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This definitive guide to the best true wireless earphones of 2019 explores everything you need to know before buying your next pair of true wireless earphones, including what to look out for and which options are best.
Prefer to skip directly to the picks? Click here.
AirPods have been the most popular true wireless earbuds since late 2016, and for good reason: they pair effortlessly with any iPhone. Now Apple has improved upon them with its second generation. The new AirPods pair faster, have better battery life and they have better mics so calls sound better. You can also buy a wirelessly charging case.
Sennheiser’s first true wireless earbuds demand a hefty fee, but once you actually listen to them, you see why. The sound quality of the Momentum TW is second to none. Throw in an elegant case, an above average battery life and the ability to charge via USB-C and you have the best true wireless earbuds for users who place a premium on sound quality.
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The Jaybird Run XT are the best true wireless earbuds for working out. Released in early 2019, they’re an updated model of the the company’s original true wireless sports earphones called Run, bringing waterproof and sweatproof perks. They also have improved Bluetooth connectivity and you can tweak the EQ settings and customize the sound signature via the Jaybird companion app. If you’re a runner, biker or hiker, these sounds great and are made to last.
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The first true wireless earphones (or earbuds) date back to 2014, but it was the release of Apple’s AirPods in 2016 that really fired them into the mainstream. True wireless means that there isn’t any kind of cord tethering the two earbuds together, as opposed to just wireless earphones like the Beats Powerbeats3 Wireless or Google Pixelbuds, and they are the next natural progression of wireless earbuds. Fewer and fewer people want wires of any type, and it’s as simple as that.
Not all true wireless earbuds are the same. In fact, now that there are so many on the market, a lot of true wireless earphones are very different. So which ones are right for you? The answer: it depends. It depends on what you’re going to using them for. It depends on the type of smartphone you have. And it depends on how much you’re willing to pay. But the biggest factor, and you really don’t have this problem when dealing with over-ear or on-ear headphones, is that your true wireless earbuds have to fit in your ears. And fit well. You’re never going to love them if you’re constantly worried about them falling out.
Apple’s AirPods have set the benchmark for true wireless earbuds up to this point. They’re fantastic true wireless earphones — and now in their second generation — and that’s why every pair that’s since been released has been labeled some sort of “AirPod rival.” But if you have an Android smartphone, or if you plan on running or working out with your true wireless earbuds, AirPods might not be the best option for you. Depending on what you’re looking for, we’ve broken down all our favorite true wireless earbuds and what they’re each good for.
Verdict: Released at the tail-end of 2018, the Sennheiser Momentum TW are the company’s first-ever true wireless earbuds. Yes, they’re very expensive, but if you’re looking for the best-sounding wireless earbuds — these are them. They boast the best sound quality of any true wireless earbuds we’ve tested, and they look pretty different from any other options out there. The Momentum TW have ambient modes and allow users to adjust the EQ settings via a companion app. The last kicker is USB-C charging; you can use the same charing setup as your MacBook to also power these earbuds.
Read our full review of the Sennheiser Momentum TW, here.
Battery: four hours per earbud; charging case holds an extra 12 hours
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0
Sweat resistant: IPX4
Charge: USB-C
Key features: companion app lets you adjust EQ
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Verdict: The Bose SoundSport Frees excel in sound quality and bass. They work with the Bose Connect app, which you need to download in order to initially pair the headphones, but the software is really easy to use. As for the earbuds themselves, the fit is secure; they utilize Bose’s StayHear+ Sport earwings — the same as all other Bose earbuds. The downsides are the earbuds stick out of your ears and can look a bit awkward. The charging case isn’t as pocketable as other wireless headphones’ cases, either. But if you want a solid of pair of wireless earphones and you’re willing to spend a little more for Bose’s signature sound, get these.
Read our full review of the Bose SoundSport Free, here.
Battery: five hours per earbud; charging case holds an extra 10 hours
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.1
Water Resistance: IPX4
Charge: micro-USB
Key features: quick charge of 15 minutes gives you 45 minutes of playtime; Bose Connect app has “Find My Buds” feature
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Verdict: Master & Dynamic’s first true wireless earbuds are unlike anything else, mainly because they’re uncompromsingly luxorious. You can buy them in four different colors. Sure, $300 is definitely expensive, especially when you consider that the sound quality isn’t that much different than AirPods. However, you’re paying for more style, personality and high-end materials.
