Press Clippings
The American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute in Ohio was established in 1866 and has since been supporting and advancing horology through education and cooperation.
James is the editor of their monthly magazine, and I invited him to take the V7 for a wrist drive. Check out this link to see his review
To learn more about the AWCI visit their home page at www.awci.com
The insights and practical applications of the Equilibrium are just about endless.
People have asked me why they need a watch to tell the time for sunrise or sunset? They can just stick their head out the window and look. Sure, but if you are in the military or a photographer, an astronomer or a pilot, a boater or a world traveler, a cinematographer or a bike rider, you'll find that practice woefully insufficient for any kind of meaningful time management. Just about everything you do changes between night and day, being able to predict it to the minute just brings total confidence and accuracy to the task at hand.
In 2008, an Inca and a Tati watch caught a ride to the ISS on the wrist of Atlantis space shuttle commander Stephen Fricke.
There is no end to what customers have told us their YES watches have enabled them to manage better. One guy set his countdown to remind of his wedding anniversary. A submarine captain used his to figure out the best time to knock a hole in the polar ice cap to catch the full moon.
You will find yours.
World travelers. Instantly ground y ourself to local time. Carefully used it can effectively help you overcome jet lag. Once you set your location the hand and LCD display sets itself automatically compensating for TZ and DST.
Astronomers. With the added feature of twilight, your best time to view the universe just became even more accurate to predict.
Photographers. Professionals can plan for the best natural light conditions and when to shoot throughout the day and night. You can plan to shoot at the golden hour, to up your Instagram game!
Military. Operations are critically planned around the availability of light, or the lack thereof. They got bin Laden on a moonless night, it was not a coincidence. The 2400 time display makes it a natural for the Special Forces.
Pilots. Flying changes dramatically after dark, like night and day. All of a sudden you see nothing, except maybe artificial lights and the horizon disappears. If JFK junior had an EQ he might have been the President today.
Boating. The same goes for boating. The last thing you want to run into is a rock or a log after dark. Much better to be in harbor or anchored before the sun is setting.
Motor biking. Driving changes drastically after dark. In an unfamiliar spot especially, you might be best off planning to be back at the hotel before the sun goes down.
Outdoors men. Not much brings you closer to nature than camping, fishing and hunting. With the EQ you can predict the rhythm of day and night exactly. Plan the activities with complete confidence.
Watch collectors. If you are a watch enthusiast your collection is not complete until you have one of these unique timepieces. You can only have so many watches giving you hours, minutes and seconds before they are all just the same.
Moments of sanctuary. A quiet time, a prayer or a kindred ritual aligned with the divine rhythms of the sun and the moon makes the experience just so much richer and stronger. Try it sometime.
Philosophy of time
Björn Kartomten, the designer of the Zulu (and other YES watches) says that he wanted to create a watch that connected the user to the ancient, planetary rhythms of time. These rhythms, the cycles of the moon and the planet Earth in the solar system are, of course, behind the standard 12/24h time used globally. The way these cycles are brought together in Zulu is fascinating and I must admit that wearing the watch really does seem to produce a different way of "seeing" time.
My experience is that the Zulu effect is twofold. First of all it gives me a "bigger picture" of time, distancing me from the exact moment and making it easier to see and make plans about longer periods of time. At the same time, somewhat paradoxically, it appears to make time more intimate, making it "my time". I can see my day in the dial and easily visualize various events. The ever changing day length and phases of the moon provide a gentle reminder of the passing time. It urges me to make the best of it.
The YES Watch - a wrist watch for landscape photographers.
It's a cliche that sometimes still needs repeating. Photography is as much about light as it is about subject. For the landscape and nature photographer light means the sun. The quality of light is determined, of course, by the time of day as well as atmospheric conditions. We also know that directional light is dramatic, and the warmth of early morning and late afternoon light can make an otherwise so-so foreground come to life.
Just wandering out to do some shooting at any old time of the day is not likely to lead to anything terribly exciting. And when planning a location shoot, whether in the next county or the other side of the world, knowing when sunrise and sunset will take place, and planning your travels and positioning accordingly can make the difference between "Nice" and "Oh Wow!".
The YES Zulu is a sophisticated timepiece. The design allows the wearer to instantly see seven pieces of temporal information at once. From looking at the watch, we can tell it is 8:02 AM. Sunrise was at 5:20AM. High noon is at 1PM. It will set at 8:00PM. The moon will rise a bit before noon and will set around 11PM. The phase of the waxing moon is about 30%.
