Wearables

Ice Samurai watch - you won't believe what it's made of

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The Ice Samurai watch
The Ice Samurai watch
The Ice Samurai watch
The Ice Samurai watch
The Ice Samurai watch
The Ice Samurai watch
The Ice Samurai watch
The Ice Samurai watch
The Ice Samurai watch
The Ice Samurai watch
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“A chilling blue Japanese inspired LED watch from an entropic tomorrow which gives its master below zero Kelvin supremacy by blurring the boundaries of how temporal intelligence (time) is shown...” Good Lord, I can’t top that. That’s how online retailer Chinavasion describes the Ice Samurai watch, a very cool-looking and suspiciously-inexpensive timepiece that offers yet another take on displaying the time.

In this case, it’s done with blue - sorry, ice blue LEDs that are incorporated into the watch band itself. And you know what that watch band is made of? Get ready... “Samurai sword carbonized steel folded 1000x over!” You may now take a minute to go have a geekasm.

Wait a minute, though... isn’t Samurai sword steel folded just to create an ultra-sharp edge? What would be the point of folding it for a watch? Hmm...

The Ice Samurai watch

In any case, with the press of a button this watch will display the time or date. Pretty exciting stuff. Oh, wait... it will display them “like fireflies over an unholy grave.” There, much better. It doesn’t really do anything else, but it isn’t the type of watch you’d expect to - if you want multiple alarm settings and a stopwatch, go get yourself a Timex.

The Ice Samurai watch

The Ice Samurai, and its red-LED counterpart the Iron Samurai, are available for US$15 from Chinavasion. Yeah, 15 bucks. Must be some good deals going on folded 1000x Samurai swords.

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16 comments
Samuel Arbizo
I have to say, this has to be one of the weakest articles I've seen on Gizmag. I mean really, some scholcky cheap Chinese made watch makes it up? This thing even reads like it's just taken from the manufacturers web page, where you can buy it for $15! And does anyone really believe this watch is made from the same material as a samurai sword for that price? Unless the ancient techniques of sword smithing are now making their way into the cheap labor force of near slave like Chinese workers! Oh now, whats next? I hope I don't find out from Gizmag.
Alix Paultre
Well, if it\'s just the folding of the metal, you can make a machine to fold and stamp heated metal sheets over and over again. The hard part of a Katana isn\'t the folding. I\'ve seen documentaries on the construction of such a sword and the folding part was only the first step. The master guided the metal while 3 or 4 apprentices were bashing it. The really difficult part is making a well-balanced properly made sword while getting the hard/sharp-strong/soft interface correct. An apt comparison would be to Sara-Lee\'s dough machines that fold dough dozens of times to create flakey pastry dough for croissants. Just because you can create the folded base material does not mean you can craft a artifact of quality from it.
krmsd
Ahh...Samuel---I believe you missed the point--it\'s light sarcasm--humor--a little light-heartedness......not everything is serious, y\'know.......
Muraculous
Come on guys, this watch is a typical Chinese \"hide the ungainly thickness behind the band\" piece of junk. I like the idea behind it however, if they can\'t make the watch itself a little thinner i.e., as thin as the band, then the Swiss have very little to worry about, at any price.
Carbonized steel I would believe but, I would dispute the claim that the steel is folded 1000 times (or even 100 times) because, unless they have some process unknown to the rest of world, their hammer and anvil guys must be losing money.
JLR
Gee Sam, taking it a little hard, aren\'t you?
Rolf Hawkins
Folding of the steel in samurai swords and other metal objects was not to create a sharp edge, but exceptional flexibility and strength.
Shelton Martin
I dunno... I thought it was pretty well written considering what the guy had to work with. Also, I could spring 15 \'large\' for a watch that epic. What was that ulr again? And, commence storm....
Scott_T
Steel folded 1000x becomes iron I\'d say. Every time its folded it loses some carbon.
Steve Alvarez
Can you say \"Hari-Kari\"???
Facebook User
Not even close to a Samurai sword. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwQqtf86qOc shows the way that is done.
Just folding metal a number of times only means you\'ve folded the metal a number of time. But for $15 what would you really expect?