1. Pick one watch that is very special to you, and get your camera phone ready.
2. Record a video telling us your most interesting or meaningful story about your watch. Let's say 2-3 minutes is the sweet spot – if you go longer, that's okay. (And please remember to introduce yourself: your name and where you are from.)
3. Get creative, keep it clean, and have fun!
4. Take some photos on the wrist and a few shots of the watch so that we can proudly display them on our site. Horizontal, please.
5. To share your video and photos, you can either A) upload here; or B) upload to your preferred large file transfer service and send a link to mywatchstory@hodinkee.com.
October 01, 2020 at 01:00AM
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My Watch Story: Making Martinis With A Seiko Cocktail Time, A Datejust As Creative Companion, A Souvenir Of A Journalistic Adventure, And More - HODINKEE
Garmin’s D2 aviator watch line has matured since the earliest models and the latest is the D2 Air. The new watch—priced at $499—trickles down from Garmin’s Venu, a generously featured fitness smartwatch that works with Garmin’s Connect virtual activity tracking program. The new D2 Air retains nearly all of the Venu’s sports and smartwatch capabilities but its top layer of software focuses on aviation data by using a worldwide aeronautical database with airports, navaids (including intersections) and textual weather. It has a color touchscreen, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and a shallow menu structure. It doesn’t have onscreen weather graphics—only text, including TAFs and METARs.
The watch has a built-in pulse oximeter and heart rate monitor, plus an altitude and fuel tank alerter utility that vibrates the wrist as a reminder. The D2 Air is priced well south of Garmin’s flagship pilot’s watch, the $1249 D2 Delta PX, which plays weather graphics and has a two-way comm stream with Garmin’s Pilot tablet app for the sizable price premium. The Air can receive flight plan transfers from the Pilot app (it can’t send them), plus it works with flygarmin.com for logbook and other flight utilities.
The D2 Air’s wrist-based pulse oximeter and heart rate sensors.
The D2 Air can run for as long as five days on a single charge when used as a smartwatch and up to 10 hours when using the internal GPS for navigating. And when it comes to navigating, the watch has direct-to navigation, it automatically begins navigating to the loaded waypoint when it senses a predetermined climb rate, it has an HSI with off-course prompting, adjustable barometric altimeter and has extensive runway data including orientation and wind components, runway lengths, airport frequencies and traffic pattern altitudes.
This is the HSI display set for direct-to navigation.
The D2 Air, which has a 1.2-inch color AMOLED touchscreen, a scratch-hesitant Corning Gorilla Glass 3 lens and a 43.2-mm bezel, is lighter and has a smaller profile than the flagship D2 Delta PX. And since it started life as a multifunctional smartwatch, it easily serves double duty for sports activities and health tracking. It connects with Garmin cycling accessories, including cadence and speed sensors, in addition to Garmin’s Varia smart lighting and rear taillight radar system. It comes loaded with over 20 indoor and outdoor sports apps, plus Garmin Pay—the company’s touchless payment system. The watch comes standard with a premium leather strap and a quick-release silicon sports band. The watch is available now, and the flagship D2 Delta PX watch will remain in the Garmin wearable lineup.
The D2 Air is as much a sports watch as it is an aviator’s watch.The Link Lonk
September 30, 2020 at 02:02PM
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One of the fake Casio watches that was seized/Customs and Border Protection
One of the fake Casio watches that was seized/Customs and Border Protection
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WTVQ/Press Release) – More than 10,000 counterfeit Casio watches worth a estimated $680,000 if real were seized Tuesday during an inspection by Customs and Border Protection officers in Louisville.
uncovered More than 10,000 counterfeit Casio watches worth more than $680,000 during an inspection Tuesday of an arriving shipment.
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According to the agency, a CBP officer in Louisville held a shipment, manifested as Abs watch, watch material, metal for timing. The parcel was inspected to determine the admissibility of its contents in accordance with CBP
One of the fake Casio watches that was seized/Customs and Border Protection
regulations.
When the shipment was opened, Casio watches were found inside. The items were inspected by an import specialist who determined the items were counterfeit.
In all, 10,500 watches were seized. If these items were real, the total MSRP for these would have been $682,500. The packages were coming from Hong Kong and were going to one recipient in Laredo, Texas, according to the CBP.
“CBP works around the clock to facilitate trade while keeping our country safe. Ensuring the safety of the public against dangerous merchandise is a top priority for CBP,” said Louisville Port Director Thomas Mahn. “Once again our CBP officers at the Port of Louisville have demonstrated their exceptional skill and superior commodity expertise.”