We have had the YES watch for a few weeks now. Some one has worn it each day. As we all compared notes on our user experience, the one common denominator is how well conceived the interface is on this multi-function watch.
One feature we especially like is the ability to switch off the digital time display...it gave the Zulu an entirely different feel. We suggest our readers try going through a few days knowing only the "approximate" time. It is stressful at first, but strangely liberating once you get into that mindset.
It is not unusual to see cool new features and functionality packed into digital watches these days: MP3 players, infrared remote controls, cameras, compasses, flashlights, PDA’s.
Telling time has even become secondary for many companies like Casio, Timex, Suunto, Fossil and dozens of small new high-tech watch manufacturers. What is unusual, however, is to see a new and innovative high-tech watch whose primary function is not only to tell time, but to do so in traditional and even ancient ways.
The YES watch combines fine Swiss quartz movement with Japanese chips and complex algorithms to provide the most complete and comprehensive picture of time that I have ever seen in a watch.
Click image to read PDF.
Perhaps the most incredible aspect of this watch is the LCD "line" along the main dials outer edge. At a glance you can see the times for moonrise and moonset. The day and night display will give sunrise and sunset. This watch gives a graphic representation of the most basic information all astronomers want: the moons location and its relationship to the sun. -- Raymond Shubinski, Director, East Kentucky Science Center
An Interview With Björn Kartomten, Insync Magazine
Today, Björn Kartomten is the CEO of his own watch company. Fifteen years ago, he was fast-tracking his way up the corporate career ladder, working around the clock in advertising for catalog companies like Sharper Image, Sundance and American Express, when he decided to break from the crowd and rethink his priorities. Out of that experience was born the Yes Celestial Chronograph, a timepiece with a dynamic perspective on the display of time in its most primordial form.
Testimonials
"Time is natures way of keeping everything from happening at once."
Heidi
"I have just returned from a trip to the North Pole (aboard a US Navy nuclear submarine). My YES Zulu watch came in very handy in helping us determine when would be the best time to surface through the ice so we would have as much daylight as possible...and a nice full moon if we didn't have daylight."
B. Campbell
San Diego
"I am overwhelmed. I have been a museum curator for ten years and I have never, ever received such a rich and useful collection of documentation to go along with an acquisition. This is truly a gold mine to me as an historian. To get a complete collection of artefacts, drawings, marketing and display material for an invention that has gone from 'seed of an idea' to fully-realised established product, via the first production model, is exceedingly rare, and I am extremely thankful. You can be sure that it will be well used and of huge interest."
David Rooney
Curator of Time, Royal Observatory, Greenwich
"On our private Clock design wiki we've had a link to your YES watches for a while now, as one of the few existing clock & time display systems we study closely."
Stewart Brand
www.longnow.org
"This is the best thing that's been done in on-wrist timekeeping in decades!"
Mike Weinberg
"I love having data on the sun and moon, making YES so much more than just a time-keeper. The fact that it has gained less than 7 seconds in almost 5 months is a wonderful bonus -- at this level of accuracy, I don't need atomic radio control."
Peter Ward
"Much of our movements and fighting is typically at night and YES became the information source for the 1st Tank Battalion to determine when the sun and moon would rise and set, based on the lat/lon that could be loaded in for wherever we were in Iraq."
CW02 B. Sean Fairburn SOC, ICCA, USMCR
High Definition Combat Cinematographer
Operation Iraqi Freedom
"I work in an office, and keeping track of the day helps me feel more connected to reality. Yes really provides a planetary view of time. I also love the PET function of the watch - for instance, I know that it is 41 days until my wedding anniversary."
Greg Paulus
"I'm in the aircraft engine business at GE and so I have a real appreciation for the efforts that are put into highly technical products. This is exquisite!! Just to let you know, I have not taken it off since it arrived. I collect watches and have some very outstanding time pieces, but this, until you come up with something more interesting, will be my favorite."
Walter Smith
"There is a force within that gives you life. Seek that."
Rumi
Over the years we have had the kindest reviews, promotions and watch sales from all over the planet. The logos above represent many of those who helped us. We are most grateful to you all, as we are to all our dear customers who have shown us loyalty and love. And special thanks to those who responded to our Indiegogo campaign with confidence and patience: you made the new Equilibrium watch possible. Thank you!
The V7 keeps time for all 3 levels of twilight; civil, nautical and astronomical. Each dipping 6 degrees more below the horizon line. The LCD can be set to show a hard line for SR only, or a checkered pattern indicating all 3 levels of twilight.