North Edge X1

I’m going to start this review by saying if you have ever been a young male, there is a significant chance you went through a phase where things being “blacked out” was the absolute peak of styling. Clothes, cars, accessories, didn’t matter - had to be blacked out. Or camo - but I digress. 

This is the North Edge X1, and according to my receipt, I paid $10.08. With the $5 Skmei 1999 being my current benchmark for a cheap digital watch, I had high hopes as this was double the price. At the time of ordering - there were 3 color options: one hideous white configuration and two variations of a black case and band with negative displays. I fondly recalled the memories of my first G-Shock, an all black affair with a red negative display, and opted for the black and flat desert earth combo with the tan negative display. 

Upon unboxing, I immediately knew it wasn’t going to live up to the Skmei. The material used in the construction watch feels much closer to the plastic of a cheap Casio vs that of a G-Shock. The buttons are also made of plastic vs the metal buttons of the Skmei 1999. The case of the North Edge still carries that G-Shock octagonal case influence. It looks a touch more original than the Skmei, but feels much worse in hand quality wise. For posterity's sake, the listed dimensions are 42.6mm diameter, 20mm lug width, and a thickness of 13mm.

Functionally, the watches are very similar. They both have the same button layout - starting at the bottom left and working clockwise you have mode, light, and reset. I will say that it is impressive that this watch still has dual time, stopwatch, countdown timer, and alarm modes. The labeling of the buttons is comically small, and honestly if I wasn't familiar with this style of watch I might have trouble operating it. If you squint hard enough, at the top it says “water 10 Bar resist” and at the bottom it says the brand and model. One area where the design breaks from the Skmei 1999 is the octagon function indicator in the upper right corner - displaying alarm, hourly chime, 24h display, and alarm snooze. The text is again, too small for me to read and I had to consult the included user manual. 

The caseback is stamped with the battery code, WR 5 atm, and brand. The strap, while feeling cheap, does have quick release spring bars which was an interesting feature. The watch might be more fun on a single pass strap, which I might consider at some point aside for the fact that the negative display renders the watch almost completely illegible.

This is not the G-Shock of my youth. The tan on black LCD of the North Edge X1 is almost impossible to read except under the most direct lighting and viewing angles. This fact alone pretty much renders anything positive I have to say about the watch null and void. This was not $10 well spent, but that’s the whole point of Cheap Heat. Not everyone grows up to be an astronaut and not every budget watch is going to be a wild success. On to the next one.