Yes Watch World Watch II, review

[erehwesle]

Good afternoon all,

I'm not much of a watch enthusiast, but getting to become one. I thought I'd post this review, specifically because DSLAM's Yes watch review (My Mega Yes Watch Review - (Lots of Pix!) thanks google!) was so helpful in my watch buying decision. I hope there is still some interest in Yes watches out there. I wanted to give back to a community that was so helpful to me, in hopes perhaps someone else might read this and benefit.

I've never written a watch review before, though. I'll try to be complete. Please forgive my lack of terminology knowledge and abysmal photography. If you have any additional information you desire about this watch, or want more bad digital photographs (my camera has a macro function, who knew?) from a different angle or such, let me know I will strive to provide such.

Now to business:

The Watch:



This is a Yes Watch World Watch II Model W407.4 with a 24 hour bezel.

It is in IP Rose Gold with a combination IP Rose Gold and stainless band

This watch is a combination digital/analog movement

It measures 43 x 15 mm
20 mm bracelet attachment
weighs 5.5 oz (150 grams) with bracelet shown
LCD window measures 28 mm
Digital numbers 5 mm tall
Stainless Steel Case
Sapphire Crystal
Waterproof 10 ATM
Rotating 24 Hour Bezel
Screwback & Double O-Rings on Crown and Pushers (4)

company website:

YES WorldWatch II Solunar Wrist Watch

First of all, this is a big watch. And in Rose Gold, it stands out like a beacon. I know 43 mm isn't too large in these days of big bold watches, but this one is thick as well. Here are some side on shots to illustrate.





I, for one, love a meaty watch. And this does get noticed. I work, when I'm not teaching, at a bookstore and often work register. Literally 8/10 people buying watch magazines (you know who you are) will comment on it if I'm wearing short sleeves. Serious. My favorite comment? "That looks like something off of a WWII submarine, but shinier".

The Rose Gold was a good choice, the finish is attractive, and well done. Fit and finish on the watch.. I don't have a lot of experience with different brands, but it seems excellent. Note the nice details like the blue stone on the pushers and the yellow sunstone and blue moonstone at 12 and 24 on the bezel, and the sun symbol on the crown.

The stainless steel band is nicely fitted, and even comes with two adjustment tools, a punch and a screw, if you need to remove links. It has a clamshell (?) clasp which was a bit weird until I got used to it, and does lie flat against the wrist, and not catch on clothes, which is kind of a plus on a bulky watch like this.

So onto the actual time-telling.

What attracted me about this watch was the features, and if you haven't seen one, it can be hard to describe. Yes says they are about changing the way we view time, they "combine the daily and seasonal cycles of the sun and the moon, with the steady beat of hours, minutes and seconds." Basically what you have is a quartz watch, with more computing power than most mainframe computers ten years ago, throwing tons of information at you in a clean, crisp, and elegant design.

First there is an analog movement, which is a single hand, rotating the dial once every 24 hours. The interior bezel is divided into two twelve hour half's. Noon is pointing directly up, and midnight is pointing directly down.

The cool thing about the watch is its digital component. This consists of a full face LCD display interior to the inner bezel. Its primary function (other than displaying digital time which can be turned off) is to show sunrise and sunset. The digital display divides the day of the analog arm into 15 minute segments, which are black for night and white for day. This adjusts for each day in the year, so watching the 24 hour hand, you can visually see the amount of sunlight, and sunrise and sunset in your day. Again sorry for the bad pictures but here is what right now looks like on 1/10 in Philadelphia.



Contrast this with 6/21 and you can see a large difference.



The digital display of time can be, also, turned off. I enjoyed doing this on my recent vacation this winter as I didn't care about the precise time, and the watch with the 24 hour hand gave me pretty much what I needed, how long until I lost light, and how much of the day had passed.

Interior to this is a display at 6 o'clock (well midnight on this watch, 24 hour dial 'natch) of moon phase, which is accurate to 44 hrs per segment. The exterior ring (which I hope you can see in above photos) on the LCD dial gives you moonrise and moonset. It can be also configured, which I find handy, for sunrise and sunset in a separate time-zone, which is way cool if you are, say, trying to keep track of when you can call someone stationed overseas for instance.

So our analog hand, combined with the digital face gives us a bunch of nice features. In addition to this, the watch has a digital time, at the 12 o'clock position, that is feature filled as well.

