Alba Hyper-Tech Carbon Twin Sensor

As it's Easter Sunday, it's a tradition to go for a hike before sunrise and watch the sun come up from the top of a hill. For that purpose I decided to wear a watch designed for the hills.

The watch I chose today is by the Seiko brand Alba, and part of their Hyper-Tech (or Hypertech) range. The watch has many names printed on it: Carbon, Twin Sensor, and Alti-Thermo.  I think that Carbon refers to a particular line of Hyper-Tech watches, while the twin sensor and alti-thermo names refer to the fact that this watch has both barometer (altimeter) and thermometer sensors /functions. The design is big and chunky and has a look which is a little reminiscent of the G-Shocks, but with a non-symmetrical shape. There are many screws on the case, and the sensor is visible at the top of the watch. The strap is a rubbery plastic (which suffers from brittleness) with a ridged design and had the part number of PW031.

The LCD is split into two sections for the different features. The top display has a dot matrix array and a small area for digits, and is used for the day and date as well as the altitude graph or elevation change and hundredths of a second in stopwatch mode. The bottom part of the LCD has two lines which give the time (6 digits at the bottom) and height and atmospheric pressure above. At the right side of this section is a set of Arrows pointing up and down to indicate the change in atmospheric pressure and hence predict the weather (going up =sun, and going down =rain). The watch is controlled by 5 buttons for the modes, adjustment, start/stop and light (small bulb based). The mode button unusually pulls out to put the watch in time setting mode.

The watch is powered by a W754 module which has alarm (possibly time, altitude, and temperature), altimeter /barometer, and chronograph (with altitude recording).

This model is the W754-4A00 and came out in 1995. The catalogue number was ADQP001 and an original sales price of ¥14,000.

Nike ACG Ambient Refresh WA0003

Another from my expanding collection of blogged Nike watches today.

This model is another of the Nike ACG line which covers the more extreme and outdoor end of sports. It is also another from the Alti-Gear range (which are all sensor watches) and a Thermal Gauge model too.

I have blogged one of the Frozen Ambient models, but this is called the Ambient Refresh, so I guess that it wad a later model. This has a model number of WA0003-06 (which covers the model, and the colour variation too). Like the earlier model, it has a temperature sensor which shows on the digital part of the Ana-Digi display (and also has a temperature alarm feature). Other modes are chronograph, timer, alarm, and counter.

The man difference between the Ambient Refresh, and the Frozen Ambient, is that this model has a fabric and velcro strap rather than the original silicone strap.

Nike ACG Alti-Gear Ambient Frozen WA0001 Ana-Digi watch

After careful consideration, I admit I am now a collector of the Nike watches too - they are interesting looking, and often quite high tech, so it seems reasonable...

Today's one is one of the high tech models, and falls under the Nike ACG line of products. The ACG line is the one that covers the more outdoor all-terrain sports, and are usually more rugged than the other sports models.

Various watches were released under the ACG name, and many are sensor watches (like this model).

This particular model comes under the ACG Alti-Gear line where there is a mix of styles of sensor watch. This one is an Ambient Frozen Regular series watch with a model number of WA0001. The colour variant appears to be the WA0001-002 but may be -005 (although this has a green ACG symbol not aquamarine).

I bought this one because I saw it had a temperature sensor, and I have a good few of those due to my Citizen Ana-Digi Temp collection. This  watch is not from that line, but does have an analogue and digital display too! The analogue display is a 3 hand dial with crown for adjusting.

The digital display is a 4 digit LCD panel and shows the rest of the functions (and text when you switch to the function). The display modes are time, date, temperature (in °F by default, but will show °C with a button press), temperature alarm, counter, timer, and normal alarm.

I don't have any date information as the back just has material, location of manufacture (China), and water resistance (50m).