Fun watches for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics from Swiss Swatch. These seasonal watches are pretty neat – for the occasion. Here is a mini review of the trio. Each has a function aside from being Olympics related, that is except the “Sporty Friends” watch, which has an image of the Vancouver Olympics cartoon mascots. Back to that in a moment. By the way, this month I am giving one of each of these watches away on Luxist.com. Once a week until they are all handed out. To enter you can look for the giveaway posts here at my Luxist page.
The three watches aren’t a limited edition as far as I know, but are likely only part of a special production for this season and after that will end. So they are good thing to get if these winter Olympics games is special to you. Prices are quite reasonable at between $55 – $110 dollars each.
Most mainstream of the three is the Swatch “To the Top” watch, that is 41mm wide in plastic (these are Swatches, they are most all in plastic). It has a legible dial with snowy winter games colors and Olympics imagery. Inside is a Swiss quartz chronograph movement with a 10 hour chronograph. The strap is multicolored silicon that is comfy and looks pretty neat. The colorful timepiece helps get you in the mood for sporting events and is affordable enough so that it isn’t something you need to worry much about getting dirty after roughing around with it. Price for the To the Top watch is $110.
Next is an interesting watch for skiing enthusiasts. It is the Swatch Happy Games and features Swatch Snowpass technology. Basically there is a small chip in the watch that can be loaded with a ski resort daily, weekly, seasonal (or other term) lift ticket. Instead of carrying around the actual ticket to show at the turnstile, you just wave your Happy Games watch against a sensor at about 700 or so participating ski resorts. It is a cool feature to have in a watch. For more information about using Snowpass and participating resorts you visit the Swatch Snowpass site here.
The Happy Games watch itself is the most classic Swatch looking, but with slightly stylized face with a little pattern on the dial and skeletonized hands. The white dial looks good with the textured gray silicon strap and the Vancouver imagery. The clearish plastic case is 38mm wide and the watch retails for $75.
For girls or young kids there is the Swatch Sporty Friends. One of the more unique pieces, this watch is smaller in size with a silvered dial, clear plastic case and blue silicon strap. The top part of the strap is fitted with an image of the Vancouver Olympics sporty friends mascots. You can see this duo right at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics official website. Fans of these characters can now have them on a watch. No, it isn’t for me, but I am not an 9 year old girl – who the watch is more meant for. While the watch is off the wrist you can see the image well, but when you are wearing it, the image is sort of lost on the far side of your wrist, and on-lookers will only see it upside down. Odd placement by Swatch of the characters, as it feels the watch is better meant for box display. At 34mm wide in size, price for the Swatch Sports Friends watch is a reasonable $55.
So all you Swatch or Olympics collectors check out this collection specially available in 2010 for this season only – each of them is available direct from Swatch.