Nixon - The Block ss

Along with Diesel, the Nixon brand is another modern watch maker with a taste for the retro and unusual.

Today's watch is one of the Nixon LCD watches and is called The Block SS (the SS meaning Stainless Steel as this is the metal version of the design). As with all Nixon watches it has a tag line on the back, and this one says 'full stack'.

The Block has a bulky square appearance  which tapers towards the front, like a pyramid with the top cut off. In the middle is a square LCD panel with custom digits. The 4 digit time display takes up about half of the height and is a little bit above the centre. Seconds are in the second largest size digits at the bottom, and day and date are in the smallest digits along the top. It has chronograph, timer, and alarm modes, and there is also a dual time option. When cycling through the modes, the new mode is shown in text along the top line and when you stop it flashes before going into the mode itself. For nighttime viewing there is an el-backlight too.

The strap is also stainless steel, but interspersed with polycarbonate links (and was a bit of a pain to adjust, but I got there eventually). This is the white version, but it was also released with black links and an inverse LCD display.

The Block came out in 2007 for $120, and the model is not longer produced.