Rolex Milgauss

If you take a mechanical watch into a strong magnetic field, some of the parts in the movement become magnetized which causes problems; typically the watch will start to run quite fast and require demagnetization. The hairspring, made of an alloy called Nivarox, is particularly susceptible. A watch is normally considered "antimagnetic" (DIN 8309) if it can ignore 4,800 A/m. This works out to about 60 gauss, or 6% of what the new Rolex is rated for. Rolex achieved the superior rating of the Milgauss by encasing the movement in soft iron, which is known as a Faraday cage. They also introduced a new hairspring material, Parachrom-Blu, which is unaffected by magnetism. Quite an achievement!
The Milgauss model has an interesting history. It was introduced in 1954 for people who worked in environments with strong magnetic fields: power plants, research labs, etc. As you might suspect, that's a pretty small market, further crowded by the IWC Ingenieur, the Patek Philippe Amagnetic, and the Omega Railmaster, all of which had similar magnetic resistance. The Milgauss was the slowest seller in the Rolex lineup, and was sold for about 20 years before being removed from their catalog.
The Milgauss comes in the new, slightly larger case size of 40mm, with the 3131 movement. There are white and black dial versions available, both with a nifty and surprisingly modern lightning shaped second hand and 'ROLEXROLEXROLEX' around the face on the chapter ring. (As Christian noted, for better or worse, the new models are more heavily branded than their predecessors.) One difference between the two versions is that the black dial has a sapphire crystal that is slightly green at an angle, as you can see from the image gallery on their site. from.http://www.watchreport.com/2007/05/index.html

Introducing Ozzioni Watches

I'm probably best known for my affinity for high-tech watches. Although I love all well made timepieces, innovation from brands like Casio, Suunto, Tissot and Seiko are most likely to catch my eye. As long as it's full of features and built like a tank, I don't care how big and heavy it is, and I usually don't care how it looks.
But what do I wear on my wrist on those very few occasions when I'm forced to put on something other than jeans and a T-shirt? I have a Rolex GMT Master II which I wear quite often, but just because it's a Rolex doesn't mean it's appropriate for formal dress. In fact, I think it goes better with jeans than it would a suit. Thanks to a big box I received from a company called Ozzioni the other day, however, I now have a couple of nice formal options.
Ozzioni is a relatively new brand -- so new that their site is still under construction (although you can download a PDF catalog), and the domain name itself has only been registered for a little over a year. The two watches I received from them seem reasonably well made, and are definitely attractive. I usually leave aesthetics testing up to my wife since I don't have an overly developed sense of style, and nine times out of ten, she refers to my watches as "interesting" or "not too bad". (In wife-speak, that's a polite way of saying she doesn't care for them.) When I showed her the two Ozzionis, however, she was quite impressed. So impressed, in fact, she immediately adopted one for herself (oversized watches are very fashionable on women right now, apparently). The other, however, I'm keeping for myself. from.http://www.watchreport.com/2006/01/introducing_ozz.html

The Breitling Emergency

The Breitling Emergency has got to be one of the most unique watches I've ever seen. Breitling primarily makes watches for aviation professionals, and therefore outfits them with appropriate functionality like chronographs, circular slide rules, multiple time zones, etc. But these are all features designed to keep you in the air, on course, and on time. What about a feature designed to offer pilots and crew members assistance when they encounter the unexpected? That's where the Breitling Emergency comes in.
The most salient feature of the Breitling Emergency is its ability to broadcast an emergency distress signal. Unscrew the protective cap on the right side of the case, fully extend the antenna, and the Breitling Emergency will broadcast on the 121.5 MHz aircraft emergency frequency for a full 48 hours. The range of the transmission is about 100 miles, which seems reasonably impressive for a watch. An interesting technique might be to outfit an entire crew with these watches, then in the event of an emergency, spread out to create a combined coverage area of several hundred miles.
Be careful when showing the Breitling Emergency to your friends, however. Apparently, the FAA will slap you with a $15,000 fine if you broadcast a false distress call which will probably result in you having to sell your expensive watch. from.http://www.watchreport.com/2007/01/index.html

New Rolex Yacht-Master II

At BaselWorld 2007, Rolex announced a new sports watch for yachtsmen: the Rolex Yacht-Master II. When Rolex releases a sequel to an existing model, you can always expect to see impressive new functionality. Rolex made significant changes to the GMT Master movement between the original GMT Master, and the GMT Master II, the latter allowing the hour hand and the 24-hour hand to be set independently. Likewise, the Explorer II changed dramatically from the original Explorer, adopting the same movement as the GMT Master II which added a 24-hour hand and date. And now the Yacht-Master II represents another extremely important step in Rolex evolution. from.http://www.watchreport.com/watch_news/index.html

Hamilton Men's Khaki X-Wind watch

A rugged, functional timepiece from Hamilton's X-Wind collection- features a silver dial with silver numeral markers, two black chronograph subdials and a third subdial in a lighter silver. Automatic 7750 movement controls the chronograph movement with a day and date display, and three-hand movement with luminous accents. The Hamilton X-Wind features three screw-down crowns and two push-buttons. One crown is for setting the time, the day, and the date, the other is for adjusting the upper interior rotating bezel and another one for rotating the lower interior rotating bezel, these interior bezels can be used to calculate several needed flight calculations such as wind speed and aircraft speed. The dial is presented by a stainless steel case with a black rubber strap. from.http://www.ewatches.com/Hamilton/H77626353.html

Seiko

The 2006 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève prize for electronic watches winner Seiko has finally released its first Spectrum Electronic Ink watches. Sadly, both watches are designed only for ladies with bracelet-like jewelery design. These new bracelet watches are using the high contrast e-ink technology and featuring two display modes. The ‘efficiency’ mode gives the display is informative and easy to read whereas the ‘mystery’ mode makes the whole bracelet watch more animated, imaginative, and evocative. from.http://www.ilovereview.com/

Walkie Talkie Watches

These Walkie Talkie Watches are quite literally the handiest pair of walkie talkies around. Not only do the watches have a full clock function, but they're also professional PMR (a slightly easier way of saying Private Mobile Radio-communicators) watches. In fact they are of such high quality that they were sported by the Norwegian Winter Olympic team during last year's Winter Olympics - and if anyone should know about tough communication it's the Norwegians - you try saying "hjelp, jeg vet ikke hvor jeg er" in a high wind and being understood.
The watch design, 3km range and VOX (Voice Activated Operation - oh how they love acronyms) make these walkie talkies ideal for active souls who enjoy hiking, skiing and staying in touch for free when on the move. They have eight channels and 38 sub codes per channel giving you over 300 channel combinations for private conversation. To top that all off, communication is free as there is no licence required. from.http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/walkie-talkie-watches/index.html