The One Binary Watch

...that everyone you see in the street looks at it with admiration; it's the type of thing that you have to buy, just because it's there.

The Binary Watch is just such an item.

The concept is frighteningly simple yet utterly confusing. It is a watch for show, not for telling the time, and one has adorned my wrist since Christmas. Of course, it can be used as a watch to tell the time, and all that, but unless you're quick ...
...you can't glance quickly at the screen at all. Telling the time on The Binary Watch requires time and care.

What the watch does do, however, is make everyone who looks at it ask about it. It's a conversation starter. Men admire it for its individuality, its uniqueness; girls don't understand it but they can't deny it looks good.

It is, put simply, a watch for geeks and tech-heads and a watch for people who like to stand ... more

Every now and then a product comes along that is so exciting, so bewildering, so unusual and so completely and utterly useless that it makes you do things you wouldn't ordinarily do, like write another article on Ciao! even though you've already written one today; or insist that everyone you see in the street looks at it with admiration; it's the type of thing that you have to buy, just because it's there.

The Binary Watch is just such an item.

The concept is frighteningly simple yet utterly confusing. It is a watch for show, not for telling the time, and one has adorned my wrist since Christmas. Of course, it can be used as a watch to tell the time, and all that, but unless you're quick at maths you are never going to be able to use it for its most basic function. In fact, you can't glance quickly at the screen at all. Telling the time on The Binary Watch requires time and care.

What the watch does do, however, is make everyone who looks at it ask about it. It's a conversation starter. Men admire it for its individuality, its uniqueness; girls don't understand it but they can't deny it looks good.

It is, put simply, a watch for geeks and tech-heads and a watch for people who like to stand out from the crowd, to have something so utterly different that you're unlikely to walk into a pub and find somebody wearing the same thing.

So just what the hell is it?

It's a watch. It's called The One and, as it's name suggests, it has one function, and one function alone: to tell the time. Unlike other mainstream watches that cost £84.99 (because that's what this costs, easily obtained from I Want One Of Those and similar websites), the Binary Watch isn't clogged with a plethora of functions. There's no stop watch, there's no alarm, there's no compass or altimeter or thermometer built in to the strap. It doesn't even provide you with the date. It just gives you the time at the press of a button.

The thing is, unlike every other watch that you've ever come across, it doesn't display the time chronologically, using hands or a digital display, but in binary. Like the original LED watches of the 1970s, you have to push a button on the side to get the device to light up and display the time, and like the LED watches of that era small LEDs illuminate to provide the information. Unlike those same watches, however, when the LEDs come on you have absolutely no idea of what they are telling you unless somebody explains it to you.

Set into a smart brown, rectangular face are two rows of lights, four at the top and six at the bottom. Each light on the top row is marked with a number: 8 4 2 1; similarly, each light on the bottom row is likewise marked: 32 16 8 4 2 1. The top row represents the hours, the bottom the minutes. On the side of the fascia, set in a heavy steel casing, are two buttons with simple functions: the bottom one puts the watch into set/unset mode, the top one lights up the LEDs to give you the time and adjusts the watch when in Set mode. Simply push the top button and one or more lights on the top row will come on and any or no lights on the bottom. To tell the time, add up the top row to get the hours, add up the bottom to get the minutes.

So, if 8, 2 and 1 are lit on the top row and 32 and 4 on the bottom, the time is 11:36. Simple, huh?

There's no differentiation between morning or afternoon but anyone using this watch should be pretty grown up enough to know what part of the day they are in, if not the hour!

Oh, one other thing: when you push the top button, those LEDs only illuminate for five seconds... you've got to be quick at maths, or you have to push the button once again.

The watch itself looks stunning - the casing is stainless steel, the fascia an attractive auburn brown colour with matching leather strap. The watch has a good weight, making it feel far more expensive than it actually is; hold it in one hand with a Breitling in the other with your eyes closed and you wouldn't be able to tell which was the more valuable. The LEDs light up a nice, seventies-style bright red. If those colours don't suit you, why not the black fascia with matching strap and LEDs that light up a colourful neon blue?

If you have narrow wrists then the chunky rectangular style might look a little out of place, so a round-faced version of the timepiece can be procured instead, although this doesn't look as nice or expensive as the rectangular one and this is reflected in the price, thirty pounds cheaper at £54.99.

There is no denying the individuality of this wrist piece and if you prefer to have smart looking, unique jewellery then I would heartily recommend The Binary Watch as The One to have.

Just don't try and tell the time when you're drunk... 

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