Need a new Wristwatch

[Kraetos]

So I've had this digital watch through five years and three broken bands, and its dying. Pixels are dead and whatnot. It's beat to hell and the finish is scraping off. The battery is dying and I figure rather than replace the battery, I'll just finally get a new watch.

My current watch has a zillion features, which I thought was cool at the time, but I would really be content with a digital display, a backlight, and waterproof. A second time zone and a stopwatch would be nice but not necessary. But I want it to look neat. Shiny and silvery, and thin. If Apple made a watch, I'd buy it. Any advice on what the next best thing is?

I have this Kenneth Cole analog watch (look below), for when I need to look nice. I really like the way it looks, but I want digital, waterproof, and backlit.

http://www.kennethcole.com/img/prod/RX_KC1394_NCL.jpg

Mines pretty much the same, but with a silver face. There's this other watch from Kenneth Cole:

http://www.kennethcole.com/img/prod/RX_KC1296_BLK.jpg

That I kinda like, but suggestions would be cool :)

[Robo]

If you like that second watch, you might like Fossil's S+ARCK (yes, I am going to spell it the annoying way) collection. Starck's designs beautifully blend the digital and the analog, and they push the boundaries of the (relatively fixed) rules of clock design. Wow, that sounds like an ad. :lol: Oh, and here's the best part: All that design-blending and boundary-pushing is relatively inexpensive (around $100). And some of them even come in funky colors, if that's your thing.

I'm not sure if they're water-proof, though.

[Electric Monk]

If Apple made a watch, I'd buy it.

They used to (http://www.theapplecollection.com/Collection/AppleWatches/Adult.html), you just have to think different. (http://www.theapplecollection.com/Collection/AppleWatches/thinkdif.html)

I like the model I bought (http://www.welovemacs.com/alogowb.html) better, though.

[spotcatbug]

They used to (http://www.theapplecollection.com/Collection/AppleWatches/Adult.html), you just have to think different. (http://www.theapplecollection.com/Collection/AppleWatches/thinkdif.html)

I like the model I bought (http://www.welovemacs.com/alogowb.html) better, though.

They never actually made (or designed) a watch. They did license the brand, though.

[atomicbartbeans]

Check here (http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/watches/) for some sweet designs... I like this one

http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/front/ximax_slim.jpg

[PowerDrift]

Nooka has some really cool ones.

[Mugge]

The upside about analogue watches is that they can double as a compass when the sun is determinable.

I personally prefer automatic watches (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_watch).

[spotcatbug]

My watch (http://www.casio.com/products/Timepiece/Waveceptor/WVA105_Series/). No winding or setting ever. It automatically synchronizes with the time signal emitting from Colorado.

[evan]

I lost my watch when I broke my wrist and had a cast on for several weeks :( Every since I've been too lazy to get a new one and it's been several months. I just use my cell phone to check the time so there's really not much point anymore... although I guess it's worth looking into. If I do get one though it'll probably be a $15 timex from Academy. Those things are actually amazingly robust and resilient

[Electric Monk]

They never actually made (or designed) a watch. They did license the brand, though.

Well, yeah. But they run backwards. Backwards!

It makes for much fun if people ask for the time.

[cosus]

One thing I like to keep simple are watches. No digital, no numbers other then the date. If you're lucky, it's automatic, I hate battery operated watches.

[Dorian Gray]

The market for digital watches isn't very big these days. Those awful Casio and Timex models, utilitarian in the extreme, thankfully serve no purpose if one carries a mobile phone everywhere. And high-end watches, bought because they represent beauty and craftsmanship and tradition, are almost entirely analogue for aesthetic reasons.

One interesting exception are Ventura (www.ventura.ch) watches. Ventura are an avant-garde watchmaker that have quite a habit of making watches that end up in modern art galleries. The most interesting of these to my eye is the Ventura v-matic automatic (www.pixelp.com/watches/v-matic/), which is a thing of rare economy of design from the fertile mind of Hannes Wettstein. Wettstein has designed many objects that I find attractive, such as the asymmetrical Carl Zeiss Victory foldable binoculars:

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/5809/tempad8.jpg

But back on topic: Ventura took the highly risky step of making all their current watches digital. They have therefore become synonymous with cutting-edge digital watch design, and many low-end watch companies have followed their design lead, i.e. shamelessly copied them. So for example, Wettstein and Ventura are responsible for the dual-tier display on that Kennith Cole model.

