360 DEGREES Weblog

Finally: A nice-looking Nooka with a face that’s actually readable. Taking cues from its unique perspective on time telling, the Nooka Zub Zirc Watch ($130) sports a familiar wheel of 12 dots to denote the hour, a simple bar for the minutes, a small window to count the seconds, alarm and chronograph modes, and a 20mm polyurethane band in your choice of six colors. Pick the color that matches your favorite attire, buy a few to mix-n-match, or buy all six and wear them up your atrophied arm like Swatch watches from the 80s.

Such a long name for a watch! Get through all the confusion, and realize that this is a special limited edition version for the Beverly Hill Jaeger-LeCoultre boutique store, of the Master Compress Diving Navy SEALS watch from 2009. There will be a 19 pieces in black titanium and 62 models in gray PVD titanium. Why those amounts? Because together that makes “1962″ which is the year the Navy SEALs were born. For tech details about the watch, you can refer to my earlier article on the Master Compressor Diving Navy SEALs watch here.

This model is 44mm wide with a manufacture automatic mechanical movement with an alarm complication. According to JLC, this Incursion Edition of the watch has soine up of watches made in partnership with the Navy SEALs. me very minor little changes that further refine the timepiece. The new models here come in either yellow or orange accents. Black is mixed with yellow, with the gray version is mixed with orange. Very sporty and “look at me” for a watch tested by an arm of the military known for stealth. Ironic right? Given the beautiful, almost summery design of these watches and the JLC pedigree, I can’t see them waiting to be sold for very long.

To commemorate 55 years of Porsche Club of America, Swiss luxury watchmaker TAG Heur has introduced the limited edition Monaco watches. With more than 100,000 members, the PCA is one of the world’s largest single-marque car clubs. The McQueen’s inspired limited edition TAG Heuer Monaco comes with a special black leather strap with racing holes and red stitching. The watch also has the racing number “55” and the Porsche Club of America’s logo engraved on the sapphire exhibition back. Sure to impress any Tag Heuer watch lover, PCA member or an avid watch collector, the TAG Heuer Monaco, priced at $5,500, is exclusively available through the Porsche Club of America in a limited edition of 55 pieces.

After securing a lucrative merchandizing agreement with Formula One Management last month, Swiss watchmaker Hublot revealed the F1 King. But if its decidedly lackluster, monochromatic design didn’t do it for you, this very well might.

Presented in Shanghai during this past weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, the F1 King Power is packed with racing-inspired design touches. Its ceramic bezel is designed after an F1 car’s brake disc. The automatic chronograph movement’s push-buttons are styled after the high-tech steering wheel on an F1 car. Even the wrist strap is made of fire-retardant Nomex, just like an F1 driver’s racing suite. The case itself is made of satin-finish zirconium and affixed with PVD-coated titanium components, and features a 42-hour power reserve. The Hublot F1 King Power will only be made in limited quantities, so interested parties had better act fast.

For the watch enthusiast with a passion for
innovation and ingenuity, the new must-have timepiece is the Tread 1. This
engineering masterpiece, the debut watch from the new line of timepieces from
Devon, is a big, bold, sexy declaration of independence from the status quo.
The Tread 1ʼs unique functionality reinvents the watch, extending far beyond the
boundaries of traditional watchmaking. The movement of the Tread 1 is a
mesmerizing display of Devonʼs patented interwoven system of time belts. This
series of belts expresses hours and minutes in exacting motion, while the
seconds indicator runs in continuous motion. To ensure temporal accuracy, a
proprietary optical recognition system monitors each belt position at all times.
The sleek, bold Tread 1 has a unique aesthetic unlike any other timepiece.
Design inspiration for this luxury watch came from industrial conveyor belts and
motorcycles.
Four extremely compact microstep motors, powered by a lithium polymer
rechargeable cell that will run for up to two weeks on a single charge, drive the
movement of the four belts with efficiency, exacting power and steadfast
accuracy. The belt assemblies are mounted on a central chassis, which allows
for the perfect clearance of the moving parts and also creates the illusion that the
parts are floating within the case. Fiber-reinforced glass nylon allows for belts
that are only 2/1,000 of an inch thick

The Jaquet Droz SUW Chronograph is the second watch from the Jaquet Droz SUW (Sports Utility Watch) line. The SUW Chronograph integrates the automatic Jaquet Droz caliber 6885-S column wheel chronograph movement into the rugged SUW design. The crown and chronograph push buttons are made of cast natural rubber as is the strap whilst the case is made of stainless steel

The Cabestan Nostromo watch, inspired by the ship from the Alien movie. In the words of its own designers, the Nostromo combines traditional watchmaking with “retro-futuristic audacity,” and when we gaze upon its exposed vertical mechanics, we can’t exactly argue otherwise. With a titanium case, Superluminova phosphorescent coating for dusky situations, and side windows (see them after the break), this is as appealing a watch as any geek can dare to imagine. Sure, you could probably buy a sports car for less than the 150,000 Swiss Francs ($141,400 in American currency) asking price, but it’s not like you can strap a Porsche to your wrist, now is it?

Not content to design a watch that could handle simple spaceflight, the Seiko Spring Drive Spacewalk Watch ($28,000) is built to work outside the station in the unforgiving vacuum of space. Tested on actual spacewalks, this over-engineered timepiece features standard time, date, and chronograph functions, and is driven by a Spring Drive system that works with an entirely new Tri-synchro regulator to ensure accuracy and proper function in even the most extreme conditions — ‘cuz it’d be a real bitch to miss LOST because you were out on a spacewalk.

Given how simple we’ve made timekeeping over the years, it was inevitable that luxury watches would have to move into more esoteric lands in order to exude the appropriate sense of wonder when witnessed by those who can’t afford them. You might call that the Xperia Pureness effect. Ergo, quite aside from its platinum or 18-carat gold construction options, the 4N watch tries to grab the spotlight with its quirky disc-based mechanism, which rotates numbers (four numbers, hence 4N) into position to display a digital readout of the time. The fact that all three discs — built out of aluminum or a titanium alloy — and the MVT01 movement are exposed to the eye earns geek cred from us, while the limited run of only 16 units should ensure the desired exclusivity for the watches’ future owners. As the old saying about price goes, if you have to ask, you can’t afford one.

It seems like eBook readers aren’t the only things getting the E-ink display technology. This concept watch – OXY also sports a pretty E-ink display. This unisex watch can display the usual stuff like time, date, calendar and alarm. It’s made from stainless steel, has colored leather strap combos, and the display is encased in mineral glass. The XKSALIA Typography that is used to display the time seems to go rather well with this design too. Do you think it’s cool enough to deserve being converted into a mass produced item?