The Weekly Daily Giz Wiz, week of April 18th, 2011 (5th week of the new format.)

A Watch People Will Watch!

Even though I love my very old Timex Datalink when I was offered the change to use Phosphor E Ink digital watch for a couple of weeks, I jumped at the opportunity. The model I have is the new World Time Curved E Ink digital watch. The innovative E-ink technology – yep, just like you find in e-readers, makes this a really unusual watch. I wore it to a dinner the night I got it and it was just a few minutes before some asked about my ‘unusual watch’. So if you're looking for a conversation starter, this is a good choice. You can select from 24 time zones for one display mode, while displaying a second time zone simultaneously if you like. I set mine to display both NY and west coast time. The dual time zone display can also be configured to display the time of day or both the date and time in either over-sized or conventional-sized segments. (In the over-sized mode it’s really easy to see the time at a glance.) The case is curved to fit the wrist and it’s very comfortable for a watch that’s larger than usual. According to the instruction booklet, the band is integrated with the World Time watchcase and is non-replaceable. They don’t tell you what to do if you need a new band, but the one that comes on the watch is quite rugged and should last a long time. The company says the watch is water-resistant to 165 feet (50 M). You’ll need the booklet to set up the watch because all the settings are done using a single rocker bar at the bottom of the watch. Once it’s programmed you can cycle through the following display modes: Time of Day + World Time, Time of Day + Calendar / Time of Day Large / Time of Day Small / World Time. At the push of the bar you can select a white on black display, or black on white display. There’s plenty of contrast, but they’re not vivid black or white. A downside is that there is no night light function. With the polyurethane band, the MSRP is $150.00. I saw it on Amazon for $119.00 at this link. (I have not purchased anything here:)

http://www.amazon.com/Phosphor-WC01-World-Curved-Polyurethane/dp/B00404U0I4/ref=pd_sbs_watch_3

Company website: www.phosphorwatches.com

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