Intellectual property rights (IPR) protection is a priority trade issue for CBP.
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, CBP and their partner agency Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) seized 27,599 shipments containing IPR violations with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of more than $1.5 billion had the goods been genuine.
Watches and jewelry represent 15 percent of all IPR seizures, and continue to top the list of all seized IPR materials.
CBP’s border security mission is led at ports of entry by CBP officers from the Office of Field Operations.
The Fitbit Sense adds a whole slew of sensors to the Fitbit lineup to track everything from stress to blood oxygen levels, temperature, sleep and even has an FDA-cleared electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG). On top of all that, the $329 (£299, AU$499) Sense also doubles as a regular smartwatch and fitness tracker. And while the Sense still has fitness at its core, it wants to be your daily wellness coach now, too.
Fitbit is trying to bridge the gap between fitness and wellness with the Sense, a zone most wearables were already navigating even before the current COVID-19 health crisis. The Apple Watch has been leaning to wellness and health over the last few years, with a new blood oxygen feature, ECG app and fall detection feature. Samsung's newer Galaxy Watches include these metrics, as well as a stress test of its own, while the Oura ring also collects temperature data like the Sense. The end goal for most of these is that all this data may someday help identify the onset diseases before the user experiences any symptoms. But in the meantime all those charts, numbers and scores from the Sense can feel overwhelming, especially for someone with no medical training.
Now playing:Watch this: Fitbit Sense: A puzzle of data from your wrist
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After two weeks wearing the Sense, we have mixed feelings about it. In short, if you wanted a health device to monitor your daily stats, and also wanted ECG on a Fitbit, this is your watch. But otherwise, the lower-priced Fitbit Versa 3 (which has the same general features of the Sense, without ECG and stress sensing) would be plenty.
CNET's Lexy Savvides and Scott Stein both wore the Fitbit Sense for this review.
A familiar design if you're upgrading your Fitbit
The Sense has a similar design to the Versa, except with a stainless steel edge around the square watch face instead of aluminum and a host of new sensors inside, which does make it a tiny bit thicker. Along with the touchscreen, you interact with the Sense through an indented haptic side button, which can do everything from launching the Alexa smart assistant to starting a workout. It feels more comfortable than the Versa 2, especially during workouts and at bedtime, thanks to its more rounded finish. Those fiddly toggles used to switch out straps on earlier Fitbits are gone, thank goodness. They've been replaced with quick release buttons to make swapping bands out a lot easier on the Sense.
Lexy Savvides/CNET
The Fitbit Sense also has a faster processor than the Versa 2, which makes interactions with the watch feel snappier, but we still noticed some lag when opening apps, raising the watch to wake the screen or swiping up to see daily stats. It also takes about 30 seconds to sync new watch faces like with earlier Fitbits.
What it has improved is its charging station. Instead of the alligator-style clips from earlier Fitbits, the Sense uses a new magnetic charger that easily attaches to the back of the watch.
The Sense also has a faster processor than the Versa 2, which helps make interactions with the watch feel snappier, but we still noticed some lag when opening apps or swiping up to see daily stats on the Today menu. And like earlier Fitbits, it can take up to 30 seconds to sync new watch faces or apps to the Sense.
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The jury's still out on the ECG feature
The Sense is the first Fitbit to include an onboard ECG app capable of producing a single-lead electrocardiogram read in 30 seconds. Fitbit says that the ECG on the watch will also screen for possible arrhythmias that could indicate atrial fibrillation, or aFib, but it can't detect heart attacks or other cardiac conditions. It recently received FDA clearance in the US, but won't be active until October. We haven't been able to test it out yet.
Initially the ECG app will roll out in the US, Canada and Hong Kong. Samsung has received a similar clearance for the feature on its two newer Galaxy Watches, while Apple's ECG app has been active on the Apple Watch since the company launched the Series 4 in 2018. It also notifies you of irregular heart rhythms indicative of aFib, plus high and low heart rate alerts, as does the Sense. We'll update with full findings after ECG is active, but on paper, it appears the ECG and heart rate notifications are the same between the Sense and Apple Watch.
Stress tracking is only helpful if you already know how to manage it
While the Sense isn't the first wearable device to track stress, its method of retrieving this information is unique. Rather than focusing on heart rate like Samsung's Galaxy Watches, the Sense also uses sweat data from its new electrodermal activity, or EDA sensor to determine stress levels. To measure your levels, you place the palm of your opposite hand over the stainless steel rim on the top of the watch. The palm's contact on the watch's metal rim completes a circuit, then uses the EDA sensor to measure possible sweat-triggered stress markers. The entire process takes two minutes.
