oceanus OCWM700TDA-1AV Photo Gallery (silver titanium).

View the Oceanus OCWM700TBA-1AV Photo Gallery (black titanium).

Announced in July 2007, the sleek and professional Oceanus OCWM700TDA-1A is the latest addition to the Oceanus line of classically styled quartz watches with leading-edge technical features. This Oceanus (which I'll call the 5 Motor Tide Graph) is similar to the OCW600TDA-1AV previously reviewed, however the 5 Motor Tide Graph seems a little more geared toward the worldwide business traveler; not only can it receive atomic time calibration signals in the US, but also in Japan, Germany, and England.

The feature of the Oceanus 5 Motor Tide Graph that I find most interesting is, well, the tide graph. At the top of the multi-function dial at the 3 o'clock position is a small tide chart. Moving from right to left, it indicates local tide height based on latitude and the intertidal interval. Since tides vary with local geography, you can calibrate the watch to match your local cycle.

What sort of globe-trotting person needs a tide graph? My personal theory is new managers who still surf, sail, or dive. I have a co-worker in exactly that role, and he really likes this Oceanus. Combined with the non-corroding titanium case and 100M water resistance, it can go from surfing to staff meeting and look great both places.

The Tissot Seastar 1000 is an entry-level Swiss automatic in the diver segment. The most current version dates back to 2004, but the Seastar name has been around for more than 30 years. Currently, the Seastar is offered in the following versions:

1. Silver dial with a stainless steel bracelet.
2. Blue dial with a stainless steel bracelet.
3. Black dial on a rubber strap.

The review model is a custom combination of the black dial with an upgrade to the stainless bracelet.

View the MTM Black Seal photo gallery.

I did my first review of an MTM Special Ops watch almost exactly two years ago. If I remember correctly, it was the only MTM model available at the time. MTM is now up to no fewer than eight different models with a very impressive selection of materials, finishes, and features. Although each MTM model is interesting in its own right, the new MTM Black Seal Xtreme Dive Watch stands out as an unusual and impressive feat of engineering.

You may remember the MTM Black Seal from an article we did last month on extreme dive watches. The most notable feature is the fact that it's completely waterproof. What's the difference between being waterproof and water resistant? The easiest way to explain it is that the MTM Black Seal is completely unambiguous in its claims regarding water and pressure resistance: the Black Seal has been proven in a Swiss laboratory to remain fully intact at the deepest known point on earth, the Mariana Trench, which is about 12,000 meters, or about 39,370 feet.

MTM's secret is the silicon oil filled case which is designed to equalize the pressure exerted on the watch in a way which makes it virtually compression-proof. There are a few other watches out there which make the same claim, but none with quite the unique feature set of the MTM Black Seal:

View the Seiko Orange Monster photo gallery.

After James' review of extreme dive watches, I'd like to bring you back to Earth with a review of a modern classic: the Seiko Orange Monster.

Introduced in early 2001, and officially called the SKX781, this bold diver from Seiko quickly inherited its nickname from its older sibling, the "Black Monster" (SKX779). There are also more expensive limited editions available in blue, yellow, PVD black, and red.

Let's start with some specifications:

I've spent a couple of weeks now with the St. Moritz Aeromax, and I have really enjoyed my time with this bold and unique timepiece. The Aeromax is part of the Momentum family of watches offered by St. Moritz. St. Moritz is a company with a 27-year history in diving watches, and has just recently moved its Momentum brand into sport watches as well. They started in 1980, and have been producing high-quality, entry-level luxury watches for divers ever since. Today they produce 18 different models that will appeal to a wide variety of buyers.

One thing that I found really interesting about St. Moritz is that they have gone out of their way to design and produce unique watches which have a look and feel of their own. In contrast, many of their peers "emulate" the older, more established brands' designs.

In my opinion, the Aeromax does not disappoint. This is one interesting watch with many subtle details that work together to make it a great design. Here's the breakdown:

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.

Last month, I had the opportunity to interview John Patterson, the owner and founder of Bathys Watch Company. This month, I had the privilege of reviewing their best selling automatic timepiece: The Bathys 100 Fathom.