Read our full review of the Master & Dynamic MW07, here.
Battery: 3.5-hour per earbud, 10 hours from the charging case
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2
Sweat Resistant: IPX4
Charge: USB-C
Key features: made of acetate and stainless steal, tactile buttons on each earbud
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Verdict: Jabra’s Elite 65t sound terrific, with powerful drivers that deliver a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz. They work with a companion app that allows you to tweak the EQ or turn on hear-through to hear ambient sounds. They also fit snugly in your ears and offer exceptional noise isolation. Thanks to a four-mic array (two in each earbud), calls are clear and the buttons on the earbuds are easy to use without disrupting the seal. The only downside: with such a tight fit, wearing them for long periods of time may cause ear fatigue.
Read our full review of the Jabra Elite 65t, here.
Battery: five hours per earbud; 10 hours from the charging case
Sweat resistant: IP55
Charge: micro-USB
Key features: Sound+ app lets you customize EQ; four-mic array; works with voice assistants
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Verdict: The Jabra Elite Active 65t are more sweatproof versions of the Jabra Elite 65t. They sound identical and work well for taking calls and exercising. Essentially, these are ideal for active professionals. If you like the style and the fit of the Jabra Elite 65t, and you’re cool paying the extra $20, which is essentially just an insurance policy against sweat, then this is a great option. Otherwise, just buy the non-active alternatives.
Read our full review of the Jabra Elite Active 65t, here.
Battery: five hours per earbud; charging case holds an extra 10 hours
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0
Sweat resistant: IP56
Charge: micro-USB
Key features: Sound+ app lets you customize EQ; four-mic array; works with voice assistants
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Verdict: AirPods might be the best first-generation product that Apple has ever released — and that’s saying something. The earbuds pair effortlessly with any iOS device. Their battery life is excellent. And the charging case is by far the most compact and polished of any other true wireless earphones. And now Apple’s second-generation AirPods up the ante. They pair faster, have better battery life and better mics, so calls sound better. You can also buy a wireless charging case. if you’re willing to pay a little extra. And they support “Hey Siri” voice commands — no need to push any button. AirPods still have two downsides, however. You need an iOS device to get the most out of them; and two, they’re not water-resistant, so if you’re running or working out while listening to them, you’re putting them at risk. However, the bottom line is that these are the best true wireless earphones available.
Read our full review of the Apple AirPods, here.
Battery: five hours per earbud; charging case holds 24 hours of total charge
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0
Water Resistance: no
Charge: Lightning, Qi-wireless
Key features: H1 chip allows quick pairing to iPhone or iPad; optical sensors detect play/pause when you place or remove from your ears; hands-free Siri
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Verdict: The Jaybird Runs are a solid option if you want a pair of true wireless earbuds for running or working out. They work seamlessly with both iOS and Android devices. They sound great (five percent TDH, frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz), plus you can tweak the sound signature through the companion app. And they’ll fit anybody’s ears. If you’re willing to spend around $180 or a little less, which is still fairly expensive, then these a stellar sweat-resistant alternative to AirPods.
Read our full review of the Jaybird Run, here.
Battery: 4 hours per earbud, 8+ hours with charging case
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.1
Water Resistance: Yes
Charge: micro-USB
Key features: work with Jaybird MySound app
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Verdict: The Zolo Liberty wireless earbuds are significantly cheaper than options, yet performance stacks up quiet well — especially because they have features that others lack, including 5.5mm graphene dynamic drivers that sound superb. There’s no app to deal with, meaning they’re simple to set up. And they’re compatible with your phone’s voice assistant, such as Siri and Google Assistant. They aren’t the best looking earbuds and the charge case is huge, but you won’t find a better budget pair of wireless earbuds.
Read our full review of the Anker Zolo Liberty, here.
