Friday, 8 August 2014

Nike Surf watch WG53 with Harmonix Technology

I'm going to be going to a surf and music festival tonight, so thought I'd wear a surf watch for the occasion.

The watch I chose is one of my Nike watches, but this model has been a challenge to investigate.

It is a Nike watch, but only has a small reference to it being a Nike - a little Nike swoosh symbol on one part of the strap, and a tiny one in the middle of the back plate. The rest of the symbols (on the face and large on the back plate) seem to be for something called Harmonix Technology. I've only found reference to this model online on auction sites, so unfortunately I've not been able to get much on its history or timing, or the catalogue number. The model number on the back is WG53-4000.

It is quite a complicated model with lots of information on the LCD. The main part of the display is the time in 4 digits in a special curvy font. Above that is the day and date, which is shown on a small dot matrix array. Below the time are the seconds, and this sits over the unusual part - the surf display. The surf display shows a sweeping curve that fills from fest to right. There are two parts to this with a downwards curve on the left and an upwards curve peaking on the right. This display shows the status of the tide, indicating whether it is rising or falling, and how close to high or low tide you are. For the tide calculation there is a surf mode where you can set the region and then beach, selecting among many locations (for Europe, it covers UK, Ireland, Spain, and Italian beaches). Then you can see the tide status, the high and low tide times, a stopwatch scroll back and forward through the days to see when the high and low tides that were/will be.

The watch has  a very rounded case which is in one piece with the strap and made of a rubbery plastic. It has a metal clip across the face which frames the LCD display. All of buttons are hidden inside the plastic of the case, presumably to improve the waterproof level so this can be used in the sea.

For modes, this watch has the surf mode, a heat timer (for competitions), chronograph, and multiple alarms. Ahead of each mode, text appears explaining which mode is next, and there is a battery level display which is also shown at that time. There is also an el-backlight triggered by a button on the front.

The back shows the usual details, telling this is 100m water resistant and made in China, but also the phrase "Get it when its firing".

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