Category Archives: watch

Scurfa Watches Top Side Crew

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Watches don’t often make it into the pages of Geek News Central as they’re decidedly analogue devices in a digital world. However, I’ve been a longstanding fan of Scurfa Watches, based in England, with their reasonably priced and well-designed dive watches. The new Top Side Crew range bridges the gap between a technical dive watch and an everyday wearer with a stylish timepiece that’s still watertight at 200 m. It’s a perfect one-watch solution.

Proprietor Paul Scurfield is a commercial saturation diver and he regularly puts his own watches through their paces at the bottom of the sea. You can catch him on Instagram and he pops up occasionally on podcasts such as The Grey Nato. I’ve had a black Diver One for several years now and it gets wet regularly.

In terms of specs, it’s 40 mm across on the smaller ladies watch and 41 mm for the larger mens (frankly, I would have moved away from the gendering – it’s 2022 y’know – and these are big watches whatever you call them). Stainless steel case, Swiss-made Ronda 715SM quartz movement, sapphire crystal, Superluminova BGW9 on the markers and hands, and rubber strap. Personally, I like the rose gold case with the brown dial though I’m holding out for the white-dialled Treasure Seeker to come back into stock. The hexagonal pattern and paddle hands set the watches apart from other timepieces.

The prices on these watches are about GB£220 for the mens and just under GB£200 for the ladies version. They’re selling well already: both of the turquoise models are out of stock already though that colour is very much “du jour” courtesy of Patek Philipe and Tiffany. Purchasers from abroad can avoid UK sales tax (aka VAT) and save 20%.

 

Swatch Launches Space Collection

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Swatch logoSwatch has launched a five-watch space collection inspired by NASA and the exploration of space. On sale today in Swatch stores and from 8 June on-line, the watches feature the famous “worm” NASA logo. These are going to be hot.

The collection consists of two different model sets. The first set of three watches are Big Bold watches with Bioceramic 47 mm cases and take their cues from NASA flights and spacesuits. The Big Bold Chrono Extravehicular riffs on the spacesuits from the ISS; the Chrono Launch model uses the orange pumpkin suit from the Shuttle era; and the Jumpsuit uses the blue flight suits donned for ground-based activities.

Three wristwatches on the lunar surface
Image courtesy of Swatch

Bioceramic is Swatch’s latest innovation. It’s a new material composed of two-thirds ceramic along with one-third bio-sourced plastic from castor oil. Swatch says that it’s “lightweight, resilient and resistant with a silk-like touch”.

The second set are more traditional Swatch models: the Space Race is white with black accents and a silver dial in a 41 mm case. The Take Me To The Moon model comes with a 34 mm transparent case.

Two wristwatches on lunar surface
Image courtesy of Swatch

Prices are as follows:

  • Extravehicular – GB£137
  • Launch – GB£141
  • Jumpsuit – GB£108
  • Space Race – GB£79
  • Take Me To The Moon – GB£70

Available now from Swatch stores and on-line from 8 June. I think these will sell well, so if you are interested, I wouldn’t hang around.

OnePlus Teases A Smart Watch

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There have been rumours of a OnePlus smart watch for some time but it’s finally been confirmed by CEO Pete Lau. In a community post, he says, “The first-ever OnePlus Watch will launch together with the OnePlus 9 Series on March 23, adding a new element of convenience and seamless connectivity between all of your OnePlus devices.”

Frequently requested by OnePlus fans, the new Watch will be part of the OnePlus ecosystem, carrying through their “burdenless” design, offering “seamless connectivity between OnePlus smartphones, audio peripherals, smartwear devices, and even OnePlus TVs, making smart control over all these devices simple and intuitive.” That all sounds fairly slick.

In a follow-up post, the OnePlus CEO confirms that the watch won’t be running WearOS, “We chose to go with a smart wear operating system developed based on RTOS because we believe it provides you a smooth and reliable experience while offering a great battery life, covering some of the biggest concerns we’ve been hearing from people looking to buy a smartwatch.”

The OnePlus 9 series and the OnePlus Watch will be revealed at the online event on 23 March at 10:00 am EDT / 14:00 GMT / 15:00 CET / 7:30 pm IST at https://www.oneplus.com/launch.

Can we have a OnePlus tablet next, please?

Gadgets Galore for 007

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With only a month to go until the next 007 film, “No Time To Die“, there’s plenty of James Bond-themed goodies for the spyhunters out there.

Omega Seamaster Watch with mesh braceletAs Mr Bond’s watch brand of choice in the recent films, Swiss timekeepers Omega have the Seamaster Diver 300m 007 Edition which comes in a 42 mm titanium case on a titanium mesh bracelet, though a brown, grey and beige Nato strap more in keeping with the military is also available. You know that this isn’t going to be cheap so get your credit card out for this one at GB£7,390.

Swatch Q WatchStaying with watches but significantly reducing the price, Swatch have their Swatch X 007 collection. It’s a range of six watches based on different Bond films, one for each of the actors that has played 007.

