PhotographyTimex Datalink USB
This is a resource page with information and links concerning the Timex Ironman Data Link USB wrist watch. This watch is nothing short of a wrist PDA, while still being a functional and inobtrusive wrist watch. No, it doesn't run Palm OS or Windows Mobile. Not even close, but it does run custom applications called "wristapps". Some come with the watch, factory installed, Timex has a few that you can download, and there are other places you can obtain applications. Timex even supplies a developer kit, with which you can write your own wristapps if you're tech savvy enough. It runs up to 2 years on a single $1 battery, and keeps addresses, phone numbers, passwords, workout schedules, e-mail, appointments, events, weather forecasts, stock information, notes, tidal info, etc. etc. In fact, anything that fits the display. The better part of the very contrasty screen consists of a 42 x 11 dot matrix making for a total of 3 lines of 8 characters of text or the bottom 2/3rds displaying graphics or large digits. The watch is synchronized with the PC though a USB cable, which takes less than a minute. For this to work, it has 32 kB of internal memory. This doesn't seem like a lot, with todays gigabyte sized flash drives and all, but for storing wristapps and text data only, it's actually quite a lot.
The watch comes in two case styles: dress and sports. Each have different strap and color options. The sports style models come with a resin, velcro or metal link strap, while the dress style models come with a black leather strap or stainless steel expansion band. All datalink watches have a metal front trim, but plastic cases and plastic watch crystals, unfortunately. I've read many complaints about this from people who love this watch as much as I do. To make matters worse, the 53722 and 5C291 models have rather weak straps as well. I have owned a 53722 since 2004 but the resin strap broke after about a year and a half. I managed to repair it with super glue, but it kept breaking, at different places every time. I haven't been able to obtain a new strap, as it is a specially made one. After I got tired of the super glue, I just got the 5B111 model, which has the most amount of metal of all five styles, and supports normal replacement straps, should it ever break. Still, the watch crystal is made of plastic, and it has had scratches on it almost from day one, despite my every effort to prevent just that. Then again, I wear the watch during work, so I should probably just blame myself. In the end I spent 2 hours cutting a polyurethane screen protector to exactly fit in the bezel and it's been scratch free ever since.
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53722 - Sports style, silver case with silver trim ring and black resin strap. This was my first Datalink. |
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53964 - Sports style, black case with silver trim ring and black velcro strap |
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5C291 - Sports style, silver case with black trim ring and silver/black metal/resin strap |
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5B112 - Dress style, black case with stainless steel trim and black leather strap |
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5B111 - The most luxurious of the Datalink models, black case with stainless steel trim and stainless steel expansion bracelet. This is my second Datalink. |
Links
- Timex Datalink USB homepage
- Timex Datalink USB software page
- Timex Datalink developer resources (archived)
- Wikipedia page for all Datalink models
- Yahoo! user group. Sign up and gain access to a few hands full of apps, including games
- Yahoo! developer group
- Datalink Wristapps - author of the excellent My Watch application, which lets you customize watch faces. Other apps as well, and some invaluable development tools
- Ray Allen's website
- John Toebes' resource website
- Pollen Software's free Simple Soundset software lets you customize alarm and event sounds etc.
- Glenn Moller did an in-depth writeup about his 5C291 with lots of pictures.
- wxDatalinkUSB, a Datalink host application for Linux systems
Fonts
These are some numeric fonts for My Watch that I designed. You can download them, and install them using the My Watch applet. In the end, I settled on the "Neutral" one, as you might have guessed already from the topmost photo. Too bad you can only pick one font at a time.
Neutral
Elegant
Overweight
Cut Up
Fat 10px
Retrofuture
Fats And Small
Robots
Sticks
Fuzzcraft.com comment system 1.1
2013-04-19 Michael Rossi
I was wandering how much your Timex Datalink USB the one that can
store temperatures occasion, telephone numbers etc....
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