It's a little weird at first because you can't see anything on the screen while you're doing the scan, but once it's complete, you'll receive a vibration. You can also log how you feel at the end of the test, see your EDA responses and check if your heart rate went up or down. Fitbit offers guided audio meditation sessions for Fitbit Premium users to pair with the EDA scan, although we didn't find them particularly helpful or relaxing.
The stress results so far have been vague. One of Scott's initial readings showed a few EDA moments, which are those sweat-triggered incidents. But for the most part he seemed to be stress-free, according to the Sense. Considering he wore the Sense throughout a pandemic with two small children at home and during one of the busiest work weeks of the year, this reading did not reflect the reality he experienced. The app also didn't seem to provide any meaningful context as to why he experienced those early incidents or how to improve on his results. Lexy had similar difficulty interpreting the EDA moments, of which she had 17 during one particularly stressful day on deadline. The Fitbit gave no indication as to whether this was a normal amount or cause for concern.
After each EDA scan you can see your heart rate, how many EDA responses were measured, then reflect on how you feel, ranging from "very stressed" to "calm."
Screenshot by Scott Stein/CNET
Fitbit does, however, provide a new Stress Management score at the beginning of each day that takes into account sleep, physical activity and stress to give you a "how you're doing" number. It's like the daytime equivalent of the Sleep Score from previous Fitbits. This data could be helpful for recovery: For example, if you have a lower score you might want to focus on getting more restorative sleep rather than pushing yourself on a workout.
The daily stress score in the Fitbit app.
Screenshot by Scott Stein/CNET
But the Stress Management readings right now aren't particularly user-friendly and it can take a few days for them to show up after you first start wearing the Sense. Lexy's scores varied from 78 to 92, usually averaging in the 80s. A higher Stress Management score means things are generally good. But even on days when her score managed to tip into the 90s, it didn't necessarily correlate with the amount of stress she felt. The Fitbit app doesn't provide personalized feedback to help you interpret or improve your score so figuring out what to do with it can be a bit of a mystery.
You don't need a Fitbit Premium account to access much of this data, but you'll need one to get the extra meditation features, insights from the stress sensor, extra stats about your sleeping heart rate and minute-by-minute skin temperature variations during sleep. Fitbit is making additional health data, such as heart rate variability and SpO2 trends over time, available to everyone with a compatible device in the coming months. But for that other data you'll need to pay $10 a month for a premium subscription, which is becoming an important part of the Fitbit experience.
The Fitbit Sense doesn't take SpO2 or blood oxygen readings on demand like Samsung's Galaxy Watch 3 or the Apple Watch Series 6. Instead, it measures blood oxygen levels while you sleep. The Series 6 also measures SpO2 levels at night.
To do this you have to download and select the specific SpO2 watch face before you go to bed. About 45 minutes to an hour after waking, you'll see the SpO2 score appear on the watch face. You'll also be able to see the graph of your blood oxygen variations in the sleep section. (There are no specific numbers, just an indication if your oxygen variation is high or low.) Remembering to switch to the SpO2 watch face manually every night is annoying and easy to forget before you collapse into bed, but Fitbit is working on ways to bring the SpO2 score to other watch faces. As with the stress score, it's difficult to know what to do with your SpO2 reading unless you're a medical professional. And it's not possible to test the sensor against a pulse oximeter, a device doctors use to measure blood oxygen levels from your fingertip, as the Sense's SpO2 readings are taken at night and averaged out.
Scott Stein/CNET
It's also worth noting that SpO2 is also available on the Versa 2 and Versa 3 with the same watch face. Sleep tracking is great on the Sense and it works in pretty much the same way as earlier Fitbits with a detailed breakdown on your stages of sleep and gives you a sleep score each morning.
Temperature tracking on the Sense is also only at night
Temperature tracking on the Sense is similar to SpO2 in that it doesn't provide a measurement on demand, but rather shows whether you've deviated from your baseline in a daily graph. Needless to say, it won't replace your thermometer any time soon. You'll need to log about three nights of sleep for the Sense to establish a baseline from which to go by. Like the Oura ring, which we've also been testing for a few months, it's a potentially helpful way to get an idea of your temperature fluctuations over time and indicate possible fevers before you might be aware of them.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), we haven't been sick in the period where we've been tracking our temperatures and haven't experienced any significant variances from the baseline to report on. Fitbit is promising that the Sense will also reflect temperature variations due to menstrual cycles, and it did seem to show a dip in Lexy's skin temperature before the start of a cycle. Basal body temperature is often used by women to predict fertility, as ovulation often causes a slight increase in temperature, or a dip in temperature before a period. Like other Fitbits, the Sense has cycle tracking which you can log in the app, or see where you are in your cycle on the watch.