Battery: 3.5 hours per earbud, charging case holds 24 hours
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2
Sweat resistant: IPX5
Charge: micro-USB
Key features: compatible with Siri, Google Asistant and Alexa (soon)
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Verdict: It’s taken three cracks of the whip, but Samsung’s third-generation true wireless earbuds are bona fide AirPods alternatives. In fact, they offer a lot that AirPods lack, such as sweat-resistance and swipe volume controls. They work with a companion app so you can adjust the sound signature or switch to an ambient listening mode. They also have a swappable eartip design so you can adjust the fit. The charge case is slim you can charge it wirelessly. There are some tradeoffs, too, of course. Like most Samsung products, these earbuds will work best if you have a Samsung smartphone and the slim case doesn’t have a large battery capacity. That said, they are relatively inexpensive.
Read our full review of the Samsung IconX, here.
Battery: 6 hours per earbud
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0
Sweat Resistant: PX2
Charge: USB-C, Qi-wireless
Key features: ambient sound mode, adjustable EQ, sweat resistant, touch controls
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Verdict: The Sony WF-SP700N are one of the only true wireless earbuds with noise cancellation – but noise-cancellation isn’t very good. That said, they still work well and sound good. They have a sports focus, but since they lack a coaching feature or exercise-centric app, the WF-SP700Ns are solid true wireless earphones for anybody.
Read our full review of the Sony WF-SP700N, here.
Battery: 3 hours (max)
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.1
Sweat Resistant: IPX4
Charge: micro-USB
Key features: noise-cancellation, ambient mode
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Verdict: The Beoplay E8 2.0 are second-generation wireless earbuds. They’re basically the same as B&O’s first-generation product, but the “2.0” models can wireless charge. (The new models also support USB-C charging and Bluetooth 5.0.) As far as sound quality, the E8s are definitely one of the best sounding options on this list, thanks to their advanced electro-dynamic drivers that can produce a wide frequency range (20–20,000Hz). You can adjust the EQ and sound signature via a companion app, too. The earbuds have optical sensors built into them, just like AirPods, so they automatically turn on when they detect that they’re in your ears. The main downsides with the Beoplay E8s have to do with the price (expensive) and the app, which can be frustrating.
Read our full review of the B&O Beoplay E8, here.
Battery: four hours per earbud; charging case holds an extra 8 hours
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0
Sweat resistant: yes
Charge: USB-C
Key features: companion app lets you adjust EQ
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No, the 3.5mm headphone jack isn’t dead. And it won’t be for some time. Read the Story
James Stacey, in an excellent essay published on Hodinkee in August of 2018, laid out a conundrum in the watchmaking world: watch fans want to buy “microbrand” watches, yet brands hate the moniker.
“[Microbrand] operates as a blanket term for small watch brands that operate online, which lumps quality producers in with scam artists and get-rich-quick schemes,” Stacey wrote, while at the same time, insisting that it was a useful term (legitimate enough to be found on Wikipedia) that could be applied to quality brands.
So what is a “microbrand”? We can likely agree on several parameters: It’s a brand that is independently owned, often run by a single person or a team of a few people; that produces watches in small batches, at a rate of several hundred to several thousand a year; that often outsources at least one significant part of its watches to be made elsewhere, whether in Asia or Switzerland; and that “cuts out the middleman” by selling its watches online, straight to consumers (though some will also sell in retail locations).
This definition does not exclude the ugly parts of the term: Kickstarter frauds and trend-chasers who know nothing about watchmaking can and do check those boxes, without supplying any quality to the mix. But in furtherance of Stacey’s idea—that there are quality microbrands out there, that deserve our attention as buyers and watch lovers, it’s time for a guide to the reputable microbrands, which operate worldwide and produce a vast scale of watches in different styles and price points.
This British company unveiled its first few pieces in 2015, all of them powered by Swiss quartz movements and made notable by ‘60s-era designs touched by a tropical color palette. They made the jump to mechanical movements in 2016 with a line of three watches powered by the ETA 2824-2. (We particularly enjoyed the Beagle.) In the days since, they’ve added a GMT, hand-wound dress watches, an automatic chronograph, and a dive watch with a “super compressor” case and internal rotating bezel — diversifying their portfolio in all the right ways.