The Head

The head of this watch is by far the selling point. It is fantastically well finished. The crystal is sapphire, slightly domed, and has an antireflection coating which glows blue in flashes of light. The real pièce de résistance is the ruthenium grey dial which has many subtle tones and is quite iridescent, flashing grey and brown. Although this is not the most popular 100 Fathom model (the black on black is their best seller), this dial is truly unique and like nothing I have seen on another watch. The markers on the dial as well as the hands are covered in superluminova, a paint that glows brightly in the dark. I wore the watch to "Live Free and Die Hard" and I can attest to its very capable luminosity which easily lasted the duration of the film. And then there's the stainless steel, black PVD-coated case which somehow both gives the watch a stealth appeal, and actually makes it stand out more than any of my more shiny watches. The PVD makes it scratch resistant and adds to the overall depth and quality of the piece. The caseback is also PVD-coated, and is engraved with a map of the Hawaiian islands. The watch is water resistant to 200 meters (about 660 feet, or roughly 100 fathoms, naturally), and is known to be very reliable in an aquatic environment as it was designed for divers and surfers.

One unfortunate fact of life for those of use who like Japanese watches is that the most interesting models are often only sold in Japan. There are internet resellers of Japanese models, but you've then got warranty difficulties if service is ever required, as the domestic service centers will require you to ship the watch back to Japan.

I bring this up because of the wonderful Citizen PMT56-2711 from the Promaster line. This particular watch is no longer in production (though it's still available here and there if you look hard enough), and has been superseded by models adding radio synchronization and such (like the new Citizen Attesa). It's an analog quartz watch, solar-powered, with a blue face and titanium case, and there's something very elegant in its simplicity.

Things I like about this watch:

• Surface-hardened titanium case and band, trade name "Duratect". Almost impossible to scratch, and with the brushed finish, it yields a subtle, low-key metal that's quite attractive.
• Domed sapphire crystal. Again, almost impossible to scratch. The interior has an anti-glare coating, which reduces reflections. The doming also reduces reflections and makes it easier to read under water.
• Perpetual calendar. Although this makes for an involved setting procedure, it's nice not to have to worry about resetting the date at the end of some months.
• Eco-Drive. This is Citizen's solar power technology. The face of the watch is a solar cell with a subtle hexagonal pattern that also serves to add visual detail to the dial. The battery on this one is good for five years, so even if you forget it in a drawer, you're unlikely to need to reset it!
• 200m water resistant (about 650 feet). Several people use this watch for SCUBA diving; it's more than enough for any use you're likely to have.
• Travel friendly. Unlike most watches, you can change the hour without stopping the watch. This is fantastic when traveling. You pull out the crown, press the button while rotating the stem, and the hour advances. I used this when going from the west coast to South America, and I can testify to its usefulness. With other watches, more than once I've set the local time wrong due to jet lag haze. Also nice for accuracy fans, since the seconds and minutes are not affected.
• Power saving modes. This adds some personality to the watch, and makes it fun to interact with. After a minute or two of darkness, the second hand stops at 12 and stays there until light returns. Meanwhile, the minute and hour hands continue to display the correct time. If light remains off for three days, all the hands stop, only to spin to the correct time when you take it out of the drawer. These makes the watch seem a bit more alive -- more than once, I extend my arm and watched the second hand wake up from falling asleep under my coat. The watch will warn you if the battery was depleted far enough that it lost time.
• Luminosity. The face has large, clear markers with Luminova on them, making it easy to read at night. The second hand is not lumed, instead having a painted red tip. Perhaps they left the lume off the second hand due to the power saving feature above (you only need lume in the dark, and in the dark, the second hand doesn't move), but either way I rarely need to see seconds in the dark, anyway.
• Readability. The face is a mixture of military style numbers (sans-serif, upright and distinct) with an aviator-style inverted triangle at the 12 o'clock position. The hands are simple white with clean lines and contrast nicely against the blue dial. These, combined with the domed crystal, make for a watch that can be read at a glance at a wide range of angles. Day or night, no problem. The red-tipped second hand is a nice touch, too.
• Weight and size. The combination of 40mm size and titanium makes this watch seem quite light when you pick it up. I've been wearing a much heavier steel watch, but once I adapted, I quite like the reduction in mass. You just don't notice wearing it at all, even on the matching metal (titanium) bracelet.
• The blue of the dial is gorgeous and unobtrusive. They put the minute markers on the chapter ring, so there's a nice balance of empty space and text.