Screenshot by Lexy Savvides/CNET
Fitness tracking: Not much has changed
One of the downsides of Fitbits that launched after the Ionic in 2017 was lack of onboard GPS. Starting with the Charge 4 earlier this year, Fitbit has finally brought back GPS so you don't have to take your phone with you on an outdoor run or ride to track your route. It takes around 10 seconds to acquire a lock when you start an outdoor activity, with or without your phone nearby.
The Sense can show you what heart rate zone you're in and encourage you to push harder (or back off).
Lexy Savvides/CNET
If you've used any other Fitbit in recent years, the rest of the fitness tracking features on the Sense will seem familiar. You'll still be able to track your steps, start a goal-based workout, see your heart rate zone and keep an eye on calories burned. What is new is the addition of Active Zone Minutes, which we first saw in the Charge 4. This uses your age and resting heart rate to show you how hard you worked out during an activity. You'll also receive real-time alerts when you've changed zones, which can help you take action during your workout, whether that's pushing yourself a bit more or easing off depending on your goals. For Lexy, it was most helpful during an outdoor run so she knew when to go a bit faster (usually, that's all the time).
Despite the Sense having the same general fitness features, it has its advantages in a workout. The screen is brighter than the Versa and earlier Fitbit trackers, so it's relatively easy to see in sunlight as long as you ensure the brightness is set to maximum. It's also comfortable to wear, and thanks to its flat profile it doesn't get in the way even when you're working up a sweat.
We compared the Sense against a chest strap to test heart rate tracking accuracy. While it matched up fairly consistently to the strap for resting heart rate, it took at least 5 to 10 seconds to catch up to the strap during a workout when heart rate spiked (like when going from a gentle jog to a full sprint).
Lexy Savvides/CNET
Battery life is good, but not as strong as other Fitbits
With the always-on display active, two 30-minute workouts, a few stress measurements and a full night of sleep tracking, the Sense met the two-day battery life claim. Turning off that always-on display and just using raise to wake helped boost the battery to around 4.5 days between charges. That said, outdoor workouts seem to be a pain point for the battery. Lexy noticed after a particularly strenuous 2.5 hour outdoor bike ride, the battery dipped almost 50%.
More smartwatch features coming soon (we hope)
The Sense works with Android and iOS and the experience is consistent across ecosystems, with the exception of not being able to respond to text messages from the watch when you're on iOS. There's a microphone and speaker onboard so you'll be able to take quick calls from your wrist with your phone nearby. If you have an Android phone, you'll also be able to use dictation or voice-to-text to respond to messages, although those features weren't active at the time of this review. Google Assistant support is also on the way, hopefully by the end of the year, which may improve on the slow and limited Alexa functionality.
Lexy Savvides/CNET
You can store songs for offline listening from Pandora or Deezer if you have a premium subscription, but the Sense will only serve as a remote control for Spotify.
You can't store your own music on the Sense, however, which is a big downside if you like to listen to songs during a workout and don't want to take your phone with you.
A good, but not great smartwatch for the price
The Fitbit Sense hits the mark in many ways: It has strong battery management, excellent sleep tracking and an array of new sensors that could be helpful to some people. But it feels like it's trying to do a little too much at once, with features like stress management seeming more confusing than helpful. That said, Fitbit has a track record of adding new features, like unlocking temperature tracking in earlier versions, or adding a color always-on display to the Versa 2 a few months after launch. So there's more potential in the Sense and how it interprets all this data for you further down the line. Even so, you might be better off with a more basic and capable Fitbit Versa 3. That way you'll save some dollars and wait for Fitbit to work out its new sensor tech for a later generation of Sense.
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If you’re looking for an easy way to track your heart rate, sleep, and daily activity, smartwatches can track everything for you. But with Fitbit watches priced at around $150, they’re not the most affordable fitness tracking solution. That’s where this fitness tracking smartwatch by Amazfit comes in.
Track Your Health
Amazfit’s Bip smartwatch can help you track your health in many of the same ways a Fitbit can. The heart rate monitor and built-in GPS allow you to accurately track your steps, distance traveled, calories burned, and sleep quality. You can also record multiple sports including running, cycling, and walking.
Stay in Touch
Like a Fitbit, this Bip smartwatch will notify you of calls or messages. You can also view notifications for multiple apps including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn on the color touch display. With so many of the same features, the Amazfit smartwatch still retails for just $70—about half the price of a Fitbit.