Based In: Great Britain
GP’s Favorite Watches: Aqua Compressor Leven (~$1,385), Beagle Three-handed Automatic (~$1,107)
When we asked Autodromo’s founder, Bradley Price, if he was interested in being interviewed for a story on American watches a few years back, he politely declined. He didn’t consider himself an American watchmaker, per se, he said. In fact, Price doesn’t really cop to being a watchmaker at all. He’s a watch designer, centering his creations around a love of vintage automobiles. Many have been inspired to attempt making a watch that harks back to an old car’s gauges; the consistency with which Price has delivered sharp, novel designs to that effect has floored a loyal fanbase and, more recently, Ford, who this year tapped Price to make their high-end, customizable GT Owners Watch.
Based In: USA
GP’s Favorite Watches: Ford GT Owner’s Watch ($11,500), Group B Series 2 Automatic ($975)
There are a number of production techniques you’ll hear often around the “microbrand” world: straps made from locally-sourced leather; hands designed in-house. One technique you will not hear about often is the grand feu enamelling of a dial. This is because the process is a very difficult and highly inefficient one, involving layers of glass applied to a metal substrate in a very hot oven. The six-person team at Scottish brand anOrdain (named after a local loch) builds an entire watch around this process. Their Model 1 is a three-handed automatic in a 38mm case, but nobody who looks at the watch will care much about that: they’ll be transfixed by its vibrant dial, whether in post office red, iron cream, translucent blue, pink, or Hebridean blue.
Based In: Scotland
GP’s Favorite Watches: Model 1 in Post Office Red (~1,326)
Baltic’s silver bullet to conquer the heritage and homage boom? Simplicity. The French company uses Asian manufacturing and movements to keep costs below $1,000. Yet their watches capture the essence of vintage timepieces, boiling design elements into a retro concentrate of sorts. Take for instance their newest pre-order, the Aquascaphe — a tool watch that recalls several different dive watches from the 1960s. Fans of vintage dive watches who can’t afford a four- or five-digit watch can get Baltic’s for less than $600 on preorder.
Based In: France
GP’s Favorite Watches: Aquascaphe (~$550) ; Bi-Compax (from ~$614)
Where other American watch brands have failed, Monta, a maker of bombproof, higher-end steel sports watches, is flourishing. Before creating the brand, its founder, Michael DiMartini, began Everest Straps, which became a darling among Rolex fans (traditionally a tough crowd) for their line of active straps made specifically for Rolex sports models. Monta’s watches feature large, visible dial markings and numerals and are powered by Swiss movements. And, after pushback on their pricing, they’ve adjusted their Oceanking and dropped its price from the original $3,500 to less than $2,000. It’s the highest form of tool watch yet from a microbrand.
Based In: USA
GP’s Favorite Watches: Oceanking ($1,925); Skyquest ($1,925)
Made in Italy using Seiko movements, Unimatic’s watches are a minimalist, affordable response to the vintage timepiece trends. Its founders Giovanni Moro and Simone Nunziatom are industrial designers who’ve been been making (and selling out) watches in Italy since 2015. One of their latest creations, the U1-E, adds more markings and lines to both bezels and dials; the U1-EM brings to mind the simplistic design bones of the great dive watches that came before, eschewing, for instance, bezel markers in favor of bare, matte black aluminum. Don’t ignore their in-house cases, which are anti-magnetic and water-resistant to 300 meters, or their made-to-order options, which include engraved cases.
Based In: Italy
GP’s Favorite Watches: U1-EM (~$596), U1-E
Nick Harris got his start modding Seikos in his childhood bedroom. Now, after completing two years at Seattle’s Watch Technology Institute, he’s able to work full-time on his microbrand, Orion. That brand has already produced one watch, the Orion 1, that got Harris’s business off the ground. That watch, a 38mm looker with dress watch bones and a touch of field watch style, sold out quickly. His next batch, the Calamity Diver, was inspired by an entirely different design directive: make a thin dive watch. This meant Harris moving away from the Asian movements he’s known so well to a Swiss-made ETA 2892; the new watches also received ceramic bezel inserts and contoured case backs for better fit. It also means Harris moved in the market from lower-end, Seiko-level prices to upwards of $1,000 — a testament to the quality of the new wave of American watchmaking.
