| Technology has become high fashion, or at least is trying desperately to do so. The gee-whiz factor of gadgets has worn off, and more and more were now just trying to integrate them into our regular lives, and make them not only more powerful, but more attractive. Whether its the Jawbone Up or Google Glass, companies are trying to find ways to make gadgets as stylish as they are powerful. |
| But "stylish" may be harder for Jawbone and HP to achieve than we thought. Thats why I was curious to check out Citizens $495 Eco-Drive Proximity watch; Citizen has a long history of making beautiful, stylish watches, and now the companys trying to inject some 21st-century computing into the equation. Unlike the Pebble, which is essentially the modern equivalent of a calculator watch useful, but not exactly what youd call "classy" Citizen already has cool cornered, and now it wants to quietly slip a gadget underneath. Can it pull it off? And, perhaps more importantly, are Tom Ford, Rolex, Manolo Blahnik, and Tiffanys about to become the electronics manufacturers to watch? | | Lets start with the Proximity. To look at it, its just a watch for many of its users, thats all it will ever be. It tells you what time it is. Its solar-powered, so itll do it forever without its battery ever dying. Its black face is accented with lime green dials and minute marks, and its black band has green thread woven through its edges. (The watch also comes in blue, but I like the green better.) The metal watch is big and bulky, bigger than the watch Im used to wearing, and its two big buttons and large, clicking dial give it a feel more rock n roll than Rolex. The Proximity is a watch for the classiest of all skateboarders, or maybe the guy in the board room who might also get in a fight later. Im a fan. |
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