TX has released a new line of watches: the 800 series Linear Chronograph. It is a watch that carries the design ethic of the popular TX 730 which we reviewed last year, but incorporates a 30 minute linear chronograph register and the ability to track the time in a second time zone. It's a stylishly understated watch with a considerable amount of wrist presence and a completely useful feature list:

• 44mm stainless steel case, or 47mm titanium carbide case.
• Chronograph resolution of 1/5th of a second measuring no more than 4 hours.
• Linear hand measures 30 minutes.
• Second time zone.
• German designed, Asian built 6 hand movement.
• Sapphire crystal.
• Water resistant to 10 ATM or 100M.
• Available with leather, rubber, or stainless steel bracelet (44mm versions only).

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 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 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:

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 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 Rolex GMT Master II photo gallery.

The Rolex GMT Master II is a great looking and very functional high-end Swiss timepiece. It's a beautiful watch which is sophisticated in both appearance and operation, yet it somehow manages to present itself as understated and modest. The Rolex GMT Master II has a long and interesting history, and is certainly one of the most popular Rolex Professional models.

The big feature of the Rolex GMT Master II is the additional 24-hour hand which tracks hours against the bi-directional rotating bezel in "military time" as opposed to standard 12-hour time. It was originally created for Pan Am pilots back in the early days of transatlantic flights. Pan Am pilots used GMT time, so they wanted a watch that would allow them to monitor both GMT and local time simultaneously. The watch's movement became more sophisticated over the years, and now allows the standard hour hand and the date to be set independently of the other hands which makes moving from one time zone to the next very smooth and simple.

Features of the Rolex GMT Master II include:

View the Casio Pathfinder PAW1200 picture gallery.

I've been waiting for this watch for a while now, so it's a real pleasure to finally have the opportunity to review it. The Casio Pathfinder PAW1200 is what I've referred to several times as the ultimate Pathfinder, perhaps the ultimate Casio, and certainly one of the most advanced digital timepieces in the world.

What makes the Casio Pathfinder PAW1200 series special is the fact that it brings so many features together into one watch. I'll get into plenty of detail on each individual feature shortly, but most notably, the PAW1200 series is the first to bring together the triple-sensor functionality of the Pathfinder line (compass, barometer, and thermometer), atomic time calibration, and solar power. I have several solar-powered watches, several atomic watches, and a few triple-sensor watches by various manufacturers, but the PAW1200 is the only watch that I know of with all of these features. And as if that isn't enough, the PAW1200 series is what Casio calls a multi-band atomic watch, which means it will calibrated with almost every atomic clock in the world (details below).