Review of the Swatch Paparazzi MSN Direct (SPOT) Watch

I would love to beable to put my Paparazzi into silent mode during meetings and movies.The band. I'm not a big fan of the band. It'sthick and stiff, and refuses to change its highly unnatural contour no matterhow long I wear the watch. It's like memory wire, only rubber. It'susually tight enough against the sides of my wrist to leave marks, but soloose underneath that I can easily slip a finger between the bottom of mywrist and the band's buckle. I was also surprised to find that I neededto get it sized. I love associating dates with alarms, and being able tolook at an actual calendar grid right on my wrist. And, of course, youhave to have the countdown timer.Automatic time calibration. I'm big into accuracy,and I love the fact that the Paparazzi calibrates itself using a signal containingdata from an atomic clock. And I love the fact that the time zone adjustsautomatically. Iknow Internet Time makes time zones obsolete, but until the rest of the worldis ready to do away with them, it's nice to have a watch that makes themeasier to deal with.Customizable watch faces. I actually find myself usingdifferent faces in different circumstances. When I'm traveling, the facethat displays two analogue faces side-by-side with the time from two differenttime zones (the Paparazzi typically sets the default time zone automatically,but allows you to configure a secondary time zone) is perfect. If I'mdoing something more active and need to be able to see the time at a quickglance, I'll opt for face with large digital numbers.MSN Direct. I like it. For me, it's worth the$3.33 per month. It'snot worth it for everyone, though, so make your own decision.What I don't like about the Paparazzi:Watch face limitations. While I love the idea of customizablewatch faces, I wish I had more options, and I wish they weren't related tothe watch itself. Inother words, I would like to have the option of using any watch face evercreated for any MSN Direct watch. And the ultimate feature would be the abilityto create my own.No vibrating alarm. I know, I'm supposed to purchasethe Tissot High T if I want a vibrating alarm, but even my old Timex Messengerhad a very effective silent mode. Vibrating alarms make more sense onwatches than cell phones (at least in the sense that the vibration is easierto detect), but it's a very rare feature on watches.