Based In: USA
GP’s Favorite Watches: Calamity Diver ($1,495)
A huge number of microbrands (and much larger luxury brands) make their watch parts in Asia. And yet, few brands smaller than Seiko, Orient and Seagull had broken through in the microbrand scene until Zelos launched three consecutively successful watches on Kickstarter, starting in 2014. Its founder, Elshan Tang, is a former mechanical engineer. His fascination with watch movements and unique design translates to dive watches with movements ranging from Seiko to ETA and cases made using nontraditional case material like bronze, carbon fiber, and Damascus steel.The Abyss 2 and Helmsman 2 are deep watch forum favorites, but they’re both sold out, or near to it.
Based In: Singapore
GP’s Favorite Watches: Abyss 2 (sold out), Helmsman 2 ($649)
Octavio Garcia, an American born in Chicago, is most famous for his design work at Omega and Audemars Piguet. Lukas Gopp is an Austrian who worked for IWC, Ralph Lauren watches, and AP. That they both left osome of the most prestigious watchmakers in the world to design automotive-inspired, modernist watches that cost $1,000 rather than $100,000 should make microbrand fans’ hearts swell. Their watches aren’t for everyone — when their first watch, the Original, was released, Jack Forster over at Hodinkee wondered aloud whether it was an exercise in campiness or not. Their portfolio has only increased since the release of that watch back in 2016, and they continue to offer bombastic (and perhaps, campy) modernist watches at much lower prices than that of the high-end Swiss competition.
Based In: Switzerland
GP’s Favorite Watches: The Original, Mirage ($1,150)
There is a concern among those who trouble themselves with such things that microbrands are engaged in a “race to the bottom” in pricing. Many brands on this list prove that’s not the case, but Dan Henry is not one of them. Take the Dan Henry for what it is: Henry, a prolific collector of vintage watches, decided to create a full line of watches inspired by every decade between 1930 and 1970, all of them priced less than $300. That price is bare-bones for finishing QC. But it’s also putting a mechanical watch in your pocket, and many of Henry’s designs are extremely well executed.
Based In: Brazil
GP’s Favorite Watches: 1970 Automatic Diver ($270)
Halios is a microbrand OG. Since its launch in 2009, it’s focused on making sleek dive watches inspired by 1960s design, with Swiss movements and high-quality finishing for less than $1,000. Its adherence to these tenets has won it both admiration and a consistent state of being sold out (keep close tabs on Halios ahead of their next product launch if you want to land one). Its release in 2018 of the Seaforth GMT, a $900 beauty of a watch with an ETA GMT movement, proves its rabid fans right — and is proof that microbrands have staying power.
Based In: Canada
GP’s Favorite Watches: Seaforth GMT (Sold Out)
Oak & Oscar’s founder, Chase Fancher, has said he wants his watches to be talked about forty years from now. He’s made it a tenth of the way so far. Since 2015, he’s released four watches, each to critical acclaim: The Burnham, debuting the “sandwich dial” style; The Sandford, a GMT with a rotating inner bezel; The Jackson, a chronograph; and now, The Humboldt, a field watch with a 12-hour bezel. The latter is the first watch the brand will make in continuous fashion, rather than in limited-edition batches.
Based In: USA
GP’s Favorite Watches: The Humboldt ($1,450+)
Jonathan Ferrer got his start in watch design at Movado, during an internship during his junior year at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He founded Brew Watches in 2015. His designs, inspired by industrial espresso machines, helped him raise $40,000 on Kickstarter, and in 2017 he shipped about 200 watches, made from Japanese and Chinese parts assembled in Switzerland. In 2018, he released Brew’s new Retrograph line, his best yet. The rectangular watch has a classic American design bent, with markers to time your espresso pull by. It’s powered by a Seiko meca-quartz movement, and Ferrer assembles it himself, in Brooklyn. The result is a lot more than you’d expect out of a watch inspired by coffee.
Based In: USA
GP’s Favorite Watches: Retrograph ($350)
Martenero’s been bringing art deco flair to microbrand watchmaking since 2014. The brand’s initial approach included a customizable angle on dressy watches — swap a black seconds hand for an orange one, say, and decide whether that should be set against a navy or white dial. In recent years, that approach has been nixed in favor of providing a number of set colorways and combinations. It still works. And the brand has matured especially with its last two watches, the Edgemere Reserve, an update on the unique nautical look of their original Edgemere, and the Kerrison, which sharpens the aesthetics of the brands earlier, more reserved dress watches.
