phil's recommendations

Temption Formula Rally Chronograph Watch

First to recommend

Description

Cool. A lean and clean motorsports-inspired German chronograph powered by an automatic movement with day/date display. The internals provide precise timekeeping in the case of an understated looker. The stainless steel case is a black/silver/black steel sandwich with a red tachymeter register on the black matte bezel. The deep black face has red and white dial markings, luminous hands, and a needle-slender red sweep seconds hand. The strap is black leather with matching red stitching, secured by a deployant clasp. Sharp. The effect is finished off with red coral inlays capping the screw-down crown and pushers. Subtle, precise, masculine and sweet.

For a more assertive take on the same functionality, check out Temption's Curare Classic Chronograph -- all black with yellow markings, just like the curare frog that inspired it.

Temption is an interesting German watch company. It is not building watches for status-seekers. It designs and builds contemporary watches influenced by Bauhaus and WabiSabi design principles, in an effort to offer lasting value and style. The founder emphasizes simplicity, legibility and build integrity in every design. Want exclusivity? Temption only makes 700 watches per year. Get one. (via Temption)

Updated Jan 5, 2008

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Jorg Schauer Kulisse Edition 11 Chronograph Watch, Black

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Description

German watchmakers often have a leaner, more austere aesthetic than their Swiss counterparts, in whose shadow they toil. But this creates alternatives for you that are very high quality, affordable, leverage Swiss internals, and are distinctive enough to set you apart. This Jorg Schauer Kalisse is a good example. This is an automatic mechanical chronograph with a beautiful, simple dial for precise reading of elapsed time. The case is stainless steel, hand-finished to a matte ground, with a striking screw-attached bezel. The crystal is slightly-domed sapphire and there is a display case-back revealing the decorated movement. A leather strap is standard, with stainless steel bracelet options offered.

Other Kulisse models offer white faces with blue hands, as well as additional complications. This is the cleanest, meanest Kulisse. (via Jorg Schauer)

Updated Jan 5, 2008

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Schaumburg AquaBlack 2 Dive Watch

First to recommend

2 people recommended this item

Description

Dive watches are popular, even among people whose only exposure to water is rain or a shower. The idea of wearing a watch good for the pressures of immersion at 1000m or even 2000m gives this chunky watch style a daydream factor that's hard to resist. There sure are a lot of dive watches on offer. Well, it's not my favorite style of watch, but I get asked about them often, so here's one I recommend: The Schaumburg Aqua Black 2.

Schaumburg is a small German watch company, formerly known as Lindburgh & Benson. The company uses precise Swiss commodity mechanical movements and packages them in massive hardware designed to take tremendous undersea pressures while keeping precise time. The Aqua series are rated to 1000 meters. This is a straightforward watch with hours, minutes, sweep seconds and date. The movement is automatic mechanical, so self-winding. The screw-in crown is protected by machined protectors. The timing bezel is unidirectional. The standard strap is water-resistant leather.

The Aqua Black 2, shown here, has a black face with orange hour markers. Aqua Black 1 has white markers on black face. The coming Aqua Black 3 has a fully enumerated orange face. The cases on all are steel with black PVD finish. This is probably the deepest black PVD finish you'll see on a watch. If you prefer silvery stainless alone, the same watches are available in the standard Aqua Diver series with a wider range of face colors. Also in stainless are chronograph versions. All have thick sapphire crystals and solid steel backs.

1000m rating too wimpy for you? The Aqua Titan series are rated to 2000m water resistance! (via Lindburgh & Benson)

Updated Jan 5, 2008

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Pioneer Elite Kuro 50" High-Definition Black Plasma TV - PRO1150HD

First to recommend

Description

Choose the size appropriate to your viewing distance or room: 43", 50" or 60", but by all means if you need a new HDTV get a Pioneer Elite Kuro plasma screen. Yeah, I know....everyone is trying to sell you an LCD instead of plasma. LCD looks bright and exciting until you live with it. Then you notice that its too-vivid visual character makes everything look videoish, cartoonish and over-saturated, even if you get it ISF calibrated. LCD doesn't have the speed, the subtle color gradients possible with a multi-billion colors palette, or the pixel illumination control to win. Even the newest LCD screens are still too slow for fast motion sports. Good plasma screens with sophisticated chip sets, on the other hand, do a much better job capturing the nuance of film and the actual textures and light behaviors of actual objects, people and animals. Good plasma is more fully dimensioned and cinematic. And the best commonly-available plasma TVs are Pioneer's Elite line, with their current (late 2007) generation "Kuro" technology for deep blacks, sensational contrast and nuance, and correction for plasma's traditional bugaboo of over-luminous greens.

