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Smartwatches for the Space Age

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Seiko Divers Watches Review

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Seiko is one of the titans of the watch market. Its offerings are every bit as good as those of Rolex but often they don’t get the credit they deserve. Seiko divers watches has a large range to choose from – perhaps too many. This article will cover five of the top Seiko watches designed for divers.

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1. Seiko Prospex Padi Solar (SNE435P1)

$294 / £160

It’s fair to say that once a watch has approval from PADI (the Professional Association of Dive Instructors) you know it’s a solid option. The Seiko Prospex PADI Solar has all the features you need in a decent stainless steel dive watch. It mirrors the PADI colours of blue and red and is solar powered, so there’s no need to worry about charging it – ever. 

The best feature on the Prospex is the level of craftsmanship for the price. The display is easy to see. The bezel has sixty minute increments. The metal bracelet offers durability. It’s not necessarily the most stylish, but it’s made for hardwearing use. It’s at the lower end of Seiko’s price scale but it oozes quality.

Advantages
  • Bang for your buck
  • Great luminescence underwater
  • The display is easy to read
  • PADI special edition
  • 20ATM
Disadvantages
  • None to speak of.

2. Seiko Special Edition Diver’s Watch (SPB083J1)

$1,325 / £950

Another special edition in the Prospex line. Though it looks like a duplicate of the to the PADI version, but it swaps solar power for a battery. It offers 50 hours of power reserve which isn’t bad. It should cover your requirements if you want it as a professional diving watch or simply something to show off.

It’s a wonderful diving watch, but you’re paying more because it’s a limited edition, not because it offers more functionality. It was made for Seiko collectors. 

Advantages
  • A great looking timepiece
  • Professional scratch-resistant coating
  • Wetsuit extension buckle
  • Gradient styling looks fantastic
  • 20ATM
Disadvantages
  • Battery life isn’t as good as it’s solar PADI sibling

3. Seiko PADI Solar (SNE499)

$274 / £265

With styling modelled off the back of the classic Golden Tuna, inside it offers top of the range tech and up to 10 months’ solar-powered use.

Looking at the design, there’s also another nod to PADI with the red and blue in the middle. It’s quite bold but appeals to classic Seiko lovers who have been loyal to the legacy and association with PADI.

Advantages
  • Great price for a limited edition piece
  • Fantastic battery life
  • Easy-to-read face
  • Improved security underwater using the screw-down case
  • 20ATM
Disadvantages
  • Arguably a PADI-gimmick considering alternatives

4. Seiko Prospex SRPC44 Automatic-self-Wind Watch

$253 / £279

This Prospex offering is a budget dive watch that exudes elegance where other models don’t. Its gold and black design is in stark contrast to the typical dive watch, but it’s still an excellent dive companion. It has Seiko’s trademark automatic movement for accuracy and can withstand water pressure on par with other Seiko automatic dive watches of its class. It offers a 41 hour power reserve so you don’t have to give it a second thought whilst on a dive.

Advantages
  • Luxury design on a budget
  • Great power reserve time
  • Uses Seiko’s famous automatic movements
  • Uni-directional bezel with luminous pip
  • Luminous hands
Disadvantages
  • Style might not be to everyone’s taste compared to traditional dive watches
  • Arguably too similar to the SRP775

5. Seiko Prospex Special Edition (SSC701)

$319 / £232

Another special edition in the Prospex family, the difference here is more complexity and style in comparison to its Prospex stainless steel siblings. This solar-powered device has its own chronograph that allows you to track up to 60 minutes in one-fifth of a second increments and has a day/date section.

It’s undeniably a great-looking dive watch from Seiko at this price point. The blue face with gradient colouring is bold and vibrant. The blue band made of silicone matches perfectly and the blue accents make the bezel, in black, pop. It’s lightweight enough to not be a burden on your wrist. 

Advantages
  • Uber stylish look and feel
  • Unique chronograph function for precision
  • Solar-powered for an impressive battery life
  • Easily navigated thanks to three side buttons
  • 200 ATM
Disadvantages
  • It’s proven incredibly difficult to find any downsides to this dive watch!

Summary 

When it comes to choosing a Seiko dive watch you have to ask yourself whether you want quartz or an automatic movement. Seiko has got you covered when it comes to both and all its watches are of extremely high quality. The quartz movement will have an accuracy of 5-10 seconds over a year. A lot of Seiko’s offerings are solar-powered and, providing there’s sunlight, will offer you a reliable dive companion. 