Based In: USA
GP’s Favorite Watches: Edgemere Reserve ($530), Kerrison ($595)
The Princeton, New Jersey, brand has made eight watches and is slightly more forward in its capital-P Philosophy than other small brands: “Some big name watch companies produce watches in the same factories we do, yet charge much more,” the brand writes. Mercer’s pricing walks the walk: using lesser-known mechanical movements, like the Seagull ST1901 chronograph and STP 1-11 automatic, as well as Ronda quartz, it keeps watches at or under $600 (or $250 for the quartz).
Based In: USA
GP’s Favorite Watches: Durham ($629), Lexington Chronograph ($529)
Its watches have been borne, since 2008, out of a self-admitted obsession with Rolex divers. And Raven does the homage watch well: those early models captured the cool style of vintage Submariners, with Miyota movements and without the Rolex price tag. Their current line has kept the cool, but shied away from the Rolex worship. Each chunky diver does its own thing — the Trekker at a smaller 40mm, the Venture at 42mm with pops of color, the Titanium Deep as a bezel-y monster, the Endeavor a 44mm classic and powered by the ubiquitous ETA 2824-2 automatic. Each is under $1,000.
Based In: USA
GP’s Favorite Watches: Endeavor ($750), Trekker ($850)
Eone vaulted to headlines as big as The New York Times in 2015 for its instantly iconic watch that allows users to tell time by touch, the Bradley. Eone’s founder, Hyungsoo Kim, had the idea for the watch when a blind classmate at MIT felt uncomfortable using his talking watch during class. His design uses two magnetic balls to track hours and minutes, one rotating around the dial, the other around the edge of the case. But the buzz about the Bradley was about more than just the clever design. After speaking to blind focus groups, Kim realized the blind wearers were just as worried about the watch’s appearance as a sighted wearer. The compromise between utility and visual appeal led to the final product, a slick, modernist watch that was nominated for the London Design Museum’s annual award. The company now offers more than 20 versions of the watch, with different textures and looks.
Based In: USA
GP’s Favorite Watches: Bradley ($285+)
The name says it all. Bill Yao works alone on homage-style watches that re-imagine classics with updated materials and an obsessive focus on quality control — a “Mark II,” or a second try at the original. Yao harbors few illusions: his watches are pure homages of the greats, like the Blancpain 50 Fathoms, IWC and JLC Mk.11 or the US special operations-utilized Benrus Type I and II watchesd, with similar dimensions and stylings. He adds more affordable movements from ETA and Japanese makers, and, despite his intense (and often laborious) handiwork, the price of the original not-so-magically sinks into the realm that an ordinary guy can afford.
Based In: USA
GP’s Favorite Watches: Hawkinge ($595+), Paradive G3 ($895)
What does a fully American-made watch look like? Weiss has done more to edge us toward the answer to that question than any other new brand in the past ten years. Their 42mm American Issue Field watch has a case, dial and sapphire crystal made in the US,and its Cal 1003 movement is mostly manufactured in the US, too. Their new 38mm Field Issue opened their classic design to those with smaller wrists, and they just released a very limited edition “Gauge Series” with a cool new, Land Rover-inspired look.
Based In: USA
GP’s Favorite Watches: 38mm Standard Issue Field ($950)
Why concentrate on the troubles of modern American watchmaking when you can re-use its beautiful past? It’s not so simple, of course. Vortic, based out of Colorado, custom-designed its cases and a proprietary system to hold the antique pocket watch movements, dials, and hands that are placed inside of them. Their latest line, the Railroad Edition, uses only refurbished “railroad grade” watches made by American companies like Elgin, Waltham, and Illinois.
Based In: USA
GP’s Favorite Watches: Railroad Edition ($2,000+)
Nestled in the heart of Italy is a watchmaking company who specializes only in refurbishing and repurposing traditional watches from…England. Sebastian Salvado, an American living in Rome, first began fiddling with English pocket watches from the 19th century in 2005. In 2015 he founded Coggiola Watch Roma, where he makes by hand and with traditional tools, and without the assistance of CNC machines or computers, every part of his watches except for the movements. Many of the finished pieces have no traditional dials, instead showing off the bones of the English movements inside.
