Electronics - 1999 Men's Fitness Gear Guide - accessories for men - Buyers Guide

Men's Fitness, Dec, 1998 by Alison Michaels

Gadgets. Toys. Electronics. Whatever the name, when they're on the cutting edge, they're cool. You liked them as a kid - remember how sweet it was to score the latest model of Radio Shack walkie-talkies for your birthday? - and nothing's changed since your days of youth. You still want 'em, just the adult versions. This season's crop of hot electronic hardware will satisfy that gadget-craving kid in you.

It's not enough for a watch to simply keep accurate time. These days, it has to perform countless other functions in order to jive with our increasingly hectic lives. Take the Beepwear Pro. This brainchild of Motorola and Timex combines a digital watch with a pager that receives both numeric and text messages. It also lets you subscribe to services that send sports stats, stock quotes, news and other info directly to your pager. And the Timex Indiglo lighting system can be set to flash, alerting you to incoming messages silently or with music. Equally slick is the Beepwear's Datalink feature. This Timex-patented technology allows you to download and store 150 names and phone numbers from your computer. Just hold the watch face in front of your PC monitor and it transfers all the numbers you need to keep you connected on the road ($160).

The new Timex Humvee chronograph is a rugged-looking sports watch inspired by the sport-utility vehicle of the same name. This shock-resistant timepiece has a 99-lap counter, a 100-hour countdown timer and water-resistant casing that can be dunked to depths of up to 200 meters. Plus, it tracks time in two time zones and can take a beating, thanks to an amalgam of durable materials like rubber, aluminum and polyurethane ($65).

Amateur auteurs will have lots of fun with Sony's Handycam TRV85. This state-of-the-art Hi-8 camcorder combines a traditional viewfinder with a flip-out 3.5-inch LCD viewscreen (for shooting footage and watching it during playback) and has a revolutionary type of battery (called Infolithium) that records for up to 12 hours when fully charged. But battery tech isn't what sets this Handycam apart. The real kick is NightShot, an innovative feature that lets you shoot in total darkness. Other key features: a 72x digital zoom lens and SteadyShot, which eliminates the shakes when you move in for a closeup ($1,100).

For something a little more aerodynamic, try Nike's Triax 250. Designed for jocks who don't limit their running time to daylight hours, this slick ticker has one-touch back-lighting, which illuminates the digital display, as well as a reflective strap to help keep you visible during nighttime runs. With a 250-lap memory, data recall for comparing your current lap time with previous ones, seven alarms and a calendar display for two time zones, the Triax 250 is a serious sports watch for serious joggers ($135).

Instead of dropping $1,000-plus on one of those status chronograph watches, spend about a quarter of that on Swiss Army's Cavalry Chronograph. That way, you get a smart-looking timepiece with upscale features such as Swiss quartz movement, a leather strap and polished stainless steel casing, and still have a bundle left to invest in Pfizer stock ($295).

The days of portable CD players skipping every time you inhale are over. New models, such as Panasonic's Shockwave CD Jogger, feature memory buffers that allow you to hit a pothole (or go through the motions of an average run) without missing a beat, The buffers work by storing up to 40 seconds of tunes in memory and playing continuously upon impact until correct tracking resumes. Two other features that make the Shockwave CD Jogger ideal for guys on the go: a heat- and water-resistant casing that protects both disc and electronics, and a high-efficiency battery system that cranks out tunes for 20 hours on two AA batteries ($180).

You couldn't have possibly missed Nokia's 6160 in last summer's blockbuster Armageddon. It's the digital cell phone to have when the earth is about to be obliterated by an asteroid the size of Texas. It's pretty handy on a normal day, too, what with its palm-sized proportions, large LCD display, 199 name-and-phone-number directory and up to five hours of talk time. The Nokia 6160 even has a few video games built-in ($150 to $250, depending upon wireless-service provider).

We know how tough it is to ask for directions, so here's the tool that will keep you from ever having to do it again: a Global Positioning Satellite Receiver. There are a variety available; all keep you on course via latitude and longitude data beamed from Pentagon satellites and range in price from under $100 to more than $1,000. Some, such as Garmin's StreetPilot ($600; not pictured), help you navigate city streets with digitally mapped directions to everything from restaurants to ATMs. For the outdoorsman, Magellan's more affordable GPS Tracker is ideal. It has a built-in thermometer, Auto Backtrack (which plots your route back home without having to manually mark way-points) and a trip odometer (for charting distance traveled and estimated distance to your final destination). The Tracker can store up to 500 locations and 20 routes with up to 30 legs. Plus, it can be connected to your PC using Magellan's Map 'N Track CD-ROM software ($230).