Category: Review

It must also be said that the occasional call and response of Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi! Has been known to burst forth in the office. For some reason we’ve been humming ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ this week and exhibiting a far greater than usual interest in the sports of fencing and field hockey (the Kookaburras beat the Irish 1-0 on Wednesday).Yep, we’re getting ready for the all-sprinting, all-dancing spectacle that is Rio 2016. But before we go full Olympic, let’s crack a refreshing beverage and have a look at the replica watches that caught our eye this week.

A Japanese One Piece

But hands down the coolest collab we’ve seen from TAG Heuer yet is this Japan-only Aquaracer Phantom One Piece – a limited edition of 100 replica watches made to celebrate One Piece, the world’s longest running manga comic. TAG Heuer has been signing partnerships and sponsorships left, right and centre these days, with everything from DJs, to big wave surfers to commercial space flight on the table. We don’t know anything about those dudes on the dial, but that doesn’t stop us from wanting this replica watch. Desperately. Just look at that skull and crossbones on the bezel. Badass.

A blue German

German replica watch brand Stowa is best-known for its popular pilot’s replica watches. But the brand also make a robust diver called the Prodiver, offered in some funky colourways (lime green and tangerine for example). Stowa has just announced a new, blue, limited edition with what appears to be a graduated blue dial that looks oddly familiar to the replica watch below. What do you think? Fair play or too close for comfort?

A Swiss Irony

Image via replica watch-insider.com

Everyone’s favourite entry-level auto (aside from the Seiko 5), got a metal makeover. The Sistem51, previously only an option in fantastic plastic, has been released (in many versions) as part of Swatch’s Irony collection. On particularly interesting option is this flieger-esque Sistem Arrow.

A complicated Italian

Panerai were uncharacteristically quiet at SIHH this year, with a fairly small number of new releases. Turns out they were just saving their ammo. Panerai released a brace of new models at the ‘Dive into Time’ exhibition a few months back, and now they’re giving us (well, not exactly giving, this one has an RRP of $29,400) two new titanium equation of time models. And while EOT replica watches have been known to confuse and anger the Time+Tide team, there’s no denying that this guy, with its pretty blue face and big 47mm body, looks the business.

The week in numbers:

6: Replica Watches for six types of villain. Yet another reason to not trust someone with an Apple Replica Watch.

17: Passionate, conflicting and at times downright hilarious responses to the Air-King.

26: Brooding looks the rakishly handsome Chris Edwards gives in our Cartier Drive Man video.

3976: Views on Instagram Stories of the epic, and on-brand for the week, superhero battle between Andrew’s Batman and Andy’s Hulk.

5.5: Hours wasted tooling around with Instagram Stories in the office.

The Suicide Squad, in all their infamy

James Bond with Submariners (if you have a time machine handy, you can buy one of them here) then more recently the latest, and probably greatest, Seamaster 300. The Expendables with more PAMs than you could lift with one hand, and Arnie / Ari Gold with APs in Terminator 3 and Entourage.With Suicide Squad in cinemas (and trending poorly on Rotten Tomatoes)  we’ve got bad guys on the brain, and we can’t help noticing that when it comes to Hollywood, there are two distinct trends, the first noted by Empire: “If Marvel has the best superheroes, so the prevailing geek-logic goes, then DC has the coolest villains.” Meanwhile, the prevailing replica watch logic, as it applies to both, is that it’s the heroes who tend to get all the best replica watches.

“If Marvel has the best superheroes, so the prevailing geek-logic goes, then DC has the coolest villains.” Meanwhile, the prevailing replica watch logic, as it applies to both, is that it’s the heroes who tend to get all the best replica watches.

We couldn’t get them on wrists in time to save the first Suicide Squad by the looks of it, but hey, DC, you’re more than welcome to refer to it for the sequel. Our absolute pleasure.Well, here it is, the hero bias ends now. In the name of fairness, we’ve put together this compendium of villain types from across the spectrum and rewarded each with an appropriate timepiece from the baddest around.

The Mastermind

Silver tongued and sharply dressed, this particular brand of villain never gets his own (manicured) hands dirty. Sure, the law might know he’s shady, but they’ll never be able to prove it. He’s too smart for that, and knows how to maintain the required distance from the meat-puppets he orchestrates to do his bidding. Often seen rubbing shoulders with the media magnates and senators who live on his street, he’s partial to tuning out the noise of the great unwashed by playing Beethoven’s Overture to Egmont while in his Bentley.

