We don't have as many reviews of women's watches as we should, so this one will be a welcome addition. Say hello to a newcomer, Bianci Watches, and their ceramic model H262LWS. Let's start off with specifications:
- Swiss quartz movement using a conventional battery.
- 38.4mm wide by 12.2mm thick; 42.7mm across if you include the crown.
- Cubic zirconias on the bezel in two concentric rings.
- 140g with all bracelet links.
- Non-locking butterfly deployant clasp.
- Ceramic case and bracelet.
- Sapphire crystal.
- Water resistant to 30m (100ft).
- Lumed hands.
- $329 from the Bianci website (get 20% off with the discount code "watchreph262").
Please read on for the full review and pictures.
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A review today of a women's watch from Casio's Baby-G series that does it all. The LWA-M140-7ACF is quite the powerhouse, packed into a casually-styled look that belies its inner geek:
- Tough solar power (the dial is a solar panel).
- 5-band atomic timekeeping (US, UK, Japan, Germany).
- Water resistant (depth not specified).
- Mineral crystal.
- 34.6mm by 11.5mm, 25g.
- LED backlight.
- World time: 29 time zones, 48 cities.
- Alarm.
- 60 minute countdown timer.
- 1 hour stopwatch.
- 12 month power reserve with low-power modes and low-battery warning.
- Casio module 4739 (PDF of manual).
Please read on for the full review.
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Up for review today is the other watch from newcomer Abingdon, the Amelia model. Let's dive right in with some specifications:
- 40mm stainless steel case, 12mm thick, 65g.
- Color-matched leather strap, thorn buckle.
- Water resistant to 50m (165ft).
- Miyota 6M17 quartz movement with GMT, sweep second and date functions.
- Inner E6B bezel for flight calculations.
- Etched screwdown caseback.
- Mineral crystal.
- Brass dial.
- Luminous hands and markers.
Please read on for the full review.
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Today we review a watch from newcomer Abingdon Watches, a company founded by a female pilot who couldn't find a watch that she liked for flying. Solving a personal problem is often the source of great ideas, so we were delighted to review their designs. First off is the Jackie model:
- Miyota FS20 Quartz chronograph with date.
- Internal-bezel E6B, operated by the crown at 8 o'clock.
- Lumed hands and indices.
- Water resistant to 50m (165ft).
- 64 cubic zirconia stones on the bezel.
- Mother of pearl dial, available in pink, green or white.
- Oyster-style bracelet, polished center links, hollow end links, snap-lock clasp with fliplock, and 4 micro-adjustments.
- 41.5mm across by 12mm thick; 125g with all bracelet links.
- Stainless steel case.
- Mineral crystal.
Please read on for the full review and pictures.
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Up for review today is the Casio Baby-G BGA100-8B. It's a G-Shock for women, if the rhinestone-accented pink dial and heart-shaped window didn't already tip you off. As with the forthcoming mini line, Casio has scaled down the full G-Shock requirements for the Baby-G line:
- Water resistant to 100m (330ft) vs 200m.
- Battery powered instead of solar.
- Manual versus radio-set.
- Accuracy 30 seconds per month versus 15.
The rest of the specifications are equivalent:
- LED backlight.
- World time (29 time zones, 27 cities).
- Four daily alarms and one more with snooze.
- 60-minute countdown timer.
- 60-minute stopwatch.
- Two-year battery life.
- Clear grey case and band, thorn buckle, steel bezel, mineral crystal.
- 39mm by 13mm, 42g.
- Casio movement 5059 (PDF of manual).
Please read on for more.
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Casio has announced it is bringing the popular G-Shock Mini line to the USA. These are popular G-Shock styles designed to find a home with women buyers. They are available in a wide selection of "feminine" colors and sizes that span three models which are probably very familiar if you know the current G-Shock line.
Shigenori Itoh, the vice president of Casio watches, was quoted in the press release saying, "We are thrilled to offer fashionable water and shock resistant watches
for chic active women everywhere… The G-Shock Mini makes our G-Shock
toughness and technology a highly sought-after women’s fashion
accessory." All three models will include conventional features like an alarm, 100m water resistance, auto backlight, world time, and a chronograph. The G-Shock Mini will be available nationwide at department stores and carries a $95 MSRP. Read on for a link to the press release and additional pictures.
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If you're like me, you probably never thought of using the flip-dot technology that you see on roadside signs for a wristwatch. A company called Sequel AG did, though, and has miniaturized it and licensed the technology to Guess for a line of women's watches appearing this fall to be called G-Motion. If you hit the link, you'll see a Flash video of the watch in action; in this case the design is Swarovski crystals (red/white) which makes for a standout look.
