Remember watches? Casio is still churning them out, adding two new submodels to its Baby-G line. The Gemmy Dial comes in two flavors, one with a full LCD screen and another with traditional watch hands. The Reef is all digital and looks like it’s built for sport. Both models have their own flashy tones of blue, orange and pink, just to make sure that everyone knows you’re wearing a watch. It’s not clear whether these Baby-Gs will make it out of Japan, where they’re expected to sell starting April 30 for 11,500 Yen to 15,000 Yen ($118 to $154). [via Akihabara News]
The first steampunk design from Arenwen is a stunning work of metalry, complete with brass, silver-plated brass, Swarovski crystals and pearl. It measures 2 inches at its widest point, and it’s adjustable, though the designer warns to be careful with all the fragile metal parts. In addition to telling the time, the steampunk watch will remind you “how precious it is.” Unfortunately, it’s sold out at the moment, presumably because all of us bloggers crashed the party. Usually, it’s available for $230 and requires two weeks for crafting and shipping. [Etsy via BB Gadgets]
Let’s face it–watches are more about style than they are about telling the time. You have at least 2 or 3 other devices that can just as easily inform you of the time of day; watches are really to convey a certain sense of who you are. The new Kisai Sensai LED aluminum watch from Tokyoflash capitalizes on this notion by officially putting time in the backseat and strapping a visually-intriguing array of LEDs on your wrist. You have to press a button just to view the time, which is displayed by a series of red, yellow and green LEDs. The time reading is preceeded and succeeded by a rotating LED light show. Clearly this watch is all about style. Now, whether your style is to have a bright, flashing LED show on your wrist is a whole different question. If so, buy in is $260 and various strap and casing color options are available. [Slippery Brick]
For the past decade or so, the widescreen has taken over home entertainment. Whether it be an uber-thin LCD or home projector with a big white wall, everything seems to look a little nicer in widescreen. Testing the scope of the trend, Timex decided to see if widescreen could even make time look better. Indeed, it appears that it has. The Timex Expedition WS4, due for release this May, is a standard multi-function outdoor sports watch with altimeter, barometer, compass, chronograph and thermometer, all displayed on a large widescreen. Wear it around town and let everyone know that you’re a balla that escapes the hassles of everyday life to heli-drop into the Amazon once or twice a month. The widescreen ensures that 4 separate measurements are easy-to-read and crystal-clear. Retail set for $199.
If you’re bad with analog clocks, this might not be the product for you. The Heartbeat’s LED display uses an intricate and somewhat indecipherable pattern of dots to tell time, all for the sake of looking like an EKG. Sadly, the watch doesn’t check for pulse, but it can resuscitate with an hour or two of USB power, and holds a charge for roughly 24 hours. This seems like a lot of hassle for $290. A built-in defibrillator would have been nice. [Product Page via Technabob]
Ever since the 2nd grade, when I stared enviously across the reading group table at the kid with the calculator watch, I’ve had a thing for cool watches. Sometimes it’s pure style, and sometimes it’s bonus functions, but cool new watches always catch the eye. LG really upped the ante on what you can expect from wrist-wrapping gadgetry with its GD910, the world’s first 3G HSDPA wrist phone. This watch phone not only makes calls at the flick of your wrist, but they’re video calls to boot. The watch features a 1.43” LCD touch screen, Text-to-Speech function and MP3 player. Tell me this doesn’t look like the device to discuss classified matters of imminent world consequence. Luckily, no word of a self destruct function. When I get this, the kid with the calculator watch can eat it big time. For the time, however, it looks like it will be available only in Korean and European markets. [ubergizmo]
I’m not sure I approve of this, since it’s ultimately dealing with a man’s personal health issues. But hey, at least this T-shirt carries a positive message (I think). If you missed the news, Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote a letter to the Apple community explaining his recovery from a hormone imbalance that robs his body of necessary proteins. He’s undergoing treatment now, and is most certainly not on his deathbed, despite rumors. To celebrate the occasion, someone set up stevejobslives.com (a quick whois search shows the registrant as Joshua Horton) and is promising a black tee with “STEVE JOBS LIVES” written in big white letters. Clicking the shirt on the Web site only reveals a link to Jobs’ letter and a contact e-mail. No word on pricing! [SteveJobsLives]
Pong is one of those games that’s going to be with us forever. One fan of Pong, John Maushammer took his love of the game to a whole new level by creating a watch to some extent based on the game. The watch (which took TWO YEARS to complete) tells time by totaling up the outcome of a game of ping pong, the time displayed in the watch changed depending on what side of your watch wins the current game (makes it pretty easy to figure out what side is going to win). [via Reevoo]
Just in case you forget how to move like MJ, this design by Aled “fathead” Lewis lays out all the steps while impressing the ladies with its zombie-olive hue. Designing the “Eating Brains, Throwing Shapes” tee must’ve been a blast, as Lewis said he repeatedly watched and paused the Thriller music video and other Thriller dance tutorials to get the moves down. The discounted price of $15 does not include yellow eyes or the creepy Vincent Price laugh. [Threadless via The Awesomer]