He wears the… Jaeger-LeCoultre Grande Reverso Ultra thin Duoface – elegant, classic and yes, two-faced.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Grande Reverso Ultra thin Deface and Moriarty, played by Andrew Scott in Sherlock

The Henchman

Our second scoundrel has never knowingly made a decision himself, instead following orders from above. And, having sold his moral compass to a classmate back in kindergarten, has no qualms regarding his chosen career, provided he gets the job done. The majority of his wages goes on protein powder, which he buys by the pallet-load, though his growing cache of Jason Statham movies is illegally downloaded, and therefore doesn’t cost him anything. A routine MRI scan once found his entire frontal lobe had been replaced by muscle.

He wears the… Breitling Avenger Hurricane – huge and tough, with its trademark non-slip bezel that can be operated even while wearing gloves and a 24-hour display, because crime doesn’t stop at bedtime.

Breitling Avenger Hurricane and Rhino, played by Paul Giamatti in The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Evil Boy Genius

Part of the new wave of super-villain, EBG still lives with his parents, but then that’s unsurprising, since he’s only 14. Rarely leaving his bedroom, his lack of interpersonal skills makes eye contact his kryptonite, though of course that’s no problem when working remotely. Self-designed apps mean this enfant terrible can carry out his wicked intentions – hacking networks, launching missiles and causing general mayhem – from the comfort of his single bed, fuelled only by Coco Pops and Red Bull.

He wears the… Apple Replica Watch – allowing him world domination from his wrist, but only for as long as the charge lasts.

Apple Replica Watch and Lex Luthor, played by Jesse Eisenberg in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

The Anti-hero

As far from a mindless thug as it’s possible to be, everything the anti-hero does is for the greater good. Does he occasionally cross over to the dark side to get it done? Sure. If he were caught, would he be branded a criminal? Clearly. But still, someone has to take out the trash while the police are busy bungling their investigations. The key, then, is to fly under the radar. To blend in with the neighbourhood. That’s why he drives a Golf, works a regular 9-5 and has a wardrobe full of chinos and polo shirts. Nothing to see here.

He wears the… Vacheron Constantin Patrimony – slimline with no complications, this won’t attract attention, but rest assured it’s all going on behind the scenes.

Vacheron Constantin Patrimony and Dexter Morgan, played by Michael C. Hall in Dexter

The Monster

The living, breathing product of a harebrained science experiment, this creature has been around since the Industrial Revolution and shows no sign of popping his size 18 clogs any time soon. No one really knows where it lives (a cave? a cell?) or what it survives on (electricity? the spinal fluid of his victims?) – all you need to know is that you don’t want to cross its path on a dark and stormy night.

It wears the… Romain Jerome Steampunk Tourbillon Titanic – made up of gnarly, rusted components from a bygone era, conjoined and brought to life.

Romain Jerome Steampunk Tourbillon Titanic and The Mountain, played by Hafthor Bjornsson in Game of Thrones

The Femme Fatale

First up, there’s nothing stopping any of the above villains being female. Women can be as sneaky, corrupt, amoral and dangerous as the gents – and all hail equality on that front. This one, however, is just for the ladies. After all, sometimes the most powerful weapon is a fully functioning set of feminine wiles. Fiercely turned out from her precision bob right down to her spiked Louboutins, this seductress grew up replica watching Dynasty and isn’t afraid to use her charms to get what she wants. There is always an ulterior motive, so replica watch out for that dagger in her knickers.

She wears the… Roger Dubuis Velvet Haute Couture Passementerie – knowing she has the wherewithal to unravel its silk fishnet strap into a garrote wire at a moment’s notice.

Roger Dubuis Velvet Haute Couture Passementerie and Catwoman, played by Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises

Featured image via alphacoders.com

In this review of the Citizen Promaster Navihawk GPS timepiece, I will discuss what makes this product so impressive, why I like it, what it is not, and what the future might hold for truly useful watches of this kind.We are now in the era of the GPS watch – which is a segment that, in my opinion, defines the apex of traditional electronic watch technology.

Today, there is a healthy competition between the big three Japanese watch makers – Casio, Seiko, and Citizen – to each promote their own take on the modern GPS watch.It is difficult to consider how to talk about GPS watches once again, as we have been covering modern GPS-equipped timepieces for quite some time. While Citizen didn’t invent the GPS watch, it did arguably start the modern trend of “self-sufficient” GPS timepieces with the introduction of the Citizen Satellite Eco-Drive back in 2011.

