The price was right and the look is right.. Its a replica, sort of, of one of the famous Timex sports watches. Remember, you are not buying this for timekeeping.
Ok, yes, the directions are bad. The average person is going to be frustrated. But I've had 3 of these type watches so far and am familiar with their scheme. I'm going to write down in plain English the correct operating techniques and i'll update here. I wrote down some things just now but want to finalize them before posting. So, I'll be back.
For now I can tell you this. I plugged the watch into my W7 computer and it was recognized and installed with no issues. The light flashed from red to blue. Red to blue. I wasn't sure what that meant so I left it on the USB for about 2 hours, unplugged it and started fooling with button combinations. I recorded some videos, took some pictures and even recorded an audio file. I am not sure how I did that yet. But there appeared 3 folders on the watch. IMAGE RECORD VIDEO the RECORD is where the audio file went.
When in steady Blue light, (standby) and you push the top left momentarily, the red light flashes, and you take a picture.
Like I said, I was only fooling around to see the combinations of button pushes. I almost have it.
For now, I stopped to post this.
When I plugged the watch back into the USB, the red light flashes intermittently. I believe this to be "charge" mode. When it goes back to the red to blue, red to blue, I believe it is charged.
Like I said, I'll be back with further instructions. For now, know that it works as advertised.
Other observations:
There is another set of hands that appear to do nothing. There is a top right button that appears to do nothing. I can screw it in a bit.
Its a nice looking/stylish watch. The band is thick and appears nice. I believe it will suit my intended purpose just fine. As I said this is my 3rd watch of this style. At this price point, I buy one every year for an annual event. They usually don't last a year. I bought a Seiko from Amazon that is my real watch. Keep a perspective on what you are doing with this and you'll be fine.
Update: So I left it flashing red overnight. I thought it would turn blue. Nope.
So I unplugged it, it went into "standby" with the solid blue light. Then I plugged it back in and went to red/bluered/blue. I assume it is charged.
Update: Ok, so there are "long" presses of the lower left button and there are "short" presses.
To take a picture, from nothing flashing and no light on, press the lower left button short until it flashes red/blue and then remains steady blue. This puts the watch in "standby" mode.
To take PICTURE, now press the TOP left button a short press. You will see the light turn from blue to red (for a moment), then back to blue. You have taken a picture. The blue will remain on as it is still in standby. To turn off off standby, press the lower left button a long press and you will see the light turn from blue> to two short red flashes, and then go out.
To take a VIDEO, put the watch in standby mode with the steady blue light ( short press, lower left). Then press the lower left button a short press. The blue light will flash 3 times and go out. You are now recording. There should be NO lights when you are recording. Don't you think so???? Remember what you are doing with this watch.
From recording mode, a short press on the lower left will put the watch back in standby mode with the steady blue light. A long press on the lower left will flash the the steady blue light to> two red flashes. This closes the video and saves it.
To record an AUDIO file: Place the watch in standby mode. Push the top left button a long push and watch the light flash red 3 times. It is recording audio. The light is off. (again, remember why you have this device) To stop the audio recording, Push the left lower button a long press until the light flashes red twice.
Other thoughts. The audio in the video will have the distinctive sound of the ticking second hand. It is what it is.
The file names are starting with 2009 dates. The video has that same time stamp in the lower right corner. I haven't figured out how to set the date yet.
When I plug it in, the lights still flash light red to blue. I assume that this indicates charging.
From a steady blue standby state, the light will go out in three minutes if nothing is done.
In one of my other watches that I had before, I opened the back to check the battery. It appeared as proprietary . I don't believe it is serviceable. For this price I'll just buy another.
On the top right button, is a cap that screws in and out. Screw in and no much audio recording. Screw out and the audio is louder on the recording.
Search Amazon for "Timex Compass Full-Size" in the watch section and see the watch this is designed after. Without the video of course.
I still haven't figured how to change the video to the better resolution as of 3-18-13. Some type of press on the top left button as according to the directions.
All for now, hope this helps.
I bought the watch thinking it would be cool to have a Li Ion powered rechargeable watch. WRONG, the watch component functions completely separately from the video. Even has its own battery which can and will die. Please refer to one of other reviews on which battery size to purchase to replace the battery for the watch function. Again, this battery does not apply to the rechargeable one that provides video recording functionality. You can still take recordings even if the watch stops telling time.
Whatever, I can still take video underwater which is also kind of fun.
here's how to work the damn thing:
let's label the buttons 2,3,8,9 and10 according to the hours they are closest to, for example the button at 3:00 will be 3.
this said, the buttons at 2 and 9 aren't buttons but screw on caps. I bet this thing isn't waterproof without the caps so don't lose them.
Cap 2 covers the microphone and does not unscrew completely by design. I would describe it as a presta head for a bicycle inner tube.
Cap 9 covers the usb interface. The interface is a 2.5mm RCA style jack. The supplied interface cable is a usb to 2.5mm jack.
I know this thing said MP3 somewhere but that's a misprint and before you ask, it's not a media player of any kind.
Don't expect to be able to find a replacement cable for this easily. Also, if your computer doesn't recognize the device, try plugging it directly to a motherboard usb outlet as mine does not work through a USB hub.
Button 3 is actually just a pull out knob to set the time, nothing new there.
Button 10 is for taking photos or recording audio (will get more into this later)
Button 8 is for toggling standby mode or taking video.
The camera is set so that 6:00 is oriented at the top. (makes perfect sense if you're recording others and not yourself)
The functionality is similar to a camcorder in that there's an on/off state and a standby/recording state though it is difficult to tell which you are currently in.
