Citizen’s new Proximity is the discount fake watches uk first analog watch with Bluetooth. We put it to the test in this feature from the WatchTime archives. Does it sink, or sync? (Photos by Robert Atkinson).

These days, you can hardly fire up your Web browser without landing on an article about the Apple Watch and a host of other wrist-borne devices that sync with smart phones. One recent headline proclaimed that technology companies have discovered that the wrist is valuable real estate. Readers of this magazine have known that for some time. Yet for all the hype, micro-computers with straps remain the nerds of the watch world: they’re highly intelligent, but often ticketed by the fashion police. Not to mention that only babies and capuchin monkeys have fingers small enough to manipulate their screens.

Sync seekers who prefer old-school watches with hands have limited options – very limited. In fact, as this is written, Citizen’s new Proximity is the sole choice.

How does the Proximity work? In a nutshell, it uses low energy Bluetooth 4.0 to sync with the iPhone 4S and 5 (sorry, Android fans). The link allows the watch to provide alerts about new e-mails, calls, and scheduled events. It can also help you find your lost phone. It’s not compatible with earlier iPhones, because they do not offer Bluetooth 4.0, which first became available in the iPhone 4S in October 2011.

Out of the box, the Proximity makes a good impression. It’s available in two color schemes: a traditional silver-colored stainless-steel case with blue accents, and a stealthy black ion finish with Incredible Hulk green accents. My test watch was the Hulk variety.

The Proximity’s case officially measures 45 mm in diameter, but like many watches with oversize crowns and pushers, it’s much wider than that, so it wears larger than its published dimensions would indicate. It’s 14.5 mm thick and it weighs 105 grams, and it has a solid feel. Thanks to the slightly curved lugs, the watch fit my 7¾-inch wrist comfortably, and it fit under dress-shirt cuffs with no problem.

The 22-mm strap is leather sandwiched between a brightly colored nylon lining and a pseudo-suede polyurethane outer discount watches replica aaa layer. Hulk-green stitching and rows of small perforations give the strap a decidedly sporty look.

The crystal is mineral glass with anti-reflective coating on the inside. Beneath it, the dial provides a great deal of information, but like many multi-function watches, it’s not a paradigm of legibility.

The dial contains three primary indicators. The “control panel” is located at 6 o’clock. This subdial tells you which mode the watch is in. Three of the modes are Bluetooth-related:

• “PR” is pair mode, used to establish the initial connection between the watch and the phone.

• “CT” is connect, to reestablish the watch-phone link after the initial pairing.

• “DCT” disconnects the watch from the phone.

The remaining modes are for more traditional functions. “TME,” “CAL” and “CHR” are time mode, calendar, and chronograph. “LTM” is local time mode, and “0” resets the watch hands should any of them cease to point where they’re supposed to.

Setting up the Proximity is a breeze, thanks to four short videos included on the credit-card-size USB drive that comes with the watch. The videos cover the Proximity app, which you can download from iTunes; pairing the watch and the phone; initial set-up; and choosing your notification preferences in the app. Each video is just a few minutes long.

The USB card also contains the 12-page owner’s manual. Although 12 pages doesn’t sound like much, this small package contains about a week’s worth of homework. I printed mine out and went through it like a college textbook, with yellow highlighter and red pen in buy luxury fake watches hand.  With this watch, it definitely helps to read the manual.

The Seiko Astron, released to great discount fake watches online fanfare in 2012, tells time by receiving GPS signals anywhere on Earth. Was it a world-beater in our test? Click here to read our in-depth review of the Seiko Astron GPS solar watch, with original photographs by Robert Atkinson.

The last time Seiko called a new watch “Astron,” the future of timekeeping changed forever. Launched on Christmas Day, 1969, the original Seiko Astron watch was the world’s first commercially available quartz wristwatch. At the time, Seiko said of the Astron, “Someday, all watches will be made this way.” Today, it’s saying the same thing about the new Astron. Is Seiko right? Let’s find out. If you have not read about it, the new Astron is an analog, solar-powered watch that receives GPS satellite signals and adjusts to the precise local time anywhere on Earth. It recognizes all 39 time zones, besting the top mechanical watches, which can display 37, with a manual reset. The Astron covers the globe by first determining its location using GPS, then comparing that information with an onboard database that divides the Earth’s surface into one million squares, each of which is assigned to a particular time zone. That is something no other watch can do.

The Seiko Astron differs from watches that receive terrestrial radio signals from atomic clocks. So-called RC (radio-controlled) watches receive signals when they are within range of stations in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany and China, so they do not offer global coverage. The Astron works anywhere, even in the middle of an ocean or desert, in Antarctica, or on a Tibetan mountaintop. Seiko Astron watches also automatically recognizes which time zone they are in, while RC watches do not.

The Astron also differs from Citizen’s limited-edition Satellite Wave, which receives GPS signals, but lacks a GPS geo-location function so it does not change time zones automatically. Finally, though the Astron is a GPS receiver that knows precisely where it is, it can’t direct you to that new restaurant downtown, or tell you how far it is to the 14th green. It uses GPS solely to tell time.

When you take an Astron out of the box, it may have to be charged. The Astron is powered by light – any type of light will charge its battery, but sunlight is the most efficient energizer. The charging status is displayed via an “E – F” (Empty – Full) indicator between 9 and 10 o’clock. The power reserve when fully charged is two months in active mode and six months in sleep mode. In sleep mode, the Astron does not display the time until it “wakes up” discount watches replica y being exposed to light.  It takes only six minutes of sunlight to provide enough power for the Astron to run for one day, but going from empty to fully charged requires 65 hours of sunlight. The GPS receiver will not operate when the watch is low on power, so regular charging is important. The Seiko Astron performs two basic types of operations with GPS signals: it can automatically and manually sync to a single satellite to make sure its local time display is accurate, and it can be manually triggered to change time zones, which requires at least four satellite signals.

The Astron automatically attempts to sync with a single GPS signal once each day. The sync can be set in motion by exposure to the sun or another strong source of light. The Astron’s programming tells it that if a strong light source is present, there’s a good chance it can receive a signal. If the Astron acquires a signal, it remembers when that happened. On subsequent days, if the watch is covered by clothing or otherwise blocked from light, it searches for the signal at the same time as the last successful attempt, assuming the chances for reception are good. To make sure it’s always on time, the Astron can also receive leap-second data. Leap seconds are added about every luxury fake watches online store 18 months to account for the Earth’s slowing rotation. The most recent was added on June 30, 2012.