Seiko is famous for the number of watches in its catalogue so make sure you know what your requirements are. A dive watch is something you want to take seriously, and Seiko’s aren’t cheap – but they’ll never disappoint.

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Cycling Watches – An Expert Guide

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Professional cycling has long had a link with watches, right from some of the earliest days of the sport. Historically, luxury watch brands have sponsored major cycling events around the world including Tag Heuer whose products have been worn by well-known international cyclists. But why are cyclists so determined to wear a specialist cycling watch? Surely any old watch would do?

Why Are Cycling Watches Important?

Being able to track your fitness progress while cycling is standard these days. Keen cyclists, both amateur and professional, are used to being able to track their ride stats and share them with friends and family. They’re also useful to perfect future training regimes. Smartphone apps like Strava are excellent for this kind of tracking, however, they can drain a smartphone battery very quickly! They also lack the potential to track other things like your heart rate. Not to mention the fact that carrying a phone around while you’re riding can be difficult. It’s no wonder, then, that so many cyclists started to look for a suitable and more convenient alternative. That alternative comes in the form of a cycling watch.

Which Features Does A Cycling Watch Need?

When you start looking for your first cycling watch, you need to know which features you should be looking for. Over the past few years, technology has progressed in leaps and bounds and smartwatches are now commonplace. Devices are now available which offer both smartwatch and fitness tracking functionality. Many companies have taken advantage of this trend and flooded the market. It’s important to know what you need to consider when choosing a cycling watch to avoid making an expensive mistake. Some of the key features that a cycling watch simply must have include:

· Water resistance – cyclists are on the road or trail in all weathers, and that means you need a watch that’s suitable to wear in all weathers. Finding a waterproof or water-resistant watch is important, otherwise, you could find that your watch is damaged the first time you’re caught in a storm.

· GPS functionality – mobile phones usually offer GPS capability, but you probably don’t want to take your phone everywhere with you when you’re cycling. A cycling watch with integrated GPS capability allows you to track your route accurately on longer rides.


Notifications – A cycling watch that shows notifications allows you to look at your messages or receive calls. You won’t need to pause to answer or check texts.

· A comfortable strap – the best cycling watches aren’t just high performance, they’re also suitable to wear every day. If you’re out on the road or trail for hours on end, you need to have a watch strap that fits comfortably. Choose a watch with a strap that is easily adjustable and easy to wear.

· A heart rate monitor – many of the top-selling cycling watches feature an integrated heart rate monitor. This allows you to continually assess your fitness throughout the day whether you’re exercising or not. It’ll also help you to keep on top of your fitness goals when you’re cycling so you can make improvements.

Read more on which features to look for in a cycling smartwatch in our guide.

Which Are The Best Cycling Watches?

There are many excellent cycling watches on the market today which offer high performance as well as style. Some of the best include:

The TomTom Spark 3 Cardio

This cycling watch from well-known brand TomTom has a simple design. It’s easy to wear and comes in a range of watch band colours to suit every outfit or mood. It’s lightweight, comfortable and easy to wear while you’re cycling. With its seven different sports modes, it’s ideal for keeping on top of your fitness stats. It features sleep tracking as well as integrated GPS and boasts an accurate integrated heart rate monitor. One top feature of this watch is its zone-based training functionality. This allows you to track whether you’re in Fat Burn, Endurance, Speed or Sprint zone. Even better, you can stream music through this watch. With 3GB of onboard storage, you’ll have room for all your favorite tunes without the need for an internet connection!

Vivoactive 3

Garmin Vivoactive 3

The Garmin brand is well-known for its high-quality fitness trackers and sports watches, and this model is no exception. Despite its bulkier design, it’s stylish and comfortable to wear. This cycling watch comes with a choice of three styles to suit your taste. It boasts plenty of sports functions and tracking features for a wide range of physical activities including cycling. It also has integrated GPS to track your cycle rides. Two other excellent features of this model are its ability to receive notifications, reply to them through your watch interface, and take your stress reading!

Should I Buy A Cycling Watch?

Are you a keen cyclist? Whether you’re an amateur or a professional, if you enjoy nothing more than working out on two wheels, a cycling watch could be ideal for you. A model with integrated GPS will help you to track your routes effectively. A heart rate monitor and other fitness tracking capabilities will help you to stay on top of your fitness level. With so many stylish models available, it’s certainly worth considering making the purchase.




