Oh! Gizmo

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 ]

By Andrew Liszewski

There are already plenty of watches that will monitor your heart rate and can keep track of the calories you’ve burned while exercising, but the T4C from Suunto is the first I’ve seen that uses that data to create a custom workout regime. You simply select a date that you’d like to train for, like an upcoming marathon, and the watch’s Coach software let’s you know how long and how intense you should train each day to reach your goal. And if you decide to slack off or even over do it one day, the T4C will automatically adjust your ten-day workout cycle accordingly to compensate. You can order one from Amazon for $219, since the Suunto website seems to have mysteriously vanished.

[ Suunto T4C ] VIA [ Uncrate ]

By Andrew Liszewski

There’s no real reason anyone needs to wear a watch with a built-in calculator these days, unless you’re trying to look super-cool of course. In that case you’ll want to go with the Datamat from Vestal. With a classic segmented LCD display and 16 button keypad it’s as basic a calculator watch as you’re going to find, but the polyurethane band and neon green or yellow color palettes keep it straddling the fence between geeky and cool. Unless you go with the black model, then there’s no question you’re a nerd.

The Datamat is available on the Vestal website for $55.

[ Vestal Datamat ] VIA [ Acquire ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It’s been a while since we’ve seen anything new from Tokyo Flash, but I guess if any company would have trouble keeping track of the time, it would be them. Like their past efforts, the Kisai Denshoku gets high regards for style and design, but not so much when it comes to usability. The watch’s face is made up of 12 orange acrylic bars that light up like a graphic EQ, but interpreting the time takes a little know-how.

Pressing the button on the side of the watch causes the bars to light up 3 times, first indicating the hours (3 lit bars = 3 o’clock) then groups of ten minutes and finally single minutes. As is usually the case, there’s a bit of counting involved, but if you’re OK with that you can order the Kisai Denshoku in a black or silver finish from Tokyo Flash for $239.

[ Tokyo Flash Kisai Denshoku ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Watch collectors who lean towards the high-tech might want to break out their credit cards for this one. The 1972 Pulsar P1 by Hamilton USA was the first LED watch ever sold to the public, and according to the description on this eBay auction, the limited run of just 400 pieces were eventually all recalled. So finding one that’s still in working condition, with the original box, is quite rare. And that’s probably why the seller has listed it with a ‘Buy It Now’ price of $25,000. So, any takers?

[ eBay - Rare Pulsar P1 Prototype LED Digital watch 18k w/ box ] VIA [ TechEBlog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Looks like Romain Jerome’s got a new addition to their Moon Dust-DNA line with this model confusingly called “The Truth About Roswell.” What truth is supposed to be revealed here exactly? That aliens have mastered intergalactic space travel (minus the landing part) but have absolutely no taste when it comes to watch design?

Like previous watches in the Moon Dust-DNA line, ‘The Truth’ features a dial with actual Moon dust and has an alligator leather strap that’s partly woven with fibers from a spacesuit from the International Space Station. But it also includes titanium and steel fragments from the Apollo XI spacecraft in the bezel, as well as rusted steel melted with fragments of the Soyuz spacecraft.

This particular model is limited to just 9 pieces, which will probably put the price tag well above the $15,000 that Romain Jerome was asking for the previous Moon Dust-DNA watch.

[ Romain Jerome Moon Dust-DNA Line ] VIA [ aBlogtoRead ]

By Evan Ackerman

From now on, whenever you need to make a decision, just look at the Decider (actually called “Mr. Jones The New Decider”) watch. Every second, “YES” or “NO” are alternately displayed in a little magnified window on the face of the watch. Bam, there, done, decision made. Guaranteed to make life more interesting, if possibly shorter.

If that kind of spontaneity scares you (and it scares the dickens out of me), try this: use the Decider watch to make an instant, random decision for you. If you catch yourself feeling relieved, it was the right decision. If you’re disappointed or anxious, you know to go the other way. Of course, this technique works just as well with a penny, which is about $179.98 cheaper than the watch is.

Available now, in a limited edition of 100.

[ Dynamism ] VIA [ Craziestgadgets ]

By Luke Anderson

I loved Transformers just as much as the next kid when I was in school. I had a pretty sweet Optimus Prime and a few others, but not the massive collections that some people did. Well if you’re obsessive about your robots in disguise, here’s a collectible that you might not have gotten your hands on when it debuted back in 1983.

This very dated timepiece is more than meets the eye. As you’ve no doubt discerned from the previous paragraph, it is really a Transformer. With a few twists here and turns there, you’ve got yourself a tiny robot ready to kick some ass (very tiny ass). Back in 1983 there was a transforming watch called Kronoform. I believe we covered this a few years back. Well it seems that Takara Tomy has decided to re-release this watch in two versions. One is a Cybertron Autoceptor and the other a Destron Time Limit. You can pick these up sometime in August for just shy of $300.

[ NCSX ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]