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Phosphor World Time Curved E Ink watch

Not just for e-book readers, you know

Dual time

The Phosphor maintains two times: home and world, the latter selected from the 24 city-centric timezones it supports. Central European Time, for instance, is represented by Paris, which is mildly irritating if you happen to be in Berlin. Home time is set numerically.

Phosphor Watches World Time Curved

Not the most compact of gents' watches: Phosphor (left) and Junghans Max Bill

Speaking of setting the time and date, with only two buttons - one for setting, the other to switch between hours, minutes and so on - you only step between values in one direction. So miss the number you want and you have to go all the way round the dial to get to the right one.

I was going to write that you only need do this once, when you first set the watch. While the Phosphor kept time during the past two weeks I've been using it, that period also coincided with the switch from British Summer Time to GMT, and the Phosphor does not switch from Daylight Saving Time.

Verdict

You'll either love or hate the World Time Curved's large size and its trendy, yoof design, but the E Ink display is impressive. It's not an expensive watch, but it's not Swatch throwaway cheap, either, so it's irritating that this designer digital lacks features like more accurate world time settings, a stopwatch, alarms and hourly charms. Even a ten-pound Casio does all that. ®

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Phosphor Watches World Time Curved

Phosphor World Time Curved E Ink watch

Big, bold designer digital watch with an E Ink display. Water resistant to 50m.
Price: $150 (£94) RRP

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