Linde Werdelin BaselWorld 2012 Overview

DonCorson · 2012-04-17T04:25:36Z

DonCorson reviews Linde Werdelin's innovative tool watches at BaselWorld 2012, featuring clip-on modules for skiing and diving. Discover unique design.

Linde Werdelin at BaselWorld 2012

I had never really understood Linde Werdelin before this visit. The first reason being that comics do not speak to me and their advertising is all in comic book style. Secondly I never understood that the watches are not simply mechanical sport watches, but also platforms on which one clips a tool watch when one needs it. These tool watches come in two flavors, skiing and diving. The skiing version includes an altimeter, barometer, compass, temperature, inclination and heart rate sensors along with the time. It can record many values during a whole day and then download the data to your PC. The big saphire crystal insures that the display will remain sharp, the bain of so many sport computers with their displays, scratched to inlegability in not-time.

The diving tool is a complete diving computer which computes the decompression steps, alarms, etc. It includes a 3-axis compass and records a complete log that can be downloaded. This was developed in house by Linde Werdelin in Denmark. The development and validation of a dive computer is a major accomplishment and I spent so much time discussing this that I even forgot to take a picture of this diving tool.

The mechanical watches onto which you clip your tool come in 3 general flavors, the Octopus, the SpidoLite and the SpidoSpeed. The typical extuberences left and right on all these watches are the lugs for attaching the tool, Those lugs are well integrated into the watch design. The SpedoLite is notable for the external skeletonisation of the case to reduce its weight and also making a unique design. Possible disadvantage; I guess one would want to clean it regularly with a toothbrush and soapy water. I don't think that putting a whole watch into an ultasonic cleaner is such a good idea.

I came away from this visit with a very different impression of Linde Werdelin and was glad that I had the possibility for the visit. Very nice watches and an interesting and useful concept.

Don