Phosphor World Time E Ink watch review

If you remember our last Phosphor watch review, these new models should look very familiar -- and indeed, they're pretty much indistinguishable unless you look closely. The most notable change is the move of the control buttons to the front directly below the display. It actually looks like there's only one button here, but you can press on either side to trigger different actions, left for changing settings and right for changing view modes (more on these in a bit). On the reverse, a screw-in backing holds the battery tight; you've got 50 meters of claimed water resistance, though as is usually the case with watches, we'd be careful about over-using that capability, especially after changing the battery. The watch is available in four band styles, all of which are permanently affixed to the face: black or white rubber, black leather, and a handsome, heavy stainless steel option. The band style you choose determines the price -- rubber's cheapest, steel the most expensive -- but regardless, you'll get exactly the same metal face, so it's really just a matter of personal style. All four bands felt pretty solid and seem like they'd hold up well in the long term, though the black rubber and leather are virtually indistinguishable unless you're looking at it very closely; we might consider saving the $15 and going with rubber if black was the color we wanted. For our money, we liked the steel best -- it looks a good deal more expensive and luxurious than the other choices, and the added weight feels great on the wrist.

As functionality goes, the segmented display does a good job of clearly communicating date and time -- the most important functions for a watch, we'd argue -- but don't expect any added goodies or functionality. Were this an LCD watch, we think it'd probably be in the $30 to $50 range, so you're really paying for the E Ink here. Viewing modes include dual time, date and time, large time, small time, and a single time mode that lets you rapidly cycle through all the time zones with the left button (they're indicated at the top of the display by an abbreviated city name in that zone, a pretty common practice for digital world time watches). Changing modes requires a full flash of the display, just as with your Kindle or other e-reader; that's the nature of the E Ink beast, though it happens in a half second or so and probably won't annoy you too much. One neat bonus Phosphor has thrown in is the ability to invert any of the modes -- just hold down the left button for a second, and you switch from black-on-white to white-on-black. We're huge fans of the white-on-black just because it looks different -- turn that on with the white rubber band model and you've got a pretty stylish piece hanging off your wrist.