Fancy being retro cool, if so you want to check out these LED watches by the appropriately named Led Watch.

I never owned one of these first time round, in fact I’m not even sure if I was born then (or just too poor ) . Unlike today’s watches the LED watch had one function and that was to tell the time and if you were lucky the date too. To conserve battery and LED life you actually have to press a button for the time to show, as the LEDs are fairly bright you can easily see the time whether it’s dark or light.

A UK company is manufacturing and marketing these retro time pieces (Led Watch) and they’ve been good enough to give us 2 to have a play with and also award as prizes in a competition that we’ll be announcing soon.

Space LED Watch

This watch (pictured top right) kind of reminded me of an old fashioned space helmet (or the belly of a Tellytubby). The bulbous shape seems to work really well.

The watch has a good weighty feel to it, the smooth stainless steel is well finished strap and safety clasp look more than adequate to keep it attached to the wrist even when your jiving away to some seventies classic.

The LED display (the main retro part of the watch) offers excellent clarity in bright sunshine or dark conditions. Unlike the modern day equivalents functionality is some what lacking, with just time and date on offer (both activated by depressing one of the side buttons). But you aren’t buying this watch for the it’s functionality you should be buying it for it’s retro coolness (either that or you slept through 80s and 90s).

TX5 LED Watch

The TX5 is another watch harking back to the seventies and wouldn’t look out of place on one of the earlier 007s (Sean Connery springs to mind) and I’m sure the Simpson’s Disco Stu would be a proud wearer.

The quality of the TX5 didn’t seem as good as the Space Watch IMO, the safety clasp felt sturdy enough but the strap had a lot more play in it. It also felt a lot lighter than the space.

Like the Space watch the LCD display is crystal clear and has exactly the same functionality (date and time).

Overall I’m pretty impressed with Led Watches, they won’t be to every bodies taste (they weren’t in the 70s either) but if you want to go for that retro look and wear a perfect conversation starter on your wrist then check them out.