This review is going to run long, so I'm not going to go into navigation. As DSLAM has said it is basically intuitive, with the small exception of the fact that the alarm function isn't in the Mode progression (maybe because there are very many modes) but directly accessible in time mode by a press of the upper left button. I got used to this quickly, but your mileage may vary.

In digital mode you can instantly toggle between two time setting HOME and AWAY by pressing the upper right button twice. The watch has over 500 cities preset, and you get for that not only local time and DST adjustments, but all the sun and moon data I mentioned above. In a pinch you can set your location by longitude and latitude, handy if you are on a raft in the middle of the pacific and far away from the things of man... (see movie: Joe vs. Volcano).

In order, Modes are

Set Home: Allows you to set home location

Set Away: Allows you to set away location (second time zone)

Set Time: Sets time for the watch, when setting time, will automatically set away time properly

Set Ring: Toggles the outside ring between showing moon rise/set to showing sun rise/set in Away time zone. This is incredibly useful if you need to keep a quick visual reference of friends overseas' time cycle.

Chronometer: A stopwatch with lap time

Timer: Countdown timer, able to set to up to 99 minutes.

SM-Calc: Sun and moon calcs for a specific date more on this later.

Phase Elapsed Timer: A NASA thing, but incredibly useful. More also later on this.

The timer and stopwatch work as usual. Note, both are only calibrated to seconds, so if you want a tenth or hundredth of a second stopwatch, this isn't it. For me this is not a drawback, as this watch is calibrated to much longer and different cycles of time. Looking down right now and seeing it is almost two hours to sunset, the moon is up, near its highest for the day, and is at a quarter crescent, hundredths of seconds seem unnecessary.

One of my favorite features is the SM-Calc. Simply, this uses the watch's impressive software to calculate solar and lunar data for any time between 1/1/2000 and 12/31/2099. Getting married in a year and want to see when sunset is on that day? Planning a camping trip in June (and I am) and want to know when to pick up the rental canoe to maximize daylight time? This will do it. By the way, this is addictive, particularly as you can use it to do neat things like, what is the day/night ratio in Rekyavik this summer solstice? (hint: sun only sets from 11:30 pm until 3 am!. Almost the entire watch face is sun!)

Which brings us to PET, or Phase Elapsed Time. I don't have an official story of whether this is true, but NASA uses this a lot. And a Zulu (one of Yes' titanium watches, much more svelte and sleek then my WWII monster) has flown. PET gives you a countdown to a date and time, or a countup from one. Honestly? This is a feature I never thought I'd use, mainly when I'm counting down to something it is a parking meter expiring, etc.. and the timer feature of the watch is good with this, and easy to set. Setting PET means specifying a year, month, day, hour and minute. However, I've gotten to love this. For instance, I'm looking forward to a weekend in Austin, TX with my girlfriend.

I have the second time zone set to Austin, and know from PET that I will be leaving in 3 days 14 hours 20 minutes and 40 seconds as of now, if the airline leaves on time. If I wanted to I could go over to the SM-Calc function and find out that Sunrise would be at 7:28, sunset at 5:52, and the moon would be 66% full, among other things, but that would be geeky of me, wouldn't it? If anyone has been to Austin, TX there are supposedly bats that come out near sunset, I'll be using my WWII to time watching this :).

Additional Fun,

At any time you can hold down the upper right button to cycle through your area's info, including long and lat, day of the year, week of the year, sunrise, solar noon, sunset, moonrise, moon highest, moonset, percent of moon, next new moon, next full moon.

If you set the sunstone (noon on the bezel) to solar noon, and point the analog hand at the sun, the moonstone (midnight on the bezel) will point north.

If you put the moonstone (midnight on the bezel, blue) halfway between moonrise and moonset, you get a decent read on the tides. sunstone and moonstone (noon and midnight on the bezel) are high, half between them are low. Not precise, but helpful.

One can keep the outer bezel (if you go with the 24 hour bezel option) set to a third time zone. I like to keep mine on Zulu (GMT) time. Without pushing anything I can see at a glance looking at the analog hand what Zulu time is.

Customer Service


Well, I have not had a problem with the watch yet, as it is new, but ordering was incredible.