These are full 1080p capable, but nevertheless visually rich with a beautiful image at HD 768p and upscaled DVD. If you don't have room, inclination or cash for a full companion sound system, the Elite's in-set sound and speakers can still pull you into a movie. (via Pioneer Electronics USA)

Updated Jan 2, 2008

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Oris Artelier Chronograph

2 people recommended this item

Description

A style sleeper in the classic mechanical chronograph category, the Oris Artelier's beautiful guilloche dial, understated wrist presence and high level of finishing of its polished steel casework will fool many into thinking you sprang for a $6,000+ timepiece, but you can slide into this for a third that. The Oris-modified commodity Swiss movement is durable and precise, with minimal decoration driving up the price. On croc strap with deployant or polished & satin stainless steel bracelet, this Oris chronograph satisfies all the senses that entice you to buy a luxury mechanical watch in the first place.

Updated Jan 2, 2008

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Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso Grande Date Watch

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Description

In watches, precious few qualify as genuine icons and those that do line up behind the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso. The original sport watch, today the Reverso skates both sides of the line dividing dress watches from casual and is equally at home in both roles. The vast range of contemporary Reversos includes five case sizes for men and women, and every wrist size. The Grande case size has enough presence not to get lost in a sea of today's dinner plate sized watches, yet is discreet enough to fit under a shirt cuff and work with a suit.

The Grande Date Reverso is a hand-wound Swiss mechanical watch with Jaeger's in-house double-barrel 8-day rectangular movement. That's right -- wind this watch no more than once per week for up to 8 days of precise timekeeping. This watch has a large date indicator, a power reserve gauge, standard hours/minutes/small seconds, and a sapphire display window on the reverse of the case to show off the exquisite movement.

A Reverso of any size will never be unstylish nor ordinary. This Deco-infused design and exacting JLC execution provides a lifetime of ownership pleasure, and telegraphs your taste. Available in steel, gold and pink gold, with leather strap and deployant clasp or polished bracelet. (via Jaeger LeCoultre)

Updated Jan 1, 2008

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Cuervo y Sobrinos Robusto Buceador Automatic Dive Watch

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Description

The distinctive flair of Cuervo's Cuban heritage is vivid in this latin take on the dive watch. Face it, most dive watches are worn for "desk diving," never seeing a drop of water other than the stray spray of a garden hose or the splash of washed hands in the mens room. But there's always dreaming. Rated water resistant to 660 ft., this watch is ready for swimming, water sports, snorkeling and light diving. Water resistance is misunderstood. You need a rating well in excess of your intended use. Don't swim with a watch rated water resistant to merely 50 feet. The pressures the watch sees from your arms stroking through the water are quite different from merely dipping your wrist in standing water. The Buceador's 200 meter depth rating is the minimum for reliable use in routine water sports and amateur underwater activities.

Available in white, black and blue face, the blue is the one to grab. With orange accents and luminous hour markers, it makes a visual statement without shouting "DIVER!" as its clunkier cousins from other brands. It also eschews the ubiquitous engraved thick outer timing bezel of most dive watches in favor of an interior bezel under the sapphire crystal, which is rotated via the second crown.

The curvy stainless steel case has both brushed and polished surfaces. The Cuervo-modified and decorated commodity Swiss automatic mechanical movement keeps precise time in a stylish package. The strap is synthetic rubber secured by a stainless steel deployant clasp. This is an unusually expressive diver, not the blunt instrument usually seen in this sector of watches. (via Cuervo y Sobrinos)

Updated Jan 1, 2008

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Arnold & Son Scout GMT Navigation Watch

First to recommend

Description

Arnold & Son was a premier British watchmaker that specialized in navigation timepieces for longitude location back when the Brits were assembling an empire and networking the world via sailing ships. Now a Swiss watchbuilder co-habiting the same tent with Graham (another once-British specialist in chronographs) under Swiss parent The British Masters, Arnold & Sons continues the brand's traditional navigation focus.

The Scout is an arresting watch, though not for being loud but for being beautiful and functionally interesting. Using an Arnold-modified commodity Swiss automatic movement, the Scout displays primary time, plus a second time zone. The second time zone display doubles as a solar compass and the circumference bezel permits easy and precise triangulation for fixing your unknown position at sea, referencing the known position of at two mapped features. The orange and black color scheme on the face is enhanced by the craft of the compass point markers. All the navigation graduations are precisely rendered.

