Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Flud claims their Cartridge line of watches are “inspired by the video games of Old” but I’m afraid I’m just not seeing it. The watches feature a waterproof, polycarbonate case with a glossy rubber strap as well as a “killer” display with vertically oriented numbers and movements. Again, not really seeing how that ties in to old school cartridge games, unless the watch periodically stops working until you blow in it, clean a set of metal contacts on one side or cram a folded piece of paper between it and your wrist. $80 each in 3 different color combos from Flud.

[ Flud - The Cartridge ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Andrew Liszewski

LG’s GD910 is probably the first real watch phone to be released by one of the major electronics manufacturers, and while it was shown off at CES earlier this year with news that it would be available later in the year, representatives for the company were mum when it came to pricing info. But finally the mystery of what this marvel of miniaturization will cost was revealed by Orange yesterday with the announcement that the GD910 would be available as of August 6 in France starting at €899 or about $1,270 US dollars with a 12 or 24 month contract.

It’s kind of hard to justify the price when you can get a far more capable iPhone for as low as $99 these days, but on the other hand this is the first true watch phone that doesn’t look like you’ve got some electronic monstrosity strapped to your wrist.

[ Orange - The first 3G watchphone available in France exclusively with Orange ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Andrew Liszewski

LG showed off their ‘wearable’ GD910 watchphone at CES earlier this year, but given the choice I would most definitely opt for the thinner S9110 watchphone that Samsung just announced. Now it’s easy to boast that you have the world’s thinnest watchphone when there are really just 2 contenders on the market, but the S9110 looks even more svelte than the Casio Databanks I used to wear as a kid.

The watch features a 1.76-inch touchscreen (176×220 pixel resolution) covered with scratch-resistant glass as well as Bluetooth 2.1, a speakerphone, voice recognition (all rather vital to a watchphone) as well as email with Outlook sync support. It will set you back a whopping $638, though hopefully that will be reduced with carrier subsidies.

[ Samsung Hub - Samsung unveils world’s thinnest watchphone – S9110 ] VIA [ MobileCrunch ]

By Chris Scott Barr

When you hear the term wristwatch, you generally think of a timepiece that you wear on your wrist. Well someone is looking to change that definition. There isn’t a whole lot of information on his design, but I am going to assume for now that it is only a concept. The idea is a subdermal implant or “electric tattoo” that can function as a watch.

It uses your natural kinetic energy for power (not unlike some watches out there) and somehow uses a wireless signal to sync up with an external clock to make sure it is correct. It only illuminates when you hold your wrist up to look at it. A very cool idea, if it could work.

[ Behance ] VIA [ TrendHunter ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Last year URWERK turned heads and weighed down wrists with their UR-202 Hammerhead turbine-regulated watch which, quite frankly, just looked really cool. And so does their latest model, the UR-CC1 codenamed the ‘King Cobra’. Now while it might not look as complex as the UR-202, the King Cobra’s 2 horizontal retrograde cylinders which are used to display the hours and minutes are actually the result of 3+ years of R&D and testing to ensure their rotation and fly-back action doesn’t affect the watch’s accurate timekeeping.

The watch also features a honeycomb patterned rack (visible through a window on the side) used to rotate the minute cylinder that’s actually made from silicon via a photolithography process in order to keep it extremely lightweight but also very strong. Unfortunately there’s no pricing info for the UR-CC1 at the moment if you’ve already got your credit card in hand, but it’s easily another item you can file under “if you have to ask…”

[ URWERK UR-CC1 'King Cobra' ] VIA [ Watch Happening ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Tokyo Flash is usually the world leader when it comes to producing confusing watches that make telling the time at a glance nearly impossible, but I think Seahope may have just snatched the title with this Ants watch. The display is basically covered with a seemingly random pattern of ants that light up in red, green or orange depending on the current time. I’ve also included a shot of the ‘how-to-read’ guide, and as you can see, deciphering the time requires some basic counting and math skills. So the watch is probably better suited to a college-educated professional entomologist than a little kid who happens to like bugs.

Other features include a stainless steel case and band, a mineral glass face and the watch is waterproof to 3ATM, though it’s recommended you don’t submerge it. $207 from the Japan Trend Shop.

[ Seahope Ants Watch ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Life’s got you down? Well apparently you can turn things around by simply strapping this unique Ever-Increasing watch to your wrist. It’s part of the SeaHope EleeNo Cyber collection and the time is displayed via a series of always climbing line graphs. So even though you may be feeling down, life will always be looking up! Yeah, I know, it’s a bit of a stretch. But if one of the thing’s that’s been getting you down is the inability to read your watch in direct sunlight, you’ll be happy to hear that the Ever-Increasing watch also features a special coating on the color LCD that makes it easy to see even in bright light! $206 from the Japan Trend Shop.

[ SeaHope Ever-Increasing Watch ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While the ESPN Swimming Challenge device I brought you earlier was clearly designed with the younger set in mind, the Pool-Mate looks like it might actually be a useful tool for those who are serious about swimming.

The streamlined looking watch features a MEMS accelerometer that detects the motion of your wrist during a swim stroke, and using “advanced digital signal processing techniques and software algorithms” the watch is able to calculate both your number of strokes and your number of laps. And it’s compatible with a wide range of swimming techniques including the front crawl, the back crawl, the breast stroke and the butterfly in pools over 10 meters in length.

At the moment the Pool-Mate is still undergoing final testing, but it should be available for sale sometime this Summer.

[ Swimovate Pool-Mate Watch ] VIA [ The Gadgeteer ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Tired of digging your cellphone out of your pocket only to find it’s a call from someone you didn’t want to talk to? The Citizen AIBATO M is another bluetooth watch that can connect to a select number of cellphones and provide information about who’s calling, emails and even news tickers right on the watch’s display. The LCD will glow when there’s an incoming call or email, and if that’s not enough to get your attention the watch can also be set to vibrate so you won’t miss a call ever again. Unless you’re not wearing the watch of course. Furthermore, when used with various phones from Sharp or Softbank the AIBATO M can even remotely trigger the camera’s shutter which actually seems a bit more creepy than useful to me.

There’s no pricing info on the AIBATO M at this point, even though it’s set for a July 1 release in Japan.

[ PR - Citizen AIBATO M ] VIA [ SlashGear ]