On an Unrelated Topic, Go Bears

This entry has nothing to do with watches. I graduated in 1997 from the University of California, Berkeley, and eared four varsity letters playing baseball. Last fall, the university announced that it would cancel baseball after the 2011 season because baseball lost so much money and hadn't been performing well. Just a few weeks ago, after a lot of work by the alums and parents, we were able to raise almost $10 million to save the baseball program. Not distracted by this problem, and likely motivated to go out in style, the baseball team was able to put together an amazing season, winning a regional series with numerous remarkable comebacks, then winning a super-regional series in the Bay Area to advance to the College World Series for the first time since 1992 (the year before I arrived on campus). The Bears finally were eliminated from the College World Series last week, but what the team was able to accomplish was incredible. I want to congratulate the team (including Pac-10 Player of the Year Tony Renda) and the coaches (including national Coach of the Year David Esquer) on an amazing run. Watching this run, I could not have been more proud to be an alum.

New Arrival: Timex WS4 Expedition

I got this watch in all black with some dark green accents. I thought I might like the silver and orange face one better, and I still may be right. I like this watch's size a lot. A vertical rectangle. A busy face. I wish the font size were more substantial, as the time readout is almost hard to read because of its thin size. It's pretty solid and substantial, which I like. The buttons are good and equally substantial. I think I'll wear this a couple more times, and maybe keep my eye out for a cheaper version of the silver and orange faced one and sell the all black one. We'll see. A 8 out of 10.
Timex WS4 Expdition in two colors below:

Talk to Me

I know there aren't many readers out there, but I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment or email me at jfurstenthal@yahoo.com about watches you have or covet, and what I should know about. I have ways of discovering new watches, but the more I know about and see, the better. Also, if you know of other ways to see and read about digital watches, I would love to know about those too.
Thanks, John

New Arrival: Alessi Daytimer

This one is a bit unusual, and one of the few that don't have a stopwatch on it. It's very architectural. Very thick when you look at it from the left side profile. It was awkward to set the time on, and the paperwork is for Alessi analog watches, so that didn't help much. It is off until you activate it to check the time. When you push the bottom of the two buttons, it does a little digital dance with the pixel screen and then shows the time and the day/date. I'm not a big fan of watches that you need to activate to tell the time (why I don't use my iPod nano watchband), but not that big of a hassle. A cool design, and very different. I give it an 8 out of 10.
Alessi Daytimer below:

New Arrival: Vestal Crusader

I like this watch. I bought this in all black by mistake a few weeks ago and resold it for a profit for some reason. I got the one I really wanted with the silver stripes, and this is a good watch. I wish the display were a bit bigger, and the time setting system is a bit confusing. But this is a cool design, with a good, rounded integrated band. Nice big size, with a substantial feel. I give this one a 8.5 out of 10.
Vestal Crusader below: