Ever want to control your car from your wristwatch? Maybe just talk into your watch or push a few buttons and your car comes zooming over to rescue you from whatever dangers? Well you may never get that but now you can have the next best thing.. a RC car controlled from a wristwatch. It looked like a cool little gadget so we decided to investigate!

Wristwatch RC Diecast Car

It's all in the wrist

 Many of us have played with RC cars, planes and boats, but have you ever controlled one from your wristwatch? I am not sure what purpose that would serve, besides being unique, but it does sound interesting.

 ThinkGeek provided us with this unusual gadget so we could see if it's worth your time. Let's have ourselves a looky look.

  
Click to see larger images.

• What's Included?:
• Wristwatch Infra-Red Remote Control 
• Honda Integra or Mini Cooper Car bodies
• Two car chassis, one for free wheeled and other for Infra-Red
• Four extra wheels, two axles for wheels
• One tiny philips head screwdriver

 You don't have to assemble it, like some expensive RC cars, that's a good thing. Though it does come with a few interchangeable parts, so let's get straight to the good stuff and see what all it does.

Design and Features

  First we will look at the Wristwatch Infra-Red remote control.

 It straps on like your basic watch, but it is plastic and uncomfortable ( of course not mean't to be worn all the time ). The body of the watch is bulky and ugly, because of all the electronics and battery being packed inside.

 You can see the Infra-Red LED emitter on the top-front side of the watch. This is one of the disadvantages of a Infra-Red control system; you have to keep that emitter pointed at the car and within line of sight to keep control over the car. The advantage is Infra-Red is considerably less complicated and inexpensive.

 
Click to see larger images.

 Below the IR emitter there is an LCD which displays the current time or data from the timer. The timer is a typical stopwatch style timer and controlled via two buttons on the right side of the watch.

 Further down you will see four large arrow buttons and also three smaller buttons below those. ( You will have to zoom in to see those ) The arrow buttons allow you to move the diecast car in six directions, forward, back , turn left, turn right, reverse left and reverse right. The three smaller buttons have some more Unique functions. From left to right they are; Alarm, Ignition(on\off) and Horn.

 The Alarm, Ignition and Horn features are what really makes this little toy a innovative novelty.

Alarm Feature:

 When the Alarm button is pushed it works just like a real car alarm, it will beep once and "arm" the car. If any vibration is detected, it will set off the alarm and it will start beeping and booping loudly. You have to push the alarm button again to "disarm" the car. That will stop the noise and disable the alarm.

Ignition Feature:

 Upon pressing the ignition(on) button, the car makes sounds just like a real car. It cranks up then vrrooom, the engine starts idling. Pushing the button again turns the car off. They even set it up so that the alarm and horn only works when the car is "started up" ( even though theres a off\on switch on the bottom of the car). 

Horn Feature:

 The horn button does just what you would expect; it makes a horn noise when you push it. The cool thing is it appears to be a recording of a real car horn, sounds very realistic.

Model or RC modes:

 The car comes with two different chassis you can use. One is solid plastic and is just for looks, the "Model" mode. The other chassis is for RC mode.

 There is also a set of wheels and axles for the model chassis. Even a tiny screw driver to screw the body onto the chassis\frame.

Good Lookin Body:

 Now the body of the car is sweet looking. It appears to be a fairly accurate replica of the Acura RSX. The diecast metal is of course much more convincing than the plastic RC cars. 

 A nice touch is that the doors even open and it looks like they included all the proper decals.

Performance and Testing

For the Kids

 After playing with it for a while, we found that this little car is suited to kids and will likely be enjoyed by them much more than adults. ( Even kid-like adults ) Though, it is a cheap RC car so we did not expect much from it.

Assembling the car for RC mode consists of setting the body on the frame and then tightening two screws. Easy enough for anyone to do. Though we noticed a flaw, the screws are kind of tough to get in and if you use the supplied screwdriver, you WILL strip the screws. If you slightly over-tighten the screws then you will strip the screw holes. The screw holes are plastic and very soft therefore it would really be best to pick a chassis and leave the car assembled in that way.

 Once the car is assembled, you activate a slide switch located on the bottom of the car, then (if batteries are in the watch) you press the watches "on" button and your ready to go!

Sound Effects and Steering

 The steering is of course stiff because you have no analog wheel like on an expensive RC car, but it is surprisingly easy and smooth. You can move in all the needed directions, forward, back and turning going either way. It would be very easy for a kid to drive and the novelty of it being a wrist watch adds a fun element.

 A great freature of this little car is the sound effects. The car ignition, honking, car alarm and more sound very realistic and is just something you don't see enough of on RC vehicles.

 Unfortunately the makers of this car went overboard and made it so every time the car stops, it makes a "tire screeching" sound as if the car was slamming on its brakes. I would assume this is to make the illusion of the car driving at high speeds, but the problem is that EVERY time you stop it makes that noise. It becomes very annoying when the car gets stuck and you are backing up then going forwards repeatedly SCREECH SCREECH SCREECH. You get the idea. =D

 Another the feature of the driving is that the head and tail lights of the car come on when the car is moving. Its neat looking but the headlights are kinda dim.

 We took a short video to demonstrate the driving, sound effects, car alarm, horn and more. Take a look:

 Download Low Quality Video (0.9MB)

 Download Hi Quality Video (3.5MB)

 Car Alarm:

 After the car alarm is set, if the car is moved the alarm sounds. Its pretty cool but the motion sensor is not very sensitive so sometimes it will not go off unless you shake the car. I believe they did this because kids are more violent with their toys or well, it could just be a flaw. You can also disarm the alarm by pressing the button a second time.

 Kid Testing:

 We did have some young children play with the toy and see what they though of it. From observation we found that they figured out the controls very quickly and really enjoyed playing with the car. Though they didnt really bother to ever put the wrist watch on their arm; maybe it was too much trouble?

 The wrist watch attaches to anyones arm very easily, but it is quite large. Even for an adult as it is much larger than an adult mens watch. If you child can wear the watch though, it might be a way to keep him from losing the controller. =D

Review Summary

 The Wristwatch Diecast RC car is an interesting gadget. A fusion of wristwatch, RC car and diecast model cars. It seems to be marketed towards adults or teens who have an interest in racing cars or "tuning" their cars, but it is more suited for children who love to race RC cars around. Often these little RC cars are damaged, but this one being metal does make it a bit tougher.

 Its easy to play with and the kids who helped test it seemed to love it.

• PROS 
• Unique fusion of wristwatch controller with RC car
• Car body is made of diecast metal
• Unique features such as sound effects, headlights, car alarm and horn. 
  CONS
• Button based controls, (a little harder to steer)
• Screwdriver included will possibly strip the small screws
• With InfraRed RC you must point the wristwatch controller at the car

RATINGS

Product Available at: ThinkGeek.com

We would like to thank ThinkGeek for providing their
Wristwatch Diecast RC Car for review.