By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin

They not only tell the time,
they sound alarms, tell the
temperature, even control your TV

By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin

Once upon a time, a watch was a watch, a simple timepiece that displayed, well, the time.

Then came date display, water resistance, illuminated faces, colored wrist bands, digital.

Now, watches can pace your life. They store phone numbers, have multiple alarms, compasses, tell the temperature and barometric pressure, even control your television by remote.

Styling has changed radically, too. And the ones who know that best are teen-agers and young adults heading back to school and wanting the coolest stuff.

Teen-age girls love the Baby G line, $115 and up, a plastic/nylon watch with a unique suspension system making it resistant to shock and vibration. The watches have an electro-luminescent backlight and chronograph. The newest Baby-G File let's you store two telephone numbers on the same "page;" up to 40 telephone numbers altogether. A color backlight glows to match the color of the case.

XOXO's watch line also is very popular with young girls and junior misses. The Lucite Bangle was written up in Style magazine as about the coolest thing a girl can wear on her wrist. You'll also find XOXO's Hanging Heart Pendant watch and Ring Watch high the cool list too.

Timex made its mark with a line of rugged sport watches when it introduced the Timex Ironman Triathlon in 1986. The limited-edition models, about $43, celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the Ironman and have the first Ironman metal watch case, popular "Fast Wrap" straps with rubber tabs, and "20th Anniversary/Kona, Hawaii '98" commemorative marking. They are shock-resistant, water resistant, have multi-lap memory recall (lap/split times), a 16-hour chronograph, 99-lap counter, automatic lap release and a three-mode, countdown timer (countdown/stop, count-down/repeat and count-down/auto-start chronograph).

Timex
Timex's alarm watch is set by simply turning
the outer ring.

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Casio led the way with water sports watches, establishing the standard with its practically indestructible G Shock. Though the original is still about $40, there are now several variations.

The G-Cool G-Shock (about $185) has a leather band and metal-and-resin combination styling. There's storage for up to 100 telephone numbers, and even something called EEPROM that retains memory when the battery goes dead.

The G-Shock X-Treme ($129) is a favorite among enthusiasts and top professionals in such "extreme" sports as snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing and bodyboarding. The 1998 model features a surfing timer, an automatic backlight switch and a memory for up to 100 air and water temperature readings, which provide important information to advanced surfers for wetsuit selection.

Looking for the the ultimate outdoor watch? Check out Casio's "Pathfinder" line, $135 and up. These Triple Sensor watches have digital compass, thermometer, altimeter, barometer, auto light, alarms. Surfers like this watch because you can point it in the direction waves are rolling in, press a button and the watch provides the exact compass direction of the swell.

Nike may not have been first on the sports watch scene, but it's catching up fast with its distinctive line of ergonomic time pieces.

The Triax Running series, starting at $120, features the unique "S" shape that, Nike says, fits the wrist better. The watch face is angled 15 degrees for better line of sight and has an extra-large display -- nearly 40 percent more than other brands. The Triax also displays only the most critical information: When the lap button is pressed, only lap time and lap number show up.

Triax models have lap memories from 26 to 250 laps based on track workouts and distance runs for more than four weeks. There's also data recall of run information, seven daily alarms and water resistance up to 330 feet.

Nike's latest in sport-training watches is the Steelhead Sport Chrono, $190, featuring analog and digital time displays, concave buttons so the thumb and forefinger can find them intuitively and physically, a raised stainless steel bezel for increased crystal protection, a ventilated band, countdown repeat timer, counter and an "Electrolite" for night training that illuminates both analog and digital displays simultaneously.