IWC Connect: The Latest “Smart” Watch Strap for Mechanical Timepieces

With last week’s announcement breitling replica online store of its IWC Connect device — an “intelligent tool” embedded in the straps of its watches — IWC Shaffhausen becomes the latest Swiss watch brand to offer a high-tech alternative to both traditional mechanical watches and so-called smartwatches such as the recently released Apple Watch.

According to the company, the concept behind IWC Connect is “to enable owners of IWC timepieces to control their connected environment directly from the wrist while also maintaining the integrity of a handcrafted mechanical timepiece.” In other words, to compare and contrast it with other “smart” and “connected” products introduced by Swiss watch companies over the past year or so, it appears to have more in common with Montblanc’s Urban Speed e-Strap (you can read about it here) — in that all the electronics will be inside the strap rather than in the watch itself — than with such “hybrid” devices as the MMT Horological Smartwatches and Bulgari’s Diagono Magnesium Concept watch, all of which have electronic components incorporated into mechanical movements.

While IWC has released little detailed information on tag heuer replica watches IWC Connect, its will be designed to allow wearers to control and interact with the “Internet of Things” (IoT), the term for a network of connected devices in one’s environment, as well as track an unspecified range of daily activities. The first IWC watch family to have its straps to be equipped with IWC Connect technology will be the popular Big Pilot’s Watch collection.IWC Connect strap - CU

“Seeing that many of our customers and brand ambassadors are wearing connected devices alongside their IWC watches, we chose to work with a like-minded digital technology company to develop an elegant, aesthetically complementary solution that eliminates the need to have additional devices on the opposing wrist to your IWC,” says IWC CEO Georges Kern. “But, and this is essential, we do not touch our beautiful watches – an ‘IWC’ stays a mechanical handcrafted timepiece. We’ve engineered an intelligent design solution which perfectly integrates and underlines our product worlds.”

IWC says that further information on IWC Connect, including a launch date, will become available on its website (www.iwc.com) and social media channels over the coming months. Scroll down to see a photo aaa iwc replica   and teaser video.

Dive Watches 101: What Did Divers Use Before Dive Watches?

When Rolex and Blancpainlaunched their first tag heuer replica watches sale  wristwatches for divers in the early 1950s they did, in fact, create the archetype of the modern dive watch, thanks to the development of the quintessential rotating bezel. However, they did not invent the first watch used by divers.

If we travel back in time, we find that World War II (and, especially, the frogmen of the Italian Navy) demonstrated the potential of underwater warfare and thus the need for salvage. This, in turn, further increased the need for water-resistant watches in order to better conduct underwater missions involving timing and navigation. The 1940s marked the introduction of various water-resistant watches and, of course, the canteen-style watches that were equipped with little more than an additional crown cap for increased water resistance. Earlier, in the 1930s, there was Panerai supplying the Italian naval divers with various instruments as well as (in cooperation with Rolex) some of the first specifically developed watches for divers.Hard Hat Pocket Watch Case for divers

Four years before that, and in a much more civilian environment, Omega launched the rectangular Marine, with a patented double sliding and removable case, which was (at least theoretically) water-resistant to a depth of more than 100 meters. Because of these attributes, the Marine was successfully used by underwater pioneers such as William Beebe (up to 14 meters) and Yves Le Prieur.

But we still have to travel a bit further back to get to the fake rolex sale online beginning: In the 1920s, watch companies had already introduced various types of water-resistant watch cases for the increasingly popular wristwatch or “wristlet,” with the Rolex Oyster case as the most prominent example thanks to Mercedes Gleitze’s heavily advertised record swim. But the world beneath the deep, and with it the diver as a target audience, was basically nonexistent to the watch industry, as was the concept of horizontal, autonomous movement underwater.

It was the era of the hard hat diver. From the 1820s on, a few brave men started to walk on the seafloor using inventions that were initially intended for firefighting. Air was constantly supplied from the surface, and measuring time underwater was most likely not these men’s first priority. An increase in deep-sea exploration and the ongoing industrialization of diving led to the first autonomous diving helmets in the early 20th century, and with these also came an increased need for the diver to know how much time he spent underwater. The watch industry was already experimenting with water-resistant pocket watches for different reasons, and the idea of an external pocket watch on a diver’s suit thankfully was not pursued, given the physically demanding tasks performed by the divers.

The solution was much simpler: Divers mounted pocketwatches on the inside of their diving helmets, so that they always had the time in their sight, right next to the depth meter. One way of doing this was by affixing a second watch case to the helmet first (as pictured), so that the watch itself could be removed whenever needed.

So, the first thing a diver saw and heard after the command, “Hat the diver!” was a ticking pocketwatch on the inside of his helmet, which aaa replica rolex watches  hopefully never got wet.