This watch has a polished stainless steel case with a coin-edged outer bezel. The casework is at Jaeger levels and the best I've seen for anything not made by Jaeger than has a street price under $5000. At 44.5mm diameter, the Scout isn't small, but it doesn't wear like a pie plate either. The case contours and its relative thinness for a multi-function watch, plus the beauty of its face, make it tasteful yet loaded with presence.

The Scout has a sapphire display back, and the movement elements in view are nicely decorated. The watch is not made in high volume and the dealer network is small. You won't see it on every wrist. It's not a known icon; Arnold is a brand in-the-making in the modern watch world, and the Scout won't broadcast status other than that which derives from taste, imagination and an appreciation for the distinctive. The Scout comes on a synthetic rubber black or yellow strap with polished and signed buckle. A stainless steel bracelet is an option. (via Arnold & Sons)

Updated Jan 2, 2008

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Oris Chronoris Automatic Mens Chronograph Watch

First to recommend

Description

The ubiquitous chronograph, a staple of masculine watches, is frequently rendered illegible, its face crowded with dials or rendered a tuna-can-caricature of timekeeping when made big enough to give its registers some breathing room. Then there's the problem that most chronos look alike, distinguished only by black, silver or white face as backdrop for the standard three subdials chronograph layout. Yes, of course the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Compressor Chrono is visually and functionaly distinctive and exemplary in its crafting. But its near five-figures street price isn't in everyone's reach. If you want something masculine, distinctive, iconic, tasteful, mechanical and affordable with sports timing capability, the Oris Chronoris is for you.

The modern Chronoris is a modern update on Oris' motorsports-inspired, iconic 1970 Chronoris, still with the click-stop inner timing bezel and the stopwatch sweep second hand. For today's version, Oris enlarged the case a bit (now 40mm across w/o crown, up from the original's 37mm) for more wrist presence without putting a wall clock under your cuff. The thin orange click-stop bezel is there, along with Oris' trademark "big crown". The commodity Swiss automatic movement is Oris-modified. The new Chronoris adds a minute counter at 12 o'clock.

People bemoan '70s styling, remembering only the shag carpet, big lapels, gold chains and blow-dry hair on men. But they forget that '70s excess came later in the decade. Along with the clean and sweet 1970 Camaro, the early Shark Corvettes with thin chrome bumpers and flying buttress greenhouse, and the '70 Dodge Challenger, this Chronoris is inspired by design themes from when culture was on the bubble and confidence, optimism and exuberance were in perfect balance. The sleek truncated oval, two-texture brushed and polished case surfaces, and the uncluttered dial precisely graduated for timing functions puts you back in a time when people were still excited about going to the moon.

Oris commissioned an era-appropriate perforated black leather racing strap with brilliant orange edging and a deployant clasp. They include an alternate stainless steel bracelet along with the changing tool and spare pins to alternate looks at will. It's all wrapped up in a convenient and cool leather travel case. This is a man's watch that won't overwhelm your wrist, oozes cool, and don't be surprised if your wife or girlfriend lifts it now and then before you get a chance to strap it on in the morning. (via Oris)

Updated Jan 1, 2008

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Fatman iTube Vacuum Tube Amp for iPod

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2 people recommended this item

Description

Gawd, I hate my iPod. Not even noisy old speed-unstable 8-tracks stripped so much emotion from music as an iPod full of mp3 files does. Imagine dumping all the clean, full-bodied digital bits that were once on a CD, now stored on your iPod, into your washing machine. Fill with bleach, full-strength. Wash, rinse and spin. Shovel the now-sharp, brittle little buggers out of the tub and transfer to the dryer. An hour later, pour the abrasive heap back into your iPod. That's about what happens to music that passes through an mp3 mill and your 'Pod on the way to your ears. Where's the Tone; the Big-T TONE that puts the sound of live music in your head? Aw, it's been bleached out, trampled and scraped to the bone by lossy compression and wrung moistureless through the wringer of the itty bitty chip amp squeaking away just behind the headphone jack.

Well, here's how to get your sound halfway back to some semblance of expression -- a neat and tidy remote controlled iDock connected to 13 juicy watts of emissive vacuum state glory per channel! You'll use this just like a cheesy plastic case chip amp iDock, except it's gleaming polished steel, with the heft of real iron, and it spews a restored stream of full-bodied Tone. Wire this up to a pair of Zu Tones or Druids, or any other 95+db/w/m speakers to hear iPod tunes rehydrated. You won't go back to the usual white plastic dock box that blows. (via Bluebird Music)

Updated Jun 2, 2007

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