Guess Connect Smartwatch – Tradition meets technology

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Guess Connect Smartwatch

The well-known Guess brand has released a smartwatch, but not one that has the bells and whistles of those powered by Android Wear. The Guess Connect smartwatch is essentially a traditional-looking watch with a few clever functions. 

Background

Jumping on the smart tech bandwagon, Guess has opted out of a David and Goliath battle with giants like Samsung or LG and appears to be more interested in nudging the likes of Fossil or Kate Spade out the way.

Guess hired Martian to provide the smart tech – this isn’t their first try at a smartwatch together for back in 2015, they released a more cumbersome version.

The Guess Connect smartwatch comes in a few variants – the Jemma line for women, Cassidy for a more unisex look, or Ace for men.

Features

You can pair your Connect with both Android and Apple phones. Either offer a simple app to do so, then every notification you might get on your phone will be shown on the watch’s modest display.

You can’t reply via the watch, though, so those notifications are essentially telling you to pick up your phone.

You can control the volume of a call and it has a microphone that lets you talk to Siri or Google Now. There are also some handy music controls like volume, skip, pause, forward and back. There’s no storage offered by the watch, so you’ll need to stream your music via your smartphone.

The Guess Connect smartwatch is pretty basic but don’t be too harsh on it. For all its humble nature, it rarely if ever experienced any bugs; something that can’t be said for the better known FitBit smartwatches.

The Bluetooth connection seems pretty steady, and it’s always nice to not have to reset and reconnect a device time and time again.

It has no health monitoring to speak of. No heart rate monitor, no sleep tracking, no step counter, no GPS, nothing of the sort. The Guess Connect isn’t for those who want to know if they’ve finally achieved a ten-minute mile or if they’ve burned enough calories for a nice cold glass of Pinot.

The app is fairly simple. It lets you control which apps you want to receive notifications from on the watch face. You can also do things like set the type of vibration pattern, per app, that suits you. This is really useful as you’ll know what’s come through to your phone without having to look at anything.

Guess states a three to five day battery life on the Connect from a single charge and tests from users have proven this to be accurate. As you’re really only using it to read notifications that you then respond to on your phone, and, of course, the time, there’s not a lot asking much of the battery, so you’d expect a solid few days.

Design

The main difference between the Ace, Jemma and Cassidy is the size; 44mm and 41mm respectively. Across the board, the watches are on the heavy side. If you favour something more dainty you can swap the strap for a lighter material like silicon.

The look definitely gives off a statement. Smartwatches often favour function over form, but the Connect takes the opposite approach. No horrible screws on show, no ugly lugs, just one curious little button which makes for tricky navigation, but there’s a touch screen for the majority of tasks.

It comes in a couple of finishing options, such as blue and rose gold or black and gold. You can set the screen to a number of classic faces or make your own colour combination. Be warned, the screen loves to hold onto your fingerprint. 

Fitness Tracking

There is a total lack of any fitness tracking.  The thing about buying a designer smartwatch is that you’re buying the look more than the heart rate monitor, GPS or any other fitness-related feature.

Advantages

  • Sleek look with a classic mechanical watch face that lets you have the best of both worlds; a traditional watch with smart features
  • Decent battery life for a smartwatch

Disadvantages

  • No health tracking functions
  • Is not water-resistant
  • Tricky navigation from one button and a small screen
  • No contactless payment function

Competition

You could check out Fossil’s Gen 3 which is more dainty and more cost-effective in comparison, for the same features. For a little more money, but not much, you can have the heart rate monitor and GPS function the Connect lacks in the Armarni Exchange AXT2007.

Summary

The Guess Connect smartwatch is a hybrid of tradition and technology but is essentially an analogue watch that does a few tricks. It’s neither here nor there, and that makes it a little disappointing.

The smart part doesn’t offer such a smart user experience; it’s tricky to navigate the apps via the watch face. Unfortunately, even if you love the look of the Connect and can see past the fact it’s not techy, it’s not very good around water. Depending on your wrist size, it can feel bulky and you can’t help but feel Guess got bored and gave up toward the end of the design phase when they put a plastic back panel on it.

If you desire the bells and whistles of a fully-functioning smartwatch, you’re better off looking at something that has Android Wear under the hood, like the Motorola Moto 360, which is more cost-effective, has better tech and looks better to boot. If you’ve got cash to spend, an Apple Watch will always be a good call.

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