I can't recommend a digital watch because I'm only now starting to get into watches (thanks to Koodari (http://forums.applenova.com/showthread.php?t=23927)). But on principle I'd avoid anything that looks like a rip-off of the big brands, just because I'd rather have a legitimate but pedestrian design than a rip-off of a brilliant design. Honesty is key. :) One exception might be the Rolex Submariner, because basically every diving watch on the planet has since adopted that design, making it almost inescapable, for better or worse.

[Kraetos]

They used to (http://www.theapplecollection.com/Collection/AppleWatches/Adult.html), you just have to think different. (http://www.theapplecollection.com/Collection/AppleWatches/thinkdif.html)

I like the model I bought (http://www.welovemacs.com/alogowb.html) better, though.

Shit. I want that first one. But I can't find it anywhere.

[SKMDC]

My watch (http://www.casio.com/products/Timepiece/Waveceptor/WVA105_Series/). No winding or setting ever. It automatically synchronizes with the time signal emitting from Colorado.
Unless you're out of the country, (unless you have the international version, I have since found out) I left the manual at home, and as I'd just gotten it, was clueless how to reset it. I had to look at my watch and do math for a month.
I was so pissed at myself. But I love mine. Mine also lights up when I look at it.

[Chinney]

[...]

Ventura (www.ventura.ch) watches. Ventura are an avant-garde watchmaker that have quite a habit of making watches that end up in modern art galleries.

[...]

But back on topic: Ventura took the highly risky step of making all their current watches digital. [...]

From their website now:

Ventura Design on Time SA. In Volketswil, Switzerland, is currently closed and the online store suspended. ...

:( Looks like it is not working out so well for them.

[Koodari]

Now that this thread has had some reanimating fluid pumped through its fraying veins, I'll have to say that Ventura v-matic looks spectacular. Pretty much exactly what I'd want to wear with formal dress if price was no object. I wonder how I didn't click come to click on the links back then.

For a similar but sportier, also expensive alternative there is Sinn (http://harrytan.sg/watches/SINN-U1/).

[thegeriatric]

For a nice quality watch look here.

http://www.oris.ch/collections/collections_detail.aspx?id_collection=12&id_product=110&ln=en

[turbulentfurball]

This is my current watch. It has none of the features you'd like, in that it's analogue, not backlit, nor particularly thin, but what can I say, I love it!


http://i2.ebayimg.com/05/i/000/99/ba/d5cf_1.JPG

Actually, being a chronograph it obviously has a stopwatch, so it's has one of the feature's you like. heh.

[Shades of Blue]

I love my current watch:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/518D6Q1BKVL._AA280_.jpg

It was a Christmas present a few years ago from my fiancée, and she got this particular model since I'm a pilot. (You can spin the edges around to use it as an E6B flight calculator.) If you switch time zones, you can just click a few buttons to set the new time zone and it moves the analog hands to display the correct hour.

It recharges itself with solar cells on its face, and displays UTC time on one of the little mini-dials on it. Very cool. It also has a very nice heft to it (I like heavy watches).

[spotcatbug]

Mine also lights up when I look at it.

:eek: That sounds pretty cool. Uh... how does it know you're looking at it?

I love my current watch:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/518D6Q1BKVL._AA280_.jpg

:eek: That thing has more dials than an airplane cockpit.

[SKMDC]

:eek: That sounds pretty cool. Uh... how does it know you're looking at it?



The angle I reckon, (I really ought to read the manual...) when it's charge is down it won't do it. I think it can be disabled. It's bright too.

I would like a Citizen Eco, they are nice, My favorite watch was always the Citizen Windsurfer, all black with a Rubberish band, I went through 4 bands until the watch finally conked (10 years I think) and when I went to get a new one the model came with a white face and bezel, so I didn't get it. Now it's discontinued.

My Casio is all steel and usually I dislike a steel band in the summer but this one wasn't too bad, I even wear it mountain biking. It's extremely rugged.

[Frank777]

Nobody makes a good geekwatch these days.

You'd think with all the geeks on the internet we'd get all kinds of cool functions in a timepiece (LED flashlight, compass, Wi-fi link to FaceBook, GPS, notification of voicemail etc.) Of course, there would have to be a built-in calculator too (what geekwatch would be without one?)

It'd also be nice if it could survive an EMP blast. You know, just for the street cred. :D

Sadly, no one seems to be interested in outfitting today's ubergeek. What a shame.