TOM KELLYwith the gadget round-up
Timex Ironman Global Trainer
Possibly the most macho watch name of the year, this Timex is positively burly, as they say. And that’s a good thing. It’s a GPS-enabled training tool for the wilds, the water and woods.
Waterproof to 50m, 20 workout memory, four-window data screen, GPS . . . it’s exhausting just rifling through the bullet points on the spec sheet. Oh, and big buttons too, which is in fact one of its key advantages in the tough-man watches market. Trying to get numbed pinkies to line up with a tiny buttonette on the move is no joke.
I also say “man” advisedly here, because it’s hard to get a sense of the scale of it until it’s in your hand. On my own fairly girly-sized wrists it was big, much bigger than my much-loved Suunto. Ironwomen may think belt, not watch.
The Global Trainer is a good-looking hunk though, more like a proper sports watch rather than an iPod Nano on a strap (it had to happen), and it delivers properly on data, dynamic tracking and rugged watchmanship too. Telling the time is the least of your worries.
You can sync it up with a computer thanks to the USB cable and there’s a heart monitor optional extra. Let’s hope you’re not wearing it when you see the pretty ironmanish price. But I’m sure that’ll come in from the wilds.
CostTimex Ironman GPS Global Trainer, about $250 (€185) from rei.com and others.
Point 65°N Tequila! Kayak
You know how one of the key things you might want from a boat is that at least it’d stay in one piece? Well, that’s just what the Tequila! from Point 65°N doesn’t do.
Instead it boasts a modular, take-apart design with what they call their Snap-Tap system. Basically it means these sit-on-tops can snap apart and back together in seconds for a kayak that’s safe, strong (really) and incredibly lightweight. And you can stick it in the boot of your car or certainly in the back of an estate or Chelsea tractor. Moreover, of course, it’ll only take up a corner of a garden shed or spare room – if you can’t bear to have it too far away.
It comes as a two-part single or three-section tandem, and snapping together the Tequila! only takes about 20 seconds (though Point 65°N claim a performance-enhanced 10 seconds). It’s like Duplo for grown-ups.
The award-winning design is also interchangeable, so the three section tandem version can be converted to a solo when you’ve bored your friends by your constant talk about it. Because this is a genuinely flexible friend for space-challenged grizzly outdoorer or simply for family fun.
CostPoint 65°N Tequila! Kayak, solo €499, tandem €799, from Great Outdoors.
Liquid Image Camera Goggles
This column is a sucker for the innovator who sticks two apparently unrelated products together to make something new. And oh-so-obvious. Liquid Image’s insight (I know they aren’t alone) is to cross goggles with a camera. Of course, who wouldn’t think of that? Hardly Frankenstein.
Still, now with scuba, skiing and swimming, they’ve a whole range of variations on a theme, with plenty of bolt-ons such as filters and lights, and they relentlessly push on to new formats. One of their latest additions is the HD320.
Apparently, this is the world’s only dive mask that has an integrated water resistant high definition 720P digital video, plus five megapixel stills. Drop that casually into conversation and see how it goes. The lenses are made of tempered glass and have integrated crosshairs that help you line up shots. So you won’t crop the head off that hammerhead you’re looking at.
However, it falls down with a little lack of joined-up thinking. The HD320 operates to a depth of 40m (130ft), but beyond three or four metres, you’ll need lights which come as a pair of stick-out extras that could give you your own hammerhead look.
CostLiquid Image HD320 Camera Goggles, $250 (€185) from amazon.com.
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