Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Freestyle Shark Classic Watch


Freestyle USA is a company that designs and creates watches that designed to withstand the riggers of sports such as skateboarding, surfing, etc. They have many different styles that range from stylish analog watches that are good for wear with formal attire to sporty styled watches and everything in between. One of there more basic of watches is the Shark Classic.

The Shark Classic looks kind of like your old school watch, but with a few extra features and so far has proven itself pretty durable. If you're looking for something basic in features and looks this watch will suit you well. The model that I received is the basic black model, but they have some pretty cool color combinations in their inventory. I have worn this watch for a while and my wife even wore it for a while and we both found it comfortable and easy to use. It's a little too basic for my likes, but that's not saying it's a bad watch, just a style I'm not into.

Here are its features:
- Water resistant to 100 meters.
-Rubber strap with a cool strap retention loop. The end of the strap is designed so that the retention loop will stay in place by fitting it between 2 raised areas on the strap (see picture).
-Time/day/date. This is one thing I'd like displayed differently. The date is not displayed on screen unless you press a button. Once you press this button there is about a 2 second pause and the date is displayed in place of the time for about 5 seconds and then the screen returns to the time. It's my personal preference, but I'd rather have the date there on the main screen with the time.
-Second time zone. The press of a button and the second time zone is displayed until the button is pressed again for the 1st time zone to be displayed.
-Hourly Chime.
-Daily alarm. One alarm for each time zone. This is kind of different but not a bad option.
-Stopwatch.
-Countdown timer. Preset times of 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 45, and 60 minute timers. There is not option for any other times than these.
-Backlight. This backlight is a negative backlight, meaning that the numbers light up instead of the background. I like this design. If you press another button when the backlight is lit it turns off. I'm not a fan of this,but again, this is a basic watch.

One thing that is a little different with this watch that takes some time getting used to is the setup of the buttons. Normally the adjust button on most watches is on the upper left side. On this watch it's on the lower right. Not a big deal, but something that takes getting used to.

This watch is a decent durable basic watch. It's not over sized and fits well on the wrist. Comfortable as well. I will be letting my younger brother take this watch to do some further durability testing on it and he'll probably do his own writeup on it on his site (I will post a link here if he does).

MSRP: $50

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