It looks like adding Bluetooth 4.0 was just the trick for taking the Pebble smartwatch over the edge — and by over the edge, we mean to an insane level of Kickstarter success. The watch not only crossed the $10 million fundraising mark — it aimed for a paltry $100k — but its initial 85,000 units are now sold out. The campaign still has eight days to go, and though additional backers won’t get in on that first wave of Pebbles, there’s a second batch on the way.

SOURCE via Slashgear

Say what you will, but in this business you’re nobody until you have your own watch line. Ferrari has several, Bentley teams up with Breitling, Aston Martin partners with Jaeger-LeCoultre, Bugatti with Parmigiani Fleurier… the list goes on and on, and now includes one more: Carroll Shelby and David Yurman.

The collaboration was forged over the timepiece you see here, created to accompany the 950-horsepower Shelby 1000 unveiled at the New York Auto Show just last month. The David Yurman Limited Edition Shelby 1000 timepiece features a Swiss-made Valjoux 7753 automatic chronograph in a 43.5mm stainless steel and rubber case with tachymeter bezel and guilloche racing stripes on the galvanized steel dial.

It’s affixed to the wrist by a rubber strap with snakeskin texture, and only 300 examples will be made: 150 in bare stainless steel and 150 with a black PVD coating. It’s the first of many Shelby-branded wristwatches that the David Yurman brand will be making for Shelby.

It’s a common desire among everyday folk: we often say we’d like to read more, if only we had the time. While it’s unlikely to fill your noggin with the prose of Hemingway or the poetry of Whitman, a new wristwatch from Biegert & Funk promises to quench your thirst for words and literally provide you with the time. Known as the QLOCKTWO W, the timepiece is a portable revision of the company’s original wall clock, both of which display the current time in everyday language. Priced at €550, the watch is scheduled for arrival this autumn and will be available in black or stainless steel variations, with either rubber or leather bands. As another option, those who find English far too mundane may spring for the Deutsch version.

SOURCE via QLockTwo

Having trouble keeping track of which watchmaker is producing timepieces for Ferrari these days? It can get a little confusing. Girard-Perregaux held the license for many years, after which a lackluster partnership was formed with Panerai. Then Cabestan was contracted to make one very fancy-looking watch for the Prancing Horse marque, before Hublot got the nod. And that’s not including the more affordable watches marketed less to Ferrari owners than to the Scuderia’s tifosi. Now, Maranello has formed another partnership with a different watchmaker.

That watchmaker is Movado, the Swiss firm best know for creating elegant and simply styled timepieces that look just as much at home in a museum showcase as they do on a wearer’s wrist. Movado also makes watches under the Ebel, Concord, ESQ, Coach, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Juicy Couture and Lacoste labels, and will now be adding Ferrari to its roster of brands.

The collection is set to draw its inspiration from Ferrari’s road and racing cars, and is set to be launched next year at the Watch & Jewelry Fair in Basel, Switzerland, after which they will go on sale at Ferrari stores around the world and online with prices peaking at 1,500 euros (around $2,000). Follow the jump for the official announcement.

There’s no lack of choices in timepieces for automotive enthusiasts, but unfortunately most of them come down to simply slapping an automaker’s name or logo (or that of a racing series or driver) on an existing timepiece and calling it a day. That, however, is not the route Maserati has gone with its new timepiece.

In fact, you’d have to turn this watch over to see the Trident logo on the casebook. Instead, Bulgari has opted to let the design and the mechanical precision it encases speak to the same themes it shares with its new automotive partner.

The Octo Maserati watch is built around the highly sophisticated Calibre GG7800 automatic chronograph movement which Bulgari crafts itself at the Manufacture de Haute Horlogerie Bulgari in Le Sentier, Switzerland. Rather than displaying its time through the ordinary combination of hands sweeping around the dial, the Octo watch places a jumping hour window at the 12 o’clock position and retrograde displays for the minutes, date and chronograph counters.