My experience was perhaps atypical (though reading other's accounts online perhaps not), but after initially ordering a Cosmo, I got a phone call and e-mail from Bjorn Kartomten. I ordered this December, around Christmas, and he wanted to let me know they had a slow build schedule on the watch I ordered, and wanted to point out some specials I might not be aware of We spoke for some time, and he recommended the IP Rose Gold World Watch II that I bought. Honestly, I thought he was from their customer care department, but found out he is the founder and owner of the company!

So from my experience? I sincerely doubt you will ever have a customer service problem with Yes Watches.

I hope this review was informative, and didn't leave anything major out. As I've said, I'm not a huge watch person, but in buying my World Watch II, I did go through quite a number of well written and thoughtful reviews here. I tried to cover all the points that they did, except I did forget a wrist shot and case shot, didn't I? Let's fix that right now.



and finally on my skinny pale pale wrist:



Thank you all for reading. I was serious as to if there is anything else you want to know about the watch, letting me know. Without taking it apart, I'll take whatever pictures interest you.

According to my Yes World Watch II it is now sunset here in Philadelphia (4:52 pm or about 21:52 Zulu), so I bid you a fond adieu.

Best in timekeeping,

TBS

[DSLAM]

Very nice review, thanks. Yeah I really like the the World Watch II. I think that is the best looking one in fact. I like the numbered bezel and the flashyness of the two tone metals. I would like to get that next at some point.

Good idea on using the PET for a parking meter, I hadnt thought of that one.

Not many Yes Watch owners but I still think the feature set is unique. It's a quartz so that's always a turnoff for a lot of watch people.

Also, I dont think many people check out this particular subforum. Probably posting a referral link in one of the other heavily trafficked subforums would get more attention. We need more in-depth reviews like this one.

[erehwesle]

Thanks DSLAM!

As I said, your in depth review of your Kundalini was very very important in my decision to buy the watch. I appreciate the time you spent on yours, as I ended up with a great timepiece.

I've been reading around, and see the "quartz = booo hissss!". And actually I like analog watches myself viscerally, but I guess here I benefit from not being a watch person. If anyone can make a complication that does a third of what this piece does, I'd be wowed, and it would also, likely cost more than two years of my teacher's salary.

But still, I totally double dog dare you Ulysse Nardin, that's right, I'm lookin' at you. I know you have your Astrolabium Galileo Galilei, but I can find sunset today in Vostok, Perth Amboy, or even Cleveland in a couple of minutes. And I didn't mortgage my house to get it. So there!

I think of this as a serious watch, that just happens to have a quartz movement, due to the feature set it needs to offer. Wearing it, working retail, this seems to bear out, as I've said, I quite often get watch people, wearing Brietling, Rolex, Patek, etc. asking, what is that?

The World Watch II is big, isn't it? Nothing against your Kundalini, I liked the look of that as well, and it is titanium, but this one is a big, thick, hunk of stainless steel. The Rose Gold makes it shiny, but you know you have it on. My girlfriend said about wearing it in Philly, what do you do if you are mugged? With this watch, I'd just take it off and beat my attacker with it, until he surrendered.

Notes on the display: Just got back from Austin, TX, my girlfriend was meeting me from Philly, and then going on to interview in Phoenix. Today with the 24 hour bezel, and the ability to track two sunrise sunset sets on the main dial, I really could visually keep track of three time zones, without pushing any buttons. This was very cool.

Right now I can easily see from a glance it is 9:54 here, just before eight in Phoenix, and near 1500 UTC. I can also see that the moon is nearly full, and I can expect sunrise a little after 7, whereas my girlfriend visiting Phoenix will be unlikely to see the sun before she leaves, almost eight and she leaves at six.

This is without pushing buttons! Well, I did set up the outer ring for second time zone.

This is a pretty watch, and my first with a sapphire crystal (I'm really impressed with this, again shows I'm not a watch person, yet, as these seem to be used in many high end timepieces).

I've had a string of quartz (shudder) watches before, looking at features. While I miss the compass in my pathfinder, Yes is on a different level.

So maybe I'm becoming a watch person, eh? Any lines on a decent Brietling Cosmonaut, or one of those green Rolex Submariners?

I'd still probably wear the Yes :)

Thanks for reading my review. Hope you end up getting a WWII, the design reminds me of a diving helmet from, oh, WWII!, but in an excellent awesome way. I'm glad Mr. Bjorn steered me to it.