View the Casio Pathfinder PAW1300-3V picture gallery.

When I reviewed the Casio Pathfinder PAW1200 about a year ago, I referred to it as "one of the most advanced digital timepieces in the world". Of course, it is also one of the biggest. The new PAW1300 takes all the same features and technology of the PAW1200, and fits it into a significantly slimmer package.

How much smaller is the PAW1300 compared to the PAW1200? The PAW1200, weighing in at 83 grams, is 64mm long, 48.9mm wide, and 14.4mm thick. The PAW1300 is a comparatively diminutive 60 grams, and 56.9mm long, 47.4mm wide, and only 11.5mm thick. Yes, we're only talking millimeters here, but with respect to something as small as a watch, every millimeter counts. To have taken almost a full 3mm off the thickness is really very significant.

I don't want to spend a lot of time going over the features of the Pathfinder PAW1300 since I've gone over them in detail in the review of the PAW1200. Rather, I'd like to defer to Watch Report reader Sam Tannous who related his experiences with the new PAW1300 in this email:

View the Yes Tati photo gallery.

I'm a big fan of Yes watches. I reviewed the Yes Zulu two years ago, and I have the black Kundalini which never fails to draw attention. So when I heard some time ago that Yes was working on an all-digital watch, the project piqued my interest. The Zulu and the Kundalini are stunning watches, but somewhat overpower my narrow wrist, so I hoped a digital Yes watch would give me the unique and innovative perspective on time that is the signature of Yes watches, but in a more appropriately sized package.

The Yes Tati is precisely that. By replacing the analog 24-hour hand that distinguishes the rest of the lineup with an LCD, Yes was able to remove an entire quartz movement and extra battery. The result is a much smaller watch which is just as unique as the other pieces, and with all the same functionality.

Although the Tati is designed for narrower wrists, I wouldn't go so far as to classify it as a ladies watch. While it certainly looks at home on a woman's wrist, the wide leather cuff (easily removable), especially on the black version, makes it appropriate for men, as well -- especially those of us who were cursed with a combination of watch lust and skinny wrists. The soft leather strap makes the Tati both light weight, and very comfortable against the skin.

Yes watches have some of the most interesting and expressive names of any watch brand, and the Tati is no exception. I expected Tati to refer to a distant mountain range, or perhaps the name of an ancient sun goddess, but it turns out that the origins of the name are even more interesting. Tati is short for Tatiana, Yes Watches CEO Bjørn Kartomten's daughter, and judging from my conversations with Bjørn, the inspiration for much of what he does.

If you are new to Yes watches, it's important to realize that they are not all about aesthetics. In fact, Yes watches were specifically born out of a desire to present a more complete picture of time by bringing together manmade horological concepts like hours, minutes, and seconds with nature's concepts of time like sunrise, sunset, and moon phases. It turns out that integrating these two words means cramming an incredible number of features into a relatively small case.

View the Oceanus 5 Motor photo gallery.

Oceanus seems to represent Casio's desire to creep upmarket in the US. In Japan, you can actually drop over $1,000 on a high-end Casio G-Shock, but to most Americans, the brand Casio usually means geeky at best, and cheap at worst. Frequent readers of Watch Report know better, however. In my opinion, Casio makes some of the most technologically advanced, rugged, and interesting digital watches available. But since Casio doesn't have time to wait for Watch Report to enlighten the entire American watch-buying public, they have repackaged their ingenuity into a shiny new brand: Oceanus.

I do think Oceanus watches are deserving of a brand all their own. With features that go beyond even my favorite US G-Shocks (titanium construction, handsome, low-profile cases, sapphire crystals), they deserve a chance to make their own way in the market.

