By Evan Ackerman

Tempo Tags are tiny little clip-on watches. They tell time. And they’re small. Made out of stainless steel and powered by a replaceable watch battery, they’ll remain useful until people stop caring what time it is. For $18, you get two of them, one with a clip on the right side for you boring people, and one with a clip on the left side for us awesome people. Or, alternatively, $15 gets you versions that tell temperature. They’ve kinda got an anti-fancy thing going on that is pretty appealing, and you can find them over at Vessel.

[ Tempo Tag ] VIA [ RFJ ]

So it turns out that all it takes to make it easier to share the time on your watch with someone is a simple 90 degree turn of its face. And that’s basically what’s been done with design studio Maezm’s Sharing Watch, which makes it extremely easy to show someone standing beside you what time it is, without inconveniencing the wearer too much. Unfortunately though, while the watch was designed to promote sharing, it seems Maezm doesn’t practice what they preach since the Sharing Watch is only a concept and isn’t available for sale.

[ Sharing Watch ] VIA [ designboom ]

Marc Ecko’s no stranger when it comes to Star Wars, and Star Wars themed apparel, as is evident by his line of hoodies inspired by that galaxy far, far away. But it looks like he’s recently teamed up with Timex as well to produce a series of Star Wars themed watches that so far only look slightly dorky.

This post on The Marc Ecko Blog actually dates back to July, but it shows off a couple of watch designs including a Stormtrooper model and a Boba Fett one, which each feature a mixture of metals, rubber and nylons as well as sounds and light-up ‘Indiglo’ features. Pricing and availability info is still scarce, though the blog post does mention “Holiday 2009″ so if there’s a Star Wars fan on your Christmas list you might want to keep an eye out for them.

[ The Marc Ecko Blog - Exclusive: Star Wars x Marc Ecko Watches: Holiday 2009 ] VIA [ aBlogtoRead ]

Nooka seems to be heavily promoting the fact that their new Zaz watch allows your own skin tone to show through thanks to a transparent LCD display. But hopefully they’ll realize that the nifty design is more then enough to sell the timepiece, since I don’t think anyone, anywhere at anytime has lamented the fact they couldn’t see their skin through the watch they were wearing.

The time is displayed via your typical pseudo-confusing grid of blocks and a series of dashes, though it doesn’t actually appear to be that hard to decipher, and you’ll have your choice of a black or white leather or silver mesh band to complement the silver face. $380, available for pre-order now from Watchismo.

[ Watchismo - Nooka Zaz ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

Today Kempler & Strauss launched their W PhoneWatch which they claim is the world’s smallest full-function quad-band GSM cellphone watch, and given how small the market is at the moment, it’s not that difficult a claim to make. The W PhoneWatch features a 1.5-inch touchscreen interface that can be operated with your fingers, eliminating the need for a stylus, as well as an impressive set of features for a watch-sized phone including a digital camera (640×480 stills or 128×104 videos) and a microSD card slot.

The W PhoneWatch also has Bluetooth of course, allowing it to connect to existing BT devices, or to the included Kempler & Strauss Communicator headset. As for battery life, the watch and headset are rated for up to 150 minutes of talk time, 150 minutes of MP3 playback and up to 100 hours of standby. And it’s got a price tag of just $199, which appears to be unsubsidized.

[ PR - Kempler & Strauss Launches World's Smallest Full-Function GSM Quad-Band Cell Phone Watch ] VIA [ Gearlog ]

I have a fondness for pilot’s watches with their complicated faces full of dials and gauges, but what could be cooler than having a machmeter strapped to your wrist too? Well the Hamilton Khaki X-Mach lives up to its name, allowing you to calculate the mach speed you’re traveling, even though most of us will probably never pass 1.0.

And unfortunately it’s not like you just push a button on the watch and one of the dials will jump to your current mach speed. (As I understand it.) You first need to manually calculate the speed of the plane (or rocket car) and then feed the watch that info along with other speed related data. It actually sounds like something only pilots would know how to do, but it doesn’t make having that feature sound any less cool. $1,125 in black with a leather crocodile pattern & carbon fiber strap.

[ Hamilton Khaki X-Mach ] VIA [ Uncrate ]

While it might have taken some of its design cues from Tetris and other block-type puzzle games, the Casio Cubic Puzzle watch doesn’t actually include any built-in gaming action. I’m afraid it’s all business with your basic 12/24 hour time and date functionality, stopwatch, alarm and backlight. The display is animated, which might help distract you during a boring meeting, but I’m afraid that’s all the fun you’re going to have with this thing. $89.56 from Tokyoflash available in blue or black.

[ Tokyoflash - Casio Cubic Puzzle Watch ] VIA [ SlashGear ]

A talking digital watch might have made headlines back in the 80’s and wowed shoppers at the local Radio Shack, but these days that technology is old hat. But what if that talking watch only told the time in Japanese? Well now you’re onto something!

Combining both retro digital chic and the opportunity to learn another language, these talking watches can be considered both a stylish accessory and an educational aide as you learn how to tell time in Japanese at the push of a button. Just $18.99 from FredFlare.com available in 6 rad colors including grey, purple, white, blue, green and black.

[ Talking Japanese Watches ]

Most watches designed for outdoor activities are rather monstrous affairs with every bell and whistle you can think of, but will probably never use. The Freestyle Navigator 2.0 on the other hand is a bit more subtle, and is actually designed to be worn by anyone thanks to its ‘Free fit technology’ which “allows the buckle tongue to be inserted at any point along the permeable band for a perfect fit on any wrist.” The Navigator 2.0 also features a digital compass with declination adjustment, 3 alarms, a 30-lap memory chronograph and is water-resistant to 330ft. $125 from REI available in a black or silver finish.

[ Freestyle Navigator 2.0 Digital Compass Watch ] VIA [ Acquire ]

It’s hard to believe that Spongebob is already 10 years old, but it’s even harder to believe the Spongebob brand has teamed up with Nooka to help commemorate his anniversary! That partnership has resulted in 3 different Spongebob-themed watches including the ‘SpongeBob ZenV Aluminum Spongenvader’, the ‘SpongeBob Zub ZenH 20 Spongelevator’ and the ‘SpongeBob Zot Aluminum SpongeBamo’. The watches seem to sport rather subtle designs (compared to other Spongebob merchandise) but according to the Nooka website there are distinct similarities between the designs and the cartoon character.

The linear nature of the graphics on all three watches represents a common geometric theme in both the SpongeBob character and Nooka’s design concept, while the bold colors of the watches are reflective of Nooka’s own color pallet and the official colors of the SpongeBob cartoon.

So if nautical nonsense be something you wish, you can buy all 3 watches from the Nooka website for $275, $175 and $250. (Left to right.)

[ SpongeBob ZenV Aluminum Spongenvader, Zub ZenH 20 Spongelevator & Zot Aluminum SpongeBamo ] VIA [ Josh Spear ]