Fri Feb 25 11:07:45 PST 2005

I finally got my Tempo Time Tags from unica. Yea!

They came in a "retail" package that was very nice looking. It would look at home on the shelves of Ikea or Target without any problems (I’d love to see a retailer pick these up).

The tags are quite small, and the display looks a little smaller than in the stock photos, but it is still readable for any clothing you might clip it to. The LCD is the same quality as a generic wristwatch and has a reasonable viewing angle.

The tag is made up of a metal clip and the watch parts are housed in a grey plastic bubble inside the metal clip. The front is a clear piece of plastic. The bumps on the front to the left and right of the display are actuall not bumps, but the extensions of the clear plastic into the body of the watch that holds the tag together via 2 screws, accessable from the back of the tag. The overall feel of the tag is that is is well constructed and solid even though it is small and light.

The metal clip is very stiff and only has a small gap. It fits snugly on a credit card and clips strongly to even light fabrics. Don’t plan on being able to clip this to any clothing. Even two folds of a thick fabric may be too much.

Overall this is a fun little product. While it certainly isn’t right for a lot of situations, there are a number of places where this is a perfect solution to a problem. For example, I have mine clipped to my work badge that I wear on a lanyard around my neck. Another place might be clipping it to the metal bit of a clipboard (I’ve seen people trying to tape watches to clipboards with very limited success). If nothing else, it’s a fun little device to have around to fill in for situations where a traditional watch just isn’t convenient or stylistically acceptable.