Monday, December 19, 2011

Seiko AirPro- The Inflatable Watch_401

Seiko AirPro: The Inflatable Watch

Seiko AirPro

I was in New York for a conference last week, and I ran into a girl wearing a
big, dorky (in a cool way), very intriguing watch which turned out to be a Seiko
AirPro. I'd never seen one before, and when she told me she'd bought it in Japan,
my first thought was that it was a GSM mobile phone watch that had somehow slipped
passed my Japanese wrist technology radar. But instead of being a speaker or a microphone,
the big contraption below the face is actually a pump which
can be used to inflate a small chamber under the case to make the watch fit snuggly
against your wrist,buy wholesale designer handbags, kind of like the old Nike and Reebok basketball shoes. I'm
not exactly sure why it's useful (the girl wearing it was a designer, and I think
she was more attracted to its unique looks than its functionality), but I suppose
if you were running, or playing tennis, or otherwise engaged in the type of activity
that would send your watch bouncing up and down your arm, it might be nice to cinch
it down by pumping a little air into it.

I can't explain why, but for some reason, I liked the watch enough to do a bit
of research. I don't know if Seiko is still making the AirPro, but
I do know for a fact you won't find one at your local authorized Seiko retailer.
I found references to the Seiko AirPro as early at August of 1999, so we're definitely
talking vintage technology here. I even found references to a version which
actually spoke the time which I'm sure wouldn't get old for your co-workers and cube-mates
at all.

Features of the Seiko AirPro include:

Inflatable band. Shock resistant. Temperature tolerant to 122° Fahrenheit. Water-resistant to 100 meters, or 330 feet. Stopwatch with a resolution of 1/100th of a second, and 99 laps.

If you feel like you just have to have one of these vintage gems, I've seen a
few
crop up on eBay.

No comments:

Post a Comment