Why Customers Love It
Amazon customers love this affordable Fitbit alternative. The biggest perks were the lower price tag, the built-in GPS, and the 45-day battery life. Customers also found the watch was lightweight and comfortable even during intense activities.
Every week, we feature a St. Louis-area home to showcase, usually because of its great style; but sometimes, just being quirky earns it the distinction.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Certain changes in a person’s heart and breathing rates could precede symptoms of COVID-19, an increasing number of studies suggests.
Purdue University researchers have begun a study that would help determine if continuously collected biometric smartwatch data could be used to reliably and accurately detect these signs early, which could indicate that a potentially asymptomatic user should get tested for COVID-19.
Smartwatches on the market already collect a wide range of physiologic data, but incorporating metrics such as heart rate, heart rate variability and respiration rate that may help detect COVID-19 at the earliest stages will take more research, studies by companies such asFitbithave stated.
Although smartwatch-like devices are not currently substitutes for gold-standard diagnostic tests used in clinics and hospitals,some wearable devicesare starting to serve as tools for helping a clinician make a diagnosis.
“There won’t be a point where a smartwatch can tell you that you’re COVID-19 positive, but it could potentially say, ‘Within the next couple of days, you might be getting sick and should go get tested,’” saidCraig Goergen, Purdue’s Leslie A. Geddes Associate Professor ofBiomedical Engineering.
Previous studies have shown that viral infections increase resting heart and respiration rates and decrease heart rate variability before a patient develops a fever, Goergen said. It’s not yet known if these indicators, particularly respiration rate, can be measured reliably enough at the wrist to imply infection.
“An increased heart rate or respiration rate means something different if it increased while you were resting as opposed to running, but most smartwatches have difficulty distinguishing that. So it is really recovery and resting periods that we are focused on with this approach,” Goergen said.
In a study of up to 100 participants, Goergen’s team will first determine whether wearing a smartwatch to collect these indicators is practical, unobtrusive and user-friendly. The researchers are recruiting Purdue students, staff and faculty as study participants.
Each participant will be mailed a Samsung Galaxy smartwatch with a physIQ app loaded to collect data, FDA-cleared adhesive chest-based biosensors that collect a single-lead electrocardiogram signal, and a Samsung Galaxy smartphone to use for five days of continuous monitoring while Goergen’s lab analyzes data from the app remotely using physIQ’s cloud-based accelerateIQ platform.
Data from the chest patches will be processed by physIQ’s FDA-cleared artificial intelligence-based algorithms for deriving heart rate, respiration rate and heart rate variability. These data will serve as “gold standard” references to compare with data from the smartwatches.
Researchers led byFengqing Maggie Zhu, a Purdue assistant professor ofelectrical and computer engineering, will analyze data collected by Goergen’s lab and determine how much of it could be used to train algorithms for developing smartwatch software aimed at detecting these metrics better. Watchband tightness, for example, could affect data availability and quality.
“We recognize this work as the first step in enabling advanced personalized analytics for continuous monitoring of individuals using smartwatch data,” said Stephan Wegerich, physIQ’s chief science officer. “This could lead to a solution that is applicable to many physiological monitoring applications in both clinical trial markets as well as in health care delivery.”
The end goal is that the software, which a smartwatch would access from a cloud-based server, would show subclinical changes in metrics unique to the individual by “learning” from large amounts of data continuously collected while wearing the watch.
The researchers plan to eventually expand the study to include individuals at high risk of contracting COVID-19.
The work is funded by a faculty innovations grant fromProtect Purdue, the university’s initiative to keep the campus and surrounding community safe from COVID-19.
About physIQ
PhysIQ is a leading digital medicine company dedicated to generating unprecedented health insight using continuous wearable biosensor data and advanced analytics. Its enterprise-ready cloud platform continuously collects and processes data from any wearable biosensor using a deep portfolio of FDA-cleared analytics. The company has published one of the most rigorous clinical studies to date in digital medicine and are pioneers in developing, validating, and achieving regulatory approval of Artificial Intelligence-based analytics. With applications in both healthcare and clinical trial support, physIQ is transforming continuous physiological data into insight for health systems, payers, and pharmaceutical companies. For more information, please visit www.physIQ.com. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Purdue University
Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to today’s toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 5 Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at https://purdue.edu/.
Journalists visiting campus: Journalists should follow Protect Purdue protocols and the following guidelines:
Campus is open, but the number of people in spaces may be limited. We will be as accommodating as possible, but you may be asked to step out or report from another location.
To enable access, particularly to campus buildings, we recommend you contact the Purdue News Service media contact listed on the release to let them know the nature of the visit and where you will be visiting. A News Service representative can facilitate safe access and may escort you on campus.
Correctly wear face masks inside any campus building, and correctly wear face masks outdoors when social distancing of at least six feet is not possible.
wristwatch.indah.link All three limited editions reference past classics from Seiko Image Credit: Stefan Lindeque
They may have launched their first diver’s watch only in 1965 – more than a decade after Swiss brands like Rolex – but over the next 55 years, Seiko has built an enduring legacy for itself. The brand’s durable and purpose-built divers have spawned a cult following among watch aficionados today. Seiko’s first diver’s watch in 1965, the Ref. 6217-8000/1 or 62MAS (the name is derived from autoMAtic Self-dater), was also the first one made in Japan. Water-resistant up to 150 meters, members of the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition from 1966 to 1969 were famously supplied with this watch on their mission.
The original trio - from left: Ref. 6519-7000, Ref. 6217-8000, 6519-7010 Tuna Image Credit: Supplied
Three years later, Seiko introduced the Ref. 6159-7000. Not only was this watch depth-rated to 300 meters thanks to its distinct monobloc case and screw-down protection crown, it was the first time a diver’s watch was fitted with a high-beat mechanical movement (the balance wheel oscillated at 5 Hz or 36,000 vibrations per hour). In the 1960’s this was like dropping an air-cooled Porsche engine into a Land Rover Defender. In the same year, Seiko received a letter from a commercial diver who requested a solution to a problem he was having - his dive watches were no good in actual work situations, sometimes at 600 meters below sea-level. Professional divers breathe helium mixed with oxygen at extreme depths and helium tends to seep into the case through the watch’s rubber seals. When divers go through the required decompression on their way up in diving bells, helium is released through special escape valves in diver’s watches (as seen in the Rolex Sea-Dweller or the Doxa Sub 300T). Without a helium release valve, the watch crystal would crack as a result of the pressure.
The letter galvanised Seiko’s product development team into action. It took seven years to find a solution, but their riposte to that fateful letter is today considered one of the greatest purpose-built diving watches ever. Under the guidance of engineer Ikuo Tokunaga, Seiko developed the Ref. 6159-7010 - it was the first diver’s watch to use a titanium case, the case had a distinctive ceramic-coated titanium protective shroud. The movement was top-loaded into the monobloc case and an L-shaped gasket was used to hermitically seal the watch, the first of its kind in the industry. This provided a better protection than a deforming round gasket and allowed Seiko to forego the use of a helium-release valve even though the watch was depth-rated to 600 meters. It looked like hockey puck or a can of tuna. Initially nicknamed “Tuna” by collectors, it is now referred to as “Grandfather Tuna” among the Seiko faithful.
The original Ref. 6159-7010 Tuna Image Credit: Nitin Nair
These three watches laid the foundation for a series of professional-spec watches that would eventually evolve into what is now known as the Prospex series. Even Roger Moore’s James Bond wore Seiko diver’s – Ref. 7549-7009 ‘Golden Tuna’ 600m Professional Quartz in 1981’s For your Eyes Only and the Ref. H558-5000 with a digital-analogue display in 1985’s A View to a Kill.
The 55th Anniversary Editions
To mark the 55th anniversary of the 62MAS, Seiko produced a trilogy of vintage re-issues this year. The three watches were based on the 62MAS, the hi-beat Ref. 6159-7000 from 1968, and the Ref. 6159-7010 “Grandfather Tuna”. All three watches use a case made from a brand new proprietary steel alloy called “Ever-Brilliant Steel”, it is supposed to be more corrosive resistant than the 316L variety commonly used in the industry.
The 55th Anniversary Trilogy Image Credit: Stefan Lindeque
To support this claim, Seiko has cited the “extensive” use of the material “in the surfaces, linings, bolts and other components of marine structures and vessels so as to avoid corrosion in a chloride-rich environment such as sea water.” The PREN (Pitting Resistance Equivalent Number) value of the alloy is 1.7 times higher than 316L steel. It is also brighter than traditional steel and that’s down its natural colour and not sleight of polishing.
REF. SLA037: This is actually an evolution of the Ref. SLA017 launched in 2017 which was based on the 62MAS from 1965. It has a 39.9-mm brushed Ever-Brilliant Steel case with a large screw-down crown and a black 60-minute unidirectional diving bezel. The case is depth-rated to 200 meters and features a solid caseback. The blue-grey dial of the watch is protected by a vintage-style “box-shaped” sapphire crystal meant to recall the acrylic used in such models historically. Inside is the Hi-Beat 8L55 automatic caliber with a 55-hour power reserve. Limited to 1,100 editions, it will retail at AED23,950.
