It's a complete geek-miracle. It blinks and glows and shows time in a format that is completely impossible for a human being to decipher.
Upon first opening the package (which was nothing but a Japanese jiffy bag; very flimsy for sending such an expensive item halfway across the globe I have to say), I discovered the outermost box - white cardboard stamped with the logo in silver; "BARCODE" it said - wrapped up in ONE thin layer of bubble-wrap. The box was slightly dented, which irritated me somewhat. Inside awaited a second cardboard box, black, and made of thicker material. This one opens up like a jewellry case for rings and such, and reveals the watch sitting wrapped around a beige satin pillow, set in an also beige, satin-clad holder. The watch is entirely wrapped up in rubber-like plastic wrap similar to the stuff we wrap up leftovers with before sticking em in the fridge, except this stuff is much thicker. There was also a plastic label on the back of the battery lid which I peeled off.
Time is not actually displayed in a binary format at all (FALSE ADVERTISING! BOOO HISS!
), but rather something else, a variable base format where each column is worth different amounts. First hour column is 5 hours per LED, second 1 hour. Third column is ten minutes per LED, fourth is 1 minute per LED (very hard to decipher when many are lit). There's 12 and 24 hour modes available too, with an additional lit LED in the top right corner showing PM. It can also show month and day of month, as well as day of week, starting with sunday as the first day; wrong for my part of the world, but hey... People live in Australia too despite it's upside down.
Appearance-wise, the thing holds a rather high quality I have to say, the case is extremely solid-looking, as is the strap; all in thick stainless steel. Unfortunately, this watch was obviously designed by japanese for japanese, because their arms don't have all these annoying stupid hairs and they will therefore not get pinched either! Well, maybe adjusting the strap length down to a proper amount will help with that. Right now I prefer to simply not wear the thing!
As nice as the mechanical parts are, in comparison the actual electronics are not as impressive. The LEDs themselves appear hand-soldered in place, and not all of them very straight either. Still, they all work so I'm not really complaining. I guess I have to count it as part of the charm or something... The LEDs are also very bright even though they appear to pulse on and off very rapidly (like, 40+ Hz; there is a noticeable though not irritating minor flicker in the light). They're completely visible in outside daylight, at least when the sky is overcast. Dunno bout full-blown sunlight tho, that might be problematic.
The watch goes through a lightshow pattern once each minute, there are a couple different ones it cycles through, during the darker part of the day (one could call it "party mode" I suppose). The (not exactly bible-sized) manual describes it thusly:
"Each minute has random flashing [Note: lack of period mark]
The random flashing will not activate on 1:00am to 6:00pm. During this period, if user pressed key A once, it will have this flashing on for 12 consequence minutes. [Apparantly, if key A is pressed, the user will light up] Then, the the random flashing will stop again to save power."
Hehehe. Really, the engrish isn't too bad, the manual is quite legible actually. Tomorrow I'll go and get the wrist strap adjusted, but I'm not sure I want to adjust the time just yet; it's sort of charming to just keep it the way it is now I think... It's not as if I'll use it for its intended purpose anyway, I just want to wear it to confuse people.
What's so cool about it is it doesn't have a traditional front bezel at all, no glass to scratch or anything like that, so people won't think of it as a watch. I could tell them whatever I feel like when they ask what it is, an external pacemaker for example... Or, a digital sextant perhaps, or why not a deluxe garage door opener remote or a miniature polygraph...
Upon first opening the package (which was nothing but a Japanese jiffy bag; very flimsy for sending such an expensive item halfway across the globe I have to say), I discovered the outermost box - white cardboard stamped with the logo in silver; "BARCODE" it said - wrapped up in ONE thin layer of bubble-wrap. The box was slightly dented, which irritated me somewhat. Inside awaited a second cardboard box, black, and made of thicker material. This one opens up like a jewellry case for rings and such, and reveals the watch sitting wrapped around a beige satin pillow, set in an also beige, satin-clad holder. The watch is entirely wrapped up in rubber-like plastic wrap similar to the stuff we wrap up leftovers with before sticking em in the fridge, except this stuff is much thicker. There was also a plastic label on the back of the battery lid which I peeled off.
Time is not actually displayed in a binary format at all (FALSE ADVERTISING! BOOO HISS!
), but rather something else, a variable base format where each column is worth different amounts. First hour column is 5 hours per LED, second 1 hour. Third column is ten minutes per LED, fourth is 1 minute per LED (very hard to decipher when many are lit). There's 12 and 24 hour modes available too, with an additional lit LED in the top right corner showing PM. It can also show month and day of month, as well as day of week, starting with sunday as the first day; wrong for my part of the world, but hey... People live in Australia too despite it's upside down. Appearance-wise, the thing holds a rather high quality I have to say, the case is extremely solid-looking, as is the strap; all in thick stainless steel. Unfortunately, this watch was obviously designed by japanese for japanese, because their arms don't have all these annoying stupid hairs and they will therefore not get pinched either! Well, maybe adjusting the strap length down to a proper amount will help with that. Right now I prefer to simply not wear the thing!
As nice as the mechanical parts are, in comparison the actual electronics are not as impressive. The LEDs themselves appear hand-soldered in place, and not all of them very straight either. Still, they all work so I'm not really complaining. I guess I have to count it as part of the charm or something... The LEDs are also very bright even though they appear to pulse on and off very rapidly (like, 40+ Hz; there is a noticeable though not irritating minor flicker in the light). They're completely visible in outside daylight, at least when the sky is overcast. Dunno bout full-blown sunlight tho, that might be problematic.
The watch goes through a lightshow pattern once each minute, there are a couple different ones it cycles through, during the darker part of the day (one could call it "party mode" I suppose). The (not exactly bible-sized) manual describes it thusly:
"Each minute has random flashing [Note: lack of period mark]
The random flashing will not activate on 1:00am to 6:00pm. During this period, if user pressed key A once, it will have this flashing on for 12 consequence minutes. [Apparantly, if key A is pressed, the user will light up] Then, the the random flashing will stop again to save power."
Hehehe. Really, the engrish isn't too bad, the manual is quite legible actually. Tomorrow I'll go and get the wrist strap adjusted, but I'm not sure I want to adjust the time just yet; it's sort of charming to just keep it the way it is now I think... It's not as if I'll use it for its intended purpose anyway, I just want to wear it to confuse people.
What's so cool about it is it doesn't have a traditional front bezel at all, no glass to scratch or anything like that, so people won't think of it as a watch. I could tell them whatever I feel like when they ask what it is, an external pacemaker for example... Or, a digital sextant perhaps, or why not a deluxe garage door opener remote or a miniature polygraph...