In effect, the face of the watch becomes a bitmapped display — either on or off — and we're excited about the possibilities of what a watch designer could do with that. the G-Motion line appears to use it for eight-segment displays of time/date/seconds, but you could also draw graphics, text, or pretty much anything else.
Details are TBD, but we are slated to get some of the first units for review, so keep an eye on WR for that.
It'll be interesting to see how these are received by the fashionable — it's a quartz watch, with a digital display, but the pixels are crystals and the maker is Guess. That should be interesting.
By Paul Hubbard
We have an unusual review today: the Casio Pathfinder PAW500-1V. It's a Pathfinder for women, but surprisingly it's a great watch for a man, too. We've done lots of Pathfinder reviews here on Watch Report, so we jumped at the chance to review this one.
The spec list includes:
- 5-band atomic timekeeping (US, UK, Japan (2) & Germany), auto-receive up to six times per day.
- Tough solar power, meaning shock-resistant with five month power reserve.
- Low temperature rated to -10 to 60C, or 14 to 140F.
- Altimeter/barometer.
- Thermometer (as with all temperature sensors, it's only accurate if you remove the watch from your wrist).
- 100m (330') water resistant.
- Mineral crystal.
- Stopwatch, five alarms, 24h countdown timer and second time zone (world time) from 29 time zones. Note that this includes half-hour offset cities like Kabul, Yangon, and Tehran. (See the manual for the list.)
- Automatic backlight which lights up when you rotate your wrist in the dark. A really neat feature for when your hands are full!
- 12/24 hour display, hourly chime.
- Accurate to within 20 seconds per month in the absence of radio signal.
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There aren't a lot of women's outdoor watches on the market. Geeky multifunction tools like the Casio Pathfinder and the Suunto X9i are large even for men, and tend to be functionally styled. The size of the watch case required to accommodate the type of technology found in modern hiking watches, combined with the fact that marketing departments tend to link technology more with men, have kept these types of adventure watches off the wrists of women.
The problem is that plenty of women are obviously into hiking, rock climbing, kayaking, skiing, etc. and have just as much of a need for helpful instruments as men.The answer, therefore, is not to ignore women, but to design something both functional and feminine. The answer is something like the new Suunto Lumi.
The Suunto Lumi is the only ladies' ABC (Altimeter/Barometer/Compass) watch that we're aware of. While not as small and dainty as a formal ladies' watch, it still manages to look stylish while packing in a very impressive set of features:
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View the Yes Tati photo gallery.
I’m a big fan of Yes watches. I reviewed the Yes Zulu two years ago, and I have the black Kundalini which never fails to draw attention. So when I heard some time ago that Yes was working on an all-digital watch, the project piqued my interest. The Zulu and the Kundalini are stunning watches, but somewhat overpower my narrow wrist, so I hoped a digital Yes watch would give me the unique and innovative perspective on time that is the signature of Yes watches, but in a more appropriately sized package.
The Yes Tati is precisely that. By replacing the analog 24-hour hand that distinguishes the rest of the lineup with an LCD, Yes was able to remove an entire quartz movement and extra battery. The result is a much smaller watch which is just as unique as the other pieces, and with all the same functionality.
Although the Tati is designed for narrower wrists, I wouldn’t go so far as to classify it as a ladies watch. While it certainly looks at home on a woman’s wrist, the wide leather cuff (easily removable), especially on the black version, makes it appropriate for men, as well — especially those of us who were cursed with a combination of watch lust and skinny wrists. The soft leather strap makes the Tati both light weight, and very comfortable against the skin.
Yes watches have some of the most interesting and expressive names of any watch brand, and the Tati is no exception. I expected Tati to refer to a distant mountain range, or perhaps the name of an ancient sun goddess, but it turns out that the origins of the name are even more interesting. Tati is short for Tatiana, Yes Watches CEO Bjørn Kartomten’s daughter, and judging from my conversations with Bjørn, the inspiration for much of what he does.
If you are new to Yes watches, it’s important to realize that they are not all about aesthetics. In fact, Yes watches were specifically born out of a desire to present a more complete picture of time by bringing together manmade horological concepts like hours, minutes, and seconds with nature’s concepts of time like sunrise, sunset, and moon phases. It turns out that integrating these two words means cramming an incredible number of features into a relatively small case.
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