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 Tag Heuer Kirium Chronograph Mens Watch CL111A.FT6000 By: TAG Heuer Average Rating: 1.0 Total Reviews: 1 More Information Nice watch, awful user interface  On: 2006-01-22I own this watch, and there are several things I love bout it. The single nicest thing is how the digital and analog parts are integrated. Theres a whole display and multiple functions (time zones, alarms, timer chronometers, etc.) behind the bezel, but the nice thing about it is that they are implemented in a material that shows up clearly when you call up the function, but fades to black when you dont. Its great: the result is that you have all the advantages of a full, rich multi-function display, but with none of the clutter. When you are not calling it up, the entire background fades to black, and you have a perfectly clean, classical display. The second nicest thing is built quality. This is a *very* nicely done watch, it will easily last for years. Youd expect tha in a watch in this price range, but still, it is worth mentioning. As for problems, the real killer is the user interface. Its attrocious. It requires endless twisting, clicking and fidling to get anything done, its highly non-intuitive, and requires extensive consultation of their manual. Even with the manual its quirky and counterintuitive - the sort of user interface youd expect in a $20 chinese watch, not in a $2000 german one. For instance, suppose you have travelled between California and New York. The watch supports 2 time zones, so handling this should be a breeze, right? Absolutely *NOT*. To get it right, youre goign to waste at least 15 minutes fiddling with it, and chances are if you dont have the manual with you, you wont be succesfull. Alternativelly you could give up on having the watch hands display the time at your destination (which would be the natural thing to do...), and keep the "Time 2:__ __" display up at all times. That would almost-work in a pinch, though youll have to remember to look at that instead of at the hands and put up with an allways-on digital display spoiling the clean looks of your fancy watch. The surprise will come when you expect your alarm to work in the morning. All your alarms and alerts would all be in California time, so you wont get your wake-up alarm in the morning. You could easily also miss your meetings because your watch thinks its still in California. Thats not acceptable. Ultimatelly comes down to is that Tag are great at designing quality watches but have no expertise at designing quality user interfaces. Youd think that for something like this they would hire somebody who does, or at least contract it out to someone who does, but they didnt - apparently they are not even aware that there *is* such a discipline as user interface design. |