Seiko Astron GPS Solar: Clever new watch

    You can spend tens of thousands on a tourbillon¬toting masterpiece of the watchmaker's art, but as expensive watches go, this Seiko is something special. It doesn't need some kind of exquisite mechanism to keep itself wound or stay accurate: it charges using solar panels, and keeps time by pinging satellites. Just got off a flight? Press a single button and the hands will pop to the local time, accurate to one second in a million years. Which ought to be accurate enough, really.
from €2000, seiko.co.uk

Read More

Braun BN0076: Clever old watch

    Do you want to pay £900 for a 35-year-old digital watch? Because you certainly can. In fact, for an original Braun DW 30, the watch from German designer (and Jony Ive-inspirer) Dieter Rams, you'll be lucky to get away with stumping up under a grand. Or you could get one of these reissues, which are almost exactly the same — down to the comfy leather strap and front-mounted buttons. The difference? The new ones are waterproof to 30m. And people won't think you're mad for buying one.

£150, braun-clocks.com

Read More

Garmin Swim: pool shark

    It's a classic mistake: you plan to do a couple of lengths of your local pool, but you keep losing count and starting again until, by the time you towel off, it's a decade since you entered the pool and you've exercised yourself into a giant scaly man-shark. Next time, let this watch do the counting — and the timing, and graphing of your performance. It'll even tell you what stroke you were doing at the time, and clean your new gills.
£130, garmin.com

Read More

THREE HOT WATCHES: TIME FOR ACTION

    Three professional grade watches for petrol heads, gear heads and all other "heads" in search of chunktastic wrist bling.

Graham Silverstone Stowe GMT

With only 500 in the series, this boasts an automatic column-wheel chronography for increased accuracy. It's motor-racing themed —hence the Incabloc shock absorber and tyre tread strap — yet waterproof to 100 metres. Presumably in case Silverstone floods.

£TBC | GRAHAM-LONDON.COM

Seiko Astron

This syncs its time and date with GPS satellites, adjusting time zones automatically, too, as you travel. Solar powered, and with a titanium or silicon strap, it has a limited run of just 2,500.

£1,750 | SEIKOWATCHES.COM

Fortis B-47 World Timer GMT
One for the globetrotting business type, the rotary dial on this luxurious timepiece features the engraved names of 24 cities, representing the world's time zones. Capable of showing the time in three locations simultaneously, the B-47 is waterproof to 200m, with an anti-reflective, sapphire crystal face.

£2,890 | FORTIS-WATCHES.COM

Read More