The 45-jewel movement is backed by a 38-hour power reserve and encased in a 45-millimeter brushed steel case with scratch-resistant, anti-glare sapphire crystal front and back. The blue-lacquered dial is designed to recall a Maserati’s grille, and the piece is affixed to the wrist by a blue calfskin strap with butterfly clasp. We dare not ask what a timepiece like this will sell for, but trust that it will be sufficiently Maserati-like in its sticker.

Vincent Perriard and crew have apparently gone from overseeing the Concord C1 QuantumGravity watch and its fluorescent liquid battery gauge to designing another high end watch that combines mechanical action and fluid measurement with the HYT H1. This hand-wound timepiece has a 65 hour power reserve and displays the time via pumping bellows that push bright green fluorescine past the time markers. A rendered video embedded after the break does more to explain how the watch works, but it may not help you figure out its rumored $45k price tag.

SOURCE via Boing Boing

In the past year, NFC/RFID technology advancements have allowed shoppers to make quick and easy payments using programs such as MasterCard’s PayPass and Visa’s PayWire. Without ever having to remove a credit card from your wallet or purse, RFID technology allows you to make a credit card payment by simply placing your enabled device next to a sensor.

Although typical NFC devices come in the form of modern smartphones equipped with applications such as Google Wallet, watch manufacturer LAKS has partnered up with MasterCard to create another method for easy payments using RFID technology. Dubbed Watch2Pay, the device is a wristwatch equipped with a SIM card that can be linked directly to your MasterCard PayPass account.

With the Watch2Pay watch, you’ll be able to make quick payments by simply placing the watch next to a compatible MasterCard PayPass scanner. Since there won’t be PayPass scanner everywhere you go, the device also comes with a traditional prepaid card to use. The watch comes in a wide variety of colors and can be purchased for the price of 99 Euros here.

We’ve seen plenty of wickedly weird watches, and plenty are tough to read for god knows why. However, this… this is nothing like them all. We do like a good indecipherable timepiece ’round these parts and Click’s KeyPad certainly fits the bill. Resembling an old-school mechanical numerical keypad, each button packs an LED — press any number and it’ll blink out the time in single digits, so if it was 9:15am, the zero, nine, one and five buttons would flash in sequence. Push the hash key and the watch will oblige you for today’s date. If you enjoy frustrating colleagues who ask you for the time, then you’ll be delighted to hear that it costs $90 and is shipping now. However, we’re not sure we could pull one off — maybe the hipster down the street will have better success.

SOURCE via Watchismo

By now, we’ve probably gotten used to seeing strangely difficult to read yet awesome watches from Tokyoflash, but we were definitely taken by surprise when we heard one of them was coming in pocket watch form. Pretty much all of the Tokyoflash Kisai watches feature futuristic, space-like styling and designs so it’s a bit strange in a cool way to see the Kisai Rogue in an antiquated pocket watch.

The Tokyoflash Kisai Rogue Pocket Watch is pretty much exactly like its wristwatch counterpart: featuring a confusingly futuristic digital dial that is capable of displaying two separate time zones, the date and an alarm clock. As with most of Tokyoflash’s watches, the Rogue Pocket Watch comes with four color options that are enclosed in a stainless steel case with brushed edges. If you’re interested in owning one of these futuristic-yet retro time pieces, head on over to Tokyoflash to grab your own for $149.

Some watchmakers seek out automotive associations – typically in the form of licensing agreements with automakers or racing series. But some just have octane just dripping from their cogs. Like this latest collection from Officine Autodromo.

The brainchild of industrial designer Bradley Price, the Officine Autodromo launch collection consists of three models – Veloce (Italian for “speed”), Brescia (named for the Northern Italian town that forms the start/finish line for the Mille Miglia rally), and Valelunga (for the racing circuit outside of Rome).

Each features a dial inspired by the instruments on 1960s and 1970s Italian racing cars, a Swiss-made Ronda quartz movement (with date window) and a 42-milimeter case in brushed or PVD-coated stainless steel. The perforated black leather wrist straps mount directly into the round case, not unlike the four-figure Manometro timepieces offered by Giuliano Mazzuoli, but far more accessible with prices pegged at $425.