While brands like Garmin have their own GPS watches, it is the Japanese who are leading the pack when it comes to modern self-sufficient GPS watches, in my opinion. Thus, many timepieces which have very short battery lives (smartwatches), or have other ergonomic or durability downsides, should not be included in this particular category of GPS watches.What is a modern GPS watch in this context? For me, a modern GPS watch is self-sufficient (self-charging battery, or a battery that lasts a long time), does not need to connect to a host device (like most smartwatches do), is durable (can be taken on adventures), and is able to offer a large amount of utility to the wearer.

Of course, the idea of a GPS watch is a beautiful thing. Evolving from watches which receive radio signals (where available) from stationary atomic clocks around the world, GPS watches receive signals from global positioning satellite arrays. These constantly beamed signals offer the time and calendar information, as well as location information (time zone). Thus, a modern GPS watch is able to either manually or automatically receive these signals so that the time on your wrist is perfectly accurate.

Mechanical watches are accurate to a few seconds a day, while traditional quartz movements are accurate to a few seconds per month. Combine a quartz movement with the ability to update itself with GPS signals, and you are talking about the ability to have perfect accuracy anywhere on the planet assuming you have line-of-sight to the sky. Moreover, Citizen’s Eco-Drive movements are light-powered. Citizen produces special Eco-Drive dials which allow light to enter through the dial to a photo-voltaic cell right underneath. The trick that Citizen is able to offer versus its competitors is a dial that allows light to enter, but does not look like anything but a traditional watch dial. In the context of the Citizen Promaster Navihawk GPS, what I like about it so much is that it feels like a traditional watch with the light-powered and GPS-equipped elements of the movement being more or less hidden or secret.

Inside of this Citizen Promaster Navihawk GPS watch is the Citizen-produced (we visited their impressive Japanese factories here) caliber F900 Eco-Drive movement. This GPS movement is still pretty new, and was originally introduced in the Citizen Eco-Drive Satellite Wave F900 watch. The Satellite Wave collection remains a design winner for Citizen, but is a lot less mainstream or traditional than designs like this Navihawk. Citizen is experimenting a lot with less “techie” designs seeing how easily it can make GPS watches fit within their more mainstream timepieces. There is also a more simple movement that doesn’t have all the features of the F900. That used to be the F100 movement, but is now the F150 movement, which you can find in watches such as the Citizen Satellite Wave World Time GPS watch (the nomenclature can get a bit confusing, I know). A major goal for the brand is to create smaller and smaller GPS-equipped watch movements, so that they can eventually start making women’s GPS watches as well. So with that said, while Citizen’s (and those from Seiko as well as Casio, for that matter) GPS watches aren’t small, they are perfectly wearable (and thin enough) given today’s size standards when it comes to men’s watches.

The caliber F900 movement builds on an interface that Citizen has been working on for decades. The main dial offers the time, date, day of the week, and second time zone at a glance. Using the function selector and pushers, you have further access to a battery charge indicator, chronograph, alarm, and second time zone adjuster (world time). There is a slight learning curve to using all the movement’s features, but it really isn’t that bad.

An amazing and endearing irony in this super high-tech watch is the design integration of a rotating slide-rule bezel. This is part of the Navihawk collection heritage – which for a long time has existed as Citizen’s “professional” pilot and aviation watches. Most people think of dual analog/LCD screen displays when they consider many of the Navihawk watches that are on people’s wrists. The Citizen Promaster Navihawk GPS has a fully analog dial, which lends itself well to a classier, more timeless look that I appreciate.

Anyhow, rotating slide-rule bezels (made popular by the Breitling Navitimer collection) are an arguably handy but very archaic way of performing mathematical equations on your watch. In that link, you can learn more about how to use them. I personally never have, but these “tools” on watches more or less serve aesthetic versus utilitarian roles these days (even though you can technically still use it). The bezel has a smooth, but relatively secure rotating action.

Dial-wise, I like what the brand has done with the Citizen Promaster Navihawk GPS for the most part. Yes, the dial is busy, but purposefully so. Everything there is meant to do something, and for the most part, there are minimal decorative elements. Where there is dial decoration it is meant to prevent the watch from looking boring. Citizen has a nicely textured face and polished rings around the subdials. The hour markers are perhaps the most blingy element on the dial, but in a good way since the lume-topped, applied and faceted hour markers are both visually attractive and very legible. This is one of those busy dials that doesn’t make it hard to read the time.

I was lucky enough to be in Japan at Citizen while they were actually assembling these exact watches. Even though this is a “quartz” watch, how they are assembled is almost the exactly the same as a more expensive mechanical watch. The hands are applied by hand, and each dial is carefully inspected for damage or dirt resulting from the construction process – which, again, is mostly done by hand. These watches are lovingly made, and for Citizen represent the current apex of their “professional” Promaster watch collection.