Ref. SLA037 in the Ever-Brilliant Steel case Image Credit: Stefan Lindeque
REF: SLA039: Based on the Ref. SLA025 — the GPHG-award-winner from 2018 — which was a re-issue of Seiko’s first Hi-Beat diver, the Ref. 6519-7000, this timepiece has a monocoque Ever-Brilliant Steel case. It has a screw-down crown and a black unidirectional 60-minute diving bezel. The beating heart of this watch is the same 8L55 self-winding movement as in the previous model. Limited to 1,100 pieces, it will sell for AED17,00.
The Hi-Beat Ref. SLA039 diver with the monocoque case Image Credit: Stefan Lindeque
REF: SLA041: The final model of the trilogy is a hat-tip to the “Grandfather Tuna” Ref. 6159-7010 from 1975. The reissue opts for a traditional titanium case and only uses “Ever-Brilliant Steel” on the bezel. It maintains a whopping size on the wrist, it is 52.4-mm-wide and 17.2-mm-thick.
The Ref. SLA041 has a protective outer shroud like the original Image Credit: Stefan Lindeque
It has a screw-down crown, a thick, toothed unidirectional 60-minute bezel in black with white accents, and a black protective outer shell with a “super hard” coating. The case is depth-rated to 1,000 meters. It is powered by the automatic caliber 8L35, which beats at 28,800 vph and stores a 50-hour power reserve. Limited to 1,100 editions, it will sell for somewhat less, at AED17,000.
The Seiko Prospex Alpinist collection was inspired by the company’s 1959 watch collection by the same name, which is considered Seiko’s first sports watch.
Seiko introduced two new Alpinist model lines this year, both inspired by past designs, and equipped with modern Japanese mechanical movements.
We previously wrote about the 2020 Prospex Alpinist models, that most notably feature a rotating inner bezel with a 360-degree compass scaled printed on the flange, controlled by a second crown located at 4 o’clock. Those three references (SPB121 – green, SPB119 – cream, SPB117 – black) come in stainless steel cases measuring 39.5 mm x 13.2 mm and share the exact same caliber 6R35 movement. By comparison, the three new Prospex Alpinist references (SPB155 -green, SPB157 – blue, SPB159 – black), are housed in slightly smaller cases measuring 38 mm x 12.9 mm. Both styles measure the same 46.4 mm lug-to-lug.
While you’re losing the awesome inner bezel compass with these minimalist Prospex Alpinist references, you’re also trading that for a marginal size reduction which means the watches will better fit smaller wrist sizes. Plus, like with most standard watches, you’re still able to hold the watch horizontal, with the hour hand aimed at the sun, and then halfway between the hour hand and 12 o’clock is your due south bearing, which allows you to then determine all four cardinal compass points. The aforementioned models we initially covered, with the rotating bezel, allowing you to more easily visualize all the directions, but either watch uses the same principle.
Further differentiating the two sets of Alpinists wristwatches are the dials. For these new models, the dials a graduated, with lighter hues in the middle that are darker towards the peripheral. And the finish of the dials is textured (knock-down) versus smooth sun-ray finishing on the three Alpinists watches with compass bezels.
Additionally, the smaller, less complicated Alpinist references share the same prominent, skeletonized, luminescent cathedral hour and minute hands, and baton seconds hand (red-tipped on these new references), and generally the same look with the exception of different chapter rings. One of the biggest variations between the two is that the hour markers are applied on the compass equipped models and printed on these new gradients dials. And lastly, the date window is not magnified whereas those with the compass have a cyclops lens over the date aperture.
As mentioned above, both styles share Seiko’s upgraded modern caliber 6R35 3Hz automatic movement, which has 24 jewels, 70-hours of power reserve, plus manual winding, and stop seconds.
All six of the 2020 Prospex Alpinist timepieces feature a sapphire crystal protecting the front, a screw-in exhibition caseback, a screw-down crown, and 200 meters of water-resistance. The retail is $700 on a calfskin leather strap (SPB157 and SPB159) and $725 on a stainless steel bracelet (SPB155).
The event, being held in the southern hemisphere for the first time, was preceded with a doubles tennis match between Rolex brand ambassador Roger Federer, his old friend and nemesis Rafael Nadal and Bill Gates and Daily Show anchor Trevor Noah at the city’s main stadium.