Yours in time,
T

[thisisallen]

I enjoyed your review and enthusiasm for the watch.
In some of your photos and the photos of the other reviewer the 24 hr hand appears out of sync with the digital time. Could you explain how that works?

[DSLAM]

In some of your photos and the photos of the other reviewer the 24 hr hand appears out of sync with the digital time. Could you explain how that works?

I think I can explain. Actually there are two time keeping modules. They are both quartz, but one is for the 24hr analog hand and the other is the computer for the digital readout time and lunar/solar calculations. They are physically separated and not synched in any way, so therefore, you can have different times for the two. But it's quite easy to set the 24hr analog hand to the digital time once you set it.

[Chris Hughes]

Great review! I love my World Watch II. It's very unique and cool. I love wearing it on weekends and when on vacation. The slow progression of the 24 hour hand is very soothing and gives a completely different impression of the passage of time. Personally, I turn off the digital time display and rely on the hand itself. I find I can read the time to within 3 minutes with the hand alone, which is more than accurate enough for weekends and vacations. I have the symbol bezel on mine because I think it matches the watch's overall aesthetic better than the 24 hour bezel. One advantage of the 24 hour bezel is that you can set it to a separate time zone, meaning that you can track up to four distinct locations (one on the 24 hour bezel, one on the digital read out, one on the 24 hour hand and one on the "away" location setting.)

[zippofan]

Great review, thank you! I rather enjoy my World Watch II and also recommend it to anyone looking for a truly unique and IMO useful watch. I use the time until sunset for hikes with our Troop. That way we know when to get off the trail and set up camp.

[erehwesle]

Glad you liked the review.

Actually, I almost myself prefer the symbol bezel, and agree it goes well with the aesthetic of the watch. I like the 24, as it gives me instant access to a third time zone, but I can't help playing what if?

I'm also an info junkie, and want my watches to give me every piece of info ever all the time... you're right that the Yes makes that unnecessary, and I find myself often turning off the digital display. Love that we can do that with a double button press.

Thank you very much for reading my review, and for your photo. Glad some other people are sporting a huge World Watch II on their wrist!

[xevious]

Very nice review on a truly beautiful watch, TBS. I've had a YES watch on my timepiece wish list for some time now. When I was flush with funds, I opted for a Citizen Attesa instead. I'm very glad I got it, but it wasn't so satisfying as to quench my thirst for a YES. This World Watch II is something I hadn't seen before. Nice to learn more about it. And I'll have to keep my eye out for YES sales in the next holiday season.

It's also great to hear how Bjorn gave you personal attention! I know they're a small company, but it's a very good sign of the founder being interested in communication with the customer first hand.

Although the watch is quartz, I'm feeling like that word is losing its negativity somewhat. Certainly in the down economy, there's an appreciation for efficiency at less cost. There will always be mechanical movement snobs, but for those not stuck in that mindset, I have to believe there would be more allowance for quartz appreciation. Especially in this day and age of time being all around us (cell phones, cars, computers... "who really needs to wear a watch?"). Plus, as time is going forward from the days of the earliest quartz watch, it's becoming apparent that they have an amazing resilience. Quartz failures seem almost negligible in the mid to upper tiers of watch production. And a quartz time piece that tells you more info than just the time and date is certainly a nice differentiation.

My only suggestion to you would be to update a few of your low light photos with shots taken from a tripod or supported surface, to minimize blurring. Otherwise, terrific review all around. Thanks.

[erehwesle]

[QUOTE=xevious;3768321
My only suggestion to you would be to update a few of your low light photos with shots taken from a tripod or supported surface, to minimize blurring. Otherwise, terrific review all around. Thanks. [/QUOTE]

Yeah, I know, I did just get a tripod, so I may try some updated photos if there is interest. Those photos are blanket and phone-cam, I swear, given the great photography normal in this forum I felt uncomfortable, but heck I wanted to get the review in.

There are quartz watches, and quartz watches :) I agree with them, if they can do something a mechanical complication can't do. The G-Shock people, I'm sure will agree, it is difficult to build a compass or a barometer into a mechanical complication. (though I'm still looking at you Ullyses Nardain, I totally double dog dare you if you are reading this). The Yes gives such an interesting spread of info.

I'm luckilly a writer and a teacher, and can (not all days) some days think of "sunrise and sunset" rather than 9am-5pm to plan my day. This is a great watch for that.

Thanks for commenting on my review.

TBS