To start, hold down button 8 for 3 seconds.
If you see flashing red lights then no lights after you've released the button, then the recorder/camera feature is turned off.
If upon release you see a solid blue light then you're in standby mode. This blue light should remain on until you press something else. if it flashes red again, please see my update at the bottom.
Now that you're in standby, you can do one of three things:
1. take a picture.
a. press button 10 briefly to take a picture. The LED should go red, then return to blue which means you're back in standby
2. record audio
a. press and hold button 10 for 3 seconds to start recording audio. Remember to unscrew cap 2.
b. pressing button 10 briefly will save your recording and return you to standby mode.
c. pressing and holding button 10 for 3 seconds will save your recording and power off the recorder.
3. record video
a. briefly press button 8 to start recording video.
b. briefly pressing button 8 again doesn't seem to interrupt the video recording
b. pressing and holding button 8 saves the video and will power off the recorder
Another reviewer has posted means of setting the time and date for the recording functions. I've personally tested it and it works like a charm.
USB and connecting to the computer:
I've had the best luck getting this thing to work with a PC by leaving it in standby mode and plugging it in.
the RCA jack should insert all the way into the watch. Do not remove the RCA jack from the watch while the USB side is plugged in, it may short and cause a power surge error in your PC and render the USB ports dead. (a simple reboot of the PC will fix this).
Once plugged in, the watch should show up as a removable disk with 3 directories:
1. IMAGE
2. RECORD
3. VIDEO
you'll notice that this thing records video in AVI, so I suspect you might be able to plug it directly into some other media players such as televisions and watch without going through a PC at all.
The audio is in WAV format and the images are JPEG's (.JPG)
This thing also works fine with Windows 8 (no surprise there)
P.S. On a humorous note. I got a kick out of some stock video left on mine showing the watch being worked on by some un-suspecting Chinese worker (I recognize the mandarin they were speaking). I would have loved to tell you that they were plotting to take over the U.S. by spying on us with these watches, but it was just a long video of the ceiling occasionally interrupted by a woman standing over while working over the sound of an annoying auto-greet message playing in the background over and over (and over and over).
Use the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature within windows when ejecting the USB connection, otherwise it can be left in a weird state where it won't go into standby mode.
1. connect via USB
2. wait for the drives to show up, (disconnect/unplug without the safely remove hardware option and reconnect if the usb drive doesn't show up)
3. right click on the safely remove hardware icon next to the clock on windows machines (looks like a usb connector with a green checkmark)
4. Select the USB disk and wait for a couple seconds
5. unplug your USB connection
this is a good rule to follow for any USB device. Though for this stupid watch, it's particularly important.
Buy Mini HD Waterproof Camera Watch Video Recorder Now
I think this is a fine watch. In case if you are wondering, the watch is designed to look like a Timex Expedition. The video quality is acceptable, about 30FPS. Still pictures come out clear enough so you can just see. The watch takes a lot of time to learn how to use, so just read the manual, do some research, and be patient. I found the exact same watch on safetybasement.com listed for $100 (originally $200!!) and I think this is plenty cheaper. If you could find a use for this, I would recommend this.
Read Best Reviews of Mini HD Waterproof Camera Watch Video Recorder Here
I've owned two of these watches now for over 2 years. My own opinion is that the video quality, while not HD, is pretty good.
The pictures are ok also.
The reason I am posting this review is that both watches stopped keeping time. I did many searches looking as to why this happened, surmising that there were two batteries in each watch; one for time, one for video/pictures.
I couldn't find any information about this, so I finally took one of them apart.
It's very easy to do.
A notch on the back cover can be popped off using a small flat head screwdriver.
Once it's off, you'll see the watch is really two items. The camera part of the watch is the first think you'll see, with the rechargeable battery attached by wires to the circuitry.
Once the battery is carefully moved to the side, you'll see 2 small phillips head screws. When they are removed, the camera portion of the watch easily comes out of the case and can be set aside.
Under that, there is the time keeping part of the watch and the battery for it is exposed. This battery is not rechargeable and needs to be replaced when exhausted.
Don't worry about the outside button controls. They do not have to be removed at all, as the camera portion isn't physically attached to them.
The battery number is SR626SW which some battery sites indicate is equivalent to 377 (SR626SW).
These batteries can be purchased here or other sites for as little as $3.99 for a 5 pack. One site I've been to has even had them in 10 packs for the same price.
I hope that this helps anyone that has the watch or is about to purchase one will know what to do when the time keeping mode stops or is inaccurate.
For the price, the watch is quite good.
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Let's be realistic, it's cheap... good value, though. The primary drawback is that it's pretty unusable indoors with low light. I'm taking the cost into consideration for the 5 star rating. If the thing were like $100, I'd give it 3 stars maybe.
I couldn't figure out how to set the date/time either, so I contacted the supplier, and he got back to me really quickly.
1) Place a file called "time.txt" in the root directory of the drive for the watch. Watch case sensitivity. The contents of the file should be "year-month-date hours:minutes:seconds" for example:
2013-05-21 21:13:00
2) Then unplug the unit, and the unit should load the information from the file and delete the file.
The date/time should be set. One weird thing the first time I did this, the video suddenly became inverted (the date / time was right side up, though). Then I just reprogrammed the date/time and it was back to being right side up.
Just got this product and inserted an SD card to view the pictures taken with my NIKON D80 camera taken on RAW format. Surprise!!! The small LCD Screen on my camera has better resolution than the much bigger Screen on the Picture Porter.
