Update (12/21/09): This offer has expired, however we do plan to offer additional discounts on YES watches in the future. Please keep an eye on Watch Report for details.
If you're a regular reader, you know that we're big fans of YES watches. We reviewed both the Zulu and the Tati, and love them both. I also happen to know the founder and CEO of YES watches, Bjorn Kartomten, personally, and I know how passionate he is about his watches, and about customer service. In fact, I've heard several stories of people having their emails to YES Watches answered personally by Bjorn.
We seldom do promotions on Watch Report, but when Bjorn asked me the other day if I'd be interested in offering a discount on YES watches to our readers, I decided it was a good deal for everyone. From now through December 21, 2009, Watch Report readers can save between $100 and $300 on all YES watches purchased through this link. This discount covers the Zulu, World Watch, Tati, Luna, Inca, and the Kundalini.
Even if you're not in the market for a new watch, you might want to check out their lineup or our reviews just to see what YES watches are all about. They are some of the most unique and innovative timepieces out there.
By Christian Cantrell
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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View the YES Zulu watch photo gallery.
It’s not unusual to see cool new features and functionality packed into digital watches these days: MP3 players, infrared remote controls, cameras, compasses, flashlights, PDAs. Telling time has even become secondary for many watches by companies like Casio, Timex, Suunto, Fossil, and dozens of small new high-tech watch manufacturers. What is unusual, however, is to see a new and innovative high-tech watch whose primary function is not only to tell time, but to do so in traditional and even ancient ways. The YES Zulu watch combines fine Swiss quartz movements with Japanese microchips and complex algorithms to provide the most complete and comprehensive picture of time that I have ever seen in a watch.
The YES watch philosophy is that time is more than just 365 days in a year, 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. Although that is how most of us experience time day to day — and indeed, YES watches do capture the concept perfectly well — there are other cycles and rhythms that play very important roles in our lives, whether we choose to acknowledge them or not. Most notably, sunrise and sunset, moon rise and moon set, solar noon, high and low tide, and lunar phases — all of which (and more) the YES watch captures and conveys.
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