The Oceanus 5 Motor is a further refinement of the Oceanus line. It boasts most of the features of the Oceanus Chronograph, but without the LCD in the 3 o'clock position. Why was Casio motivated to completely remove the LCD and figure out how to cram five individual motors into a single case? The point of the Oceanus 5 Motor is that it's a geeky watch that doesn't look like a geeky watch, so the fewer LCDs and LEDs, the better.

The downside of removing the LCD is that the watch gets slightly more complicated. The unit I received didn't come with an instruction manual, and after about 10 minutes of playing with buttons and watching the seven hands (seven!) spin and reel, I headed online to hunt down a PDF version of the booklet. Fortunately, with a little guidance, I found the 5 Motor fairly easy to use, however if you're the type who refuses to read manuals, you probably won't get the most out of this watch.

View the Highgear Enduro photo gallery.

The Highgear Enduro is a durable and affordable sports watch that has a lot going for it. The look is tough and distinctive, and the fit is light and comfortable. It's not the most feature-rich sports watch I've seen, but it has everything most of us needs, and even a few little interesting surprises.

Features of the Highgear Enduro include:

• Two time zones. This is one of those nice little features that Highgear could have completely left out without anyone noticing, but that I really like. Holding down the upper right-hand button will toggle the main time display to a second time zone, and holding it down for three seconds will switch the main time display to the second time zone permanently. To view the first time zone again, press the upper right-hand button, and hold it down for another three seconds to switch it back.
• Chronograph. The Enduro has a very comprehensive chronograph which goes up to 100 hours, supports 100 laps, and has a resolution of 1/100th of a second. My favorite feature of the chronograph is the ability to change its readout configuration between four different modes. Customization is good.
• Countdown timer. Countdown timers are a must with sports watches, and the Enduro more than delivers with three countdown timers which can be used in any one of four separate modes:
  1. Stop. This is the simplest timer mode which counts down from a specified time, then sounds an alarm.
  2. Repeat. When in repeat mode, after the time has fully elapsed, the watch will sound an alarm, then start the countdown again.
  3. Up. This mode causes the countdown timer to first count down from a specified interval, sound an alarm, then start counting back up. For instance, if you want to start your run with a 10 minute walk, the watch will count down from 10 minutes, sound an alarm, then start counting back up so that you can time your run, as well.
  4. Train. Train mode is the most complex. It allows you to chain together nine different times to count down from. After each time fully elapses, the timer will sound an alarm, automatically advance to the next time, then begin counting down again.
  Another feature I really like about the Enduro's countdown timer is that an LCD ring encircles the interval to give you a visual reference of how much time is left. A full ring represents the entire interval, then the ring wanes at the appropriate pace so that it's gone when the timer expires. My elliptical trainer has a similar visual cue which I find very useful.
• Digital compass. Another bonus feature, as far as I'm concerned. The Enduro has a built-in digital compass. It can even be adjusted to account for your magnetic declination (the angle between magnetic and geographic north, which changes depending on where you are in the world). Don't mistake the Enduro for a true Casio or Suunto-style hiking watch, but if you like to run through the woods and need to check your position occasionally, this feature is perfect. You can even hit the upper left-hand button while in chronograph mode to jump to the compass and get a quick 10-second bearing check.
• Three daily alarms. The Enduro has three daily alarms which are relative to whichever time zone is currently selected. None of the alarms allow you to specify the date.
• 20-workout memory. The Enduro allows you to store data for up to 20 workouts. You can store splits, best lap time, average lap time, and the total workout time. The data can only be viewed on the watch, and cannot be archived on a PC.
• Electroluminescent backlight. The Enduro's backlight is very bright, and illuminates the entire LCD uniformly. It also has an auto-backlight feature which means it can be configured to automatically illuminate for two seconds whenever any button is pushed. Watch your battery life, though (see below).
• One year battery. That's a pretty short battery life, but if it's any consolation, the Enduro takes a very common watch battery which can be purchased anywhere watch batteries are sold, and can easily be replaced with nothing but a coin to open the back. The Enduro also has a low power indicator to give you plenty of warning before it dies on you.
• Water-resistant to 50 meters, or about 160 feet. That covers rain and swimming.