Federer and Gates won, but the fiercest competitor on the night proved to be the Cape Doctor. “Me and Raffa were giving each other smirks," Federer confessed later, "saying ‘it’s so hard to play right now but let’s not show it.’ ”
Buffeting winds became something of a metaphor at the event's first panel discussion, titled The Arts in Times of Polarisation.
Many misunderstood the Rolex program as being “about the old handing over to the new”, Harvard professor and scholar of post-colonial literature Homi Bhabha told the audience. “That is not what this is about, it’s not about handing over the torch. It’s about two artists over two generations fanning the creative fires together, while the winds of change shift and redirect the objects … in a set of uncertain conditions.”
Cape Town was looking particularly wild-eyed and gorgeous that weekend. On one side, great white clouds rolled off the edge of Table Mountain. On the other, an azure sea stared back at an azure sky. And in between, the moon grew fatter each night.
Kirstenbosch Gardens, Cape Town, South Africa.
On the Saturday, participants picnicked in a riot of proteas, wattles and succulents at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, hard up against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. Later, a dinner to celebrate the eight 2018-19 mentors and protégés got into full swing in the lush, moonlit garden of the Baxter.
By then guests had been treated to rich proof of their pairings: the play Irish writer Colin Barrett has produced under the guidance of Colm Tóibín; the work Sengalese hip-hop choreographer Khoudia Touré had created under the eye of Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite. They had heard Nigerian architect Mairam Kamara talk about how the New York-based, Tanzanian-born architect Sir David Adjaye had influenced her work over the two years of the program.
It's tricky, but it's like we have a lot of little cooking pots on the stove.
— Phyllida Lloyd, director
On the next and final night, as a full moon finally landed in the garden outside, everyone gathered in the Baxter concert hall for the debut of Pulse, composed by American music protégé Marcus Gilmore under the mentorship of tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, one of the architects of world music.
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As percussion-driven orchestral music, Pulse was as novel as it was beautiful. Then, as the orchestra withdrew from the stage and official proceedings ended, something else began to happen.
The 33-year-old American and his Indian mentor, who turned 69 that day, started messing around, improvising across an empty stage, Hussain bringing his tabla to a gentle simmer as Gilmore kept pace on his snare. Slowly but surely, the two found a rhythm, passing the solos back and forth, eye to eye.
Marcus Gilmore demonstrates his work to his mentor, Zakir Hussain.
As a call and response, it was mesmerising, Then, without warning, they raised the temperature, then raised it again, until reality seemed to skip the rails and something else began to emerge. Performance in its purest form, it united an audience of former strangers in a moment in which something new was born of two very different traditions.
As 2020-21 mentorship participants, it's the turn of Lloyd and White to find their rhythm together. "I think the jump is going to come when we do or don't know whether we're going to be in the same room," says Lloyd. "It's tricky, but it's like we have a lot of little cooking pots on the stove."
Only weeks after her flying visit to Lloyd in London, White was "in the midst of one small show I love very much in Chicago" when the pandemic upended arts in the US. "We were in our second week of rehearsals and I had to go in and say, I'm sorry we're going to have to stop."
Whitney White.
For White, who is making her name directing productions from Othello to the on-point What to Send Up When it Goes Down, about racialised violence in the US, it was "just an incredibly surprising pause".
For Lloyd, whose show Tina – The Tina Turner Musical was shut down in London and New York, it was "like one of those Road Runner cartoons where you're still going like a bit of a maniac even though you've gone off the edge of a cliff. In my case it has been an enforced sabbatical after 40 years of being on the hamster wheel."
For both, "the sense of damage to our industry, the art form, the young artists is overwhelming", says Lloyd. "The theatre is a really devastating picture."
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But personally, "there are so many things about being forced to stop in life that are potent and could be creative," she says. "It has given Whitney and I a chance to be in a conversation which, were both of us in rehearsal or one of us was making a movie and the other was in rehearsal, it would be so hard to find the space we've been able to find just for chats."
Even if it's on Zoom for now, "it's so good", says White.
"Especially because we're also having group meetings with the other mentors and mentees, which is unprecedented. Between that and Phyllida and me talking, and me stress texting her for acute advice ... it's transforming the decisions I make."
Spike Lee, right, and protege Kyle Bell.
The others she is talking about include filmmaker Spike Lee, who is mentoring Native American filmmaker Kyle Bell, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, the composer, lyricist and actor behind the hit stage show Hamilton. He is mentoring Argentine director, screenwriter, cinematographer and film editor Agustina San Martínin.
"The fertilisation between all the protégés and mentors has been amazing," says Lloyd. "Rolex has driven bringing us together, and I really applaud them for it."
Brook Turner travelled to Cape Town as a guest of Rolex.
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