  • Sean Connery – Dr No
  • George Lazenby – On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
  • Roger Moore – Moonraker
  • Timothy Dalton – Licence to Kill
  • Pierce Brosnan –The World is Not Enough
  • Daniel Craig – Casino Royale

A seventh Swatch model will be worn by Q in the forthcoming film and is pictured left – I quite like that. The Swatches are more reasonably priced at around £70-£80, though the price for the Q watch hasn’t been confirmed.

Stamps showing scenes from James Bond filmsMoving away from watches and over to stamps, the UK’s Royal Mail has James Bond special stamps featuring both the actors and the vehicles from the films. There’s quite a collection on show from a character set at £7.20 through to silver stamps at £199. The stamps have hidden features which are only revealed under UV light. Very spy.

There’s plenty of other James Bond tie-ins out there – these were just a couple that caught my eye. If you really want to get into the world of 007, check out Bond Lifestyle for links to all the clothes, sunglasses and real-world gear used in the films.

Oaxis Combines Fitness Tracker with Analogue Watch

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That spot on your wrist is in high demand at the moment. From Apple Watches to smart watches, retro digital and vintage automatics, they all want in on that skin real estate. Personally, I still like a watch with hands to tell me that I’m late but I do like step counting and heart rate monitoring too. Consequently, I tend to swap what’s on my wrist depending on activity: it’s not ideal but works for me…mostly.

There might be an improved solution to my problem with a new watch launching on Kickstarter by epaper experts Oaxis. iPhone owners might know the company for their InkCase which provides a second epaper screen on the back of the phone. In this instance, Oaxis are crowd-funding Timepiece, a minimalist analogue watch with an embedded fitness tracker than displays data in a small OLED display in the dial.

The watch uses a Swiss quartz movement from Ronda and the fitness tracker records heart rate, steps, sleep and call / text notifications. As you’d expect, there’s a complementary app to get the data off the watch with Bluetooth. The info only mentions an iOS app, so you might want to confirm there’s going to be an Android app too.

There’s a range of combinations of case, strap and size, with both 38 mm and 41 mm cases. The black dial with red hands looks particularly good but the white dial looks classy too. I’m not sure if its just the lighting but sometimes the white dial has black hands and sometimes they’re silver. Case is a little over 12 mm thick.

And unlike certain other smartwatches, Timepiece will last a month on a single charge – charging is done via a small dock. One of the other cool features is that the time can be set via a Bluetooth connected smartwatch.

The watch is waterproof to 30 m, which means that it’s ok for a bit of light swimming.

If you like the look of this, head over to the Kickstarter campaign. Early birds can get in for US$123, GB£95 or €110.

Delivery is expected in March 2019 and as with all things crowd-funding, don’t pay what you can’t afford to loose.

 

Christopher Ward Launches Ultra Slim C5 Malvern 595

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Here at GNC, I don’t usually cover old school things like watches, but I get the feeling there’s been a little bit of a renaissance in analogue time pieces. Certainly there are plenty of Fitbits and Apple Watches on people’s wrists but there are still plenty of watches out there going tick-tock. Anyway, let me know in the comments if watches are of interest and I’ll do more. – Andrew

Christopher Ward have announced the C5 Malvern 595, a new ultra-slim mechanical watch at just under 6 mm thick. Using a hand-wound mechanical movement, the ETA 7001 which itself is 2.5 mm thick, the designers managed to fit it into a slender case that is just 5.95 mm, hence the 595 moniker. The ETA 7001 has a 42 hour power reserve, meaning it’ll need wound every other day or so.

Christopher Ward’s Co-Founder Mike France explains: “I knew immediately that it would be a significant test for us to create a truly ultra-slim watch. But I felt that it could be possible. And so, my challenge to the team was, can we create a mechanical timepiece, under 6mm high, at a Christopher Ward price point?”

The design comes in two Opalin dial variants, pearly white or cool grey, with a choice of three straps (black, brown, camel) and a Milanese mesh bracelet. The case is 39 mm in diameter, which is very much on trend and wearable for both men and women.

Adrian Buchmann, Senior Designer, explains: “Because the 595’s most important quality is that it’s very slim, it was important we didn’t distract from that – which mostly meant removing clutter. So the dial is very simple with no raised elements or extraneous detail, and we needed exceptionally pure, clean hands. The main detail, in fact, is on the rear of the watch, where we have used a crystal exhibition caseback, so the movement can be viewed.”

For comparison purposes, a Rolex Submariner is 13 mm thick and if you are wondering what the thinnest watch in the world is, then for a mechanical hand-wound it’s the Piaget Altiplano at 3.65 mm. Mind you, they cost a bit more than the Malvern.

Talking about the price, Christopher Ward is milking the 595 theme for all it’s worth. Not only is the C5 Malvern 5.95 mm thick, it costs GB£595. The watch is available now from their boutique and online store.

For those that don’t know Christopher Ward, it’s a British company that designs watches in the UK but are then manufactured in Biel, Switzerland. The company’s been around for 11 years and has a reputation for producing good value watches, both mechanical and quartz.

There’s the obligatory promotional video below.