APPEARANCE The majority of the band’s visible surfaces (about 70%) are brushed stainless steel, which doesn’t show fingerprints as much as polished. The solar panel on the watch face is very, very slightly translucent. This is not visible except from very close up, but some things are visible beneath the dial. Specifically, there’s a thin black circle that goes around near the edge of the dial and two black rectangles, one between 1 and 2 and the other between 7 and 8. You have to be looking from only a few inches away under direct light to see them, however — not something someone might see while talking to you. The solar panel has vertical stripes on it. The smaller subdials don’t — they’re brushed metal, and are a slightly lighter shade of blue than the main dial. The brushing pattern is the same across all three faces, which is to say they look like three windows onto the same underlying radial pattern, as opposed to three individual radial patterns. This gives the whole face a more consistent sheen under light. All three hands on the main dial as well as all twelve hour markings have phosphorescent surfaces on them, which, after soaking up some light, is bright enough to allow the watch to be read in low-light conditions. The surfaces only remain bright for around 15 minutes however, so its usefulness is limited. As the surfaces dim down the watch can still be read, but not at a glance. Also note that the date indicator does _not_ have any illumination, and is unreadable in the dark. The date indicator is in fact a bit difficult to read in the light as well. The actual numeral display is sunken pretty deep in the date window, so it has to be viewed straight on to get a full view of it. When I was researching this watch for purchase I was concerned that the projections on the left side would be large and unwieldy. In person they’re quite small and are trapezoidally shaped on the sides, so they don’t stick into your forearm at all. In other words, they make for a nice ornament without affecting the wearability of the watch. The watch is just about the right size for my relatively small 7“-circumference wrist. The watch is about 50–51mm from lug to lug. For reference, that’s about 2mm more than the length of two US quarters placed end to end. It’s about 45mm from the protrusions on the left to the tip of the crown on the right, or about the combined length of a quarter and a nickel. Mine shipped with all links in the bracelet and no extras. I removed four links to fit it to my 7" wrist. Removing the pins was pretty difficult — I ended up using a very small screwdriver bit and a hammer to dislodge them. Note that the pins have a bulge on one side, meaning that they can only be pushed out from the side without the bulge. Mine had to be pushed out to the right side, but yours may differ. Each link adds about 1cm to the length of the bracelet. A quick calculation shows that you will likely have to contact the manufacturer for additional links if your wrist is larger than about 8.5 inches in circumference. I was disappointed by the clasp. It only unfolds on one central hinge, and opening it gives you less slack than you’d expect, and I have to squeeze my hand a bit to get it through when putting the watch off or on; a problem I didn’t have with the double-hinged butterfly clasp on my Movado. I also worry that the clasp isn’t attached to the rest of the bracelet in a particularly durable way — it isn’t connected with the same type of hinge as the other links, and instead has an “external” hinge wrapped around the connecting link. It’s difficult to explain in words, so check it out in photos. The watch has a nice heft to it. This is great if you like to feel it on your wrist, but may come as a surprise to those who aren’t used to large steel watches. FUNCTIONALITY The large second hand (which actually ticks in 1/5 second increments, in case you need the additional precision) on the main dial is used for the chronograph (stopwatch), and sits at 12 o’clock when not in use. The left subdial has the second hand for regular timekeeping. The chronograph counts up to an hour, at which point it stops. The upper subdial tracks minutes. Pressing the upper pusher (“A”) starts the chronograph. Pressing it again will pause the chronograph, which can then be resumed with A, or reset with the lower pusher (“B”). Pressing A and then B will pause the chronograph, but cause it to continue keeping time “behind the scenes”; pressing B again will cause it to jump to the total elapsed time and continue counting. Pressing A, then B, then A, then B again will cause the chronograph to stop at the first time, then jump to the second time and stop at that one. This split-timekeeping functionality can be used to track events that begin simultaneously but end at different times, such as two runners racing one another. The third subdial is used for the alarm. When not set, it will show the current time (copying what the main minute and hour hands show). The alarm can only be set to ring once in the next 12 hours, and needs to be reset to ring again. The alarm sound is not very loud, and is a shrill electronic whine. You can also test the alarm sound at any time by pulling the crown out to the first position and holding A for at least three seconds, which is a very effective way to annoy people. I bought this watch expecting not to be impressed by the alarm functionality, so I wasn’t disappointed. The watch has a date window to show the current day of the month. It has to be reset at the end of any 30-day month or February, since it will otherwise keep counting to 31. Setting it is easy and can be done independently of setting the time (i.e. you don’t have to sit there spinning the timekeeping hands around over and over). The watch’s crystal is made of Hardlex, which is softer (i.e. more scratch-prone) than sapphire crystal, but supposedly more resistant to compression and shock (i.e. less likely to shatter). I have not yet owned the watch long enough to comment on its durability or battery life. According to the manual, the watch may gain or lose up to 15 seconds per month. Overall, I’m very satisfied with this purchase. My only real disappointment is the clasp, which isn’t a deal breaker but isn’t anything to write home about, either.