Based In: Italy
GP’s Favorite Watches: Gowland Brothers No. 819 (Contact for pricing)
It’s a common refrain among divers who are also watch aficionados: We want to wear our watches in the water! Paul Scurfield, a saturation diver, started Scurfa with that goal in mind—and at least in origin story, says that his watches are made for people whose Rolex divers “exploded” in value, making them a little too precious to use in practice. His dive watches are a value proposition “tool watch” to the T: every piece, from its screw-down crown to its serious Super LumiNova, is aimed at making an affordable dive watch that can survive 500 meters in the deep.
Based In: United Kingdom
GP’s Favorite Watches: Bell Diver 1 S/S Auto (~$414)
Founded in 2007 by Dion Wynyard McAsey, Magrette has spent more than a decade building watches aligned with sailing and diving. The large, cushion-shaped watches have a touch of Panerai about them. And, though the company has strong ties to McAsey’s New Zealand roots, its watches have global reach: the straps are made in Canada, the graphic design is based in Taiwan, the dials are from Germany, and the movements are from Japan and Switzerland.
Based In: New Zealand
GP’s Favorite Watches: Moana Picific Diver II ($660)
This LA-based brand has made waves since it was founded in 2017. Its Retrospect, a dive watch with sunburst dial, had watch nerds swooning, and promptly sold out. (It’ll return in 2019, according to their site.) Recently, we thoroughly enjoyed wearing the brand’s new Contrail 39, a solid dive-rated tool watch with an interestingly textured dial. The brand’s trick, thus far, is solid design with fan favorites like sunburst dials, paired with affordable Miyota movements and a solid price point.
Based In: USA
GP’s Favorite Watches: Contrail 39 ($575)
After a stint creating ribbon microphones for the pro audio industry, Deni Mesanovic founded Pelton Watches to bring his horological ideas to life. Crafting handmade dials and machining his own cases, Mesanovic has released several models since his company’s inception in 2016, chief amongst which (to our minds) is the Sector and the Sector LE. These models exhibit Mesanovic’s first completely in-house dial, which requires numerous finishing techniques and 6 hours of work to complete. While his watches are amongst the pricier of the micorbrand movement, the effort that goes into a Pelton watch (and especially the dial) more than justifies its price point.
Based In: USA
GP’s Favorite Watches: Sector LE ($1,749)
I’m two months into using Apple’s AirPods ($160), and they just stopped working properly. One day, the left earbud wouldn’t work; the next day, the right one wouldn’t work. Which is frustrating, because so far I’ve loved them. Plus, I didn’t drop them or wear them in the rain.
I knew it had to be a Bluetooth issue because I could still hear the sensor beeping periodically in the non-working earbud, so I tried having my iPhone forget and re-pair them. That didn’t work. Then I tried forgetting them on all of my paired devices (iPhone 6S, MacBook Pro, iMac and Google Pixel XL). No dice. Finally, in a last-ditch effort to save my AirPods, I factory reset them… and then they started working properly again. Easy enough.
If you’ve found yourself in a similar predicament, here’s how to factory reset your AirPods.
1. Go to Bluetooth settings on your device. Forget your AirPods.
2. Make sure both AirPods are in their case. Open the lid so you can see the indicator light.
3. Hold the button on the back of the case until the light starts flashing amber. (Some Apple forum threads say this should take 3–5 seconds, but on my AirPods it took about 15 seconds.)
4. After the amber light blinks three times, release the button and close the lid.
5. Place your AirPods adjacent to your iPhone and hold the button on the back of the case again. A pairing screen should appear on your iPhone. Press “Connect” and you should be good, with both AirPods should work properly together again.
The best Apple product of the year? Read the Story
AFTER INSERTING IMAGES and CE, please COPY and paste the entire copy to: https://gearpatrol.com/2018/01/24/the-10-best-smart-home-devices-if-you-have-an-iphone/
This is a refresh of the above post. Nick, the only products you have to review are the last five.
The HomePod is available now and it’s better time than ever for Apple users to turn their home into a smart home, or at least start moving in that direction. To do that you’ll want to buy smart devices that work with HomeKit. You’ll be able to control them by talking to your HomePod, or through your iPhone’s Control Center or Home app. No need to deal with each smart device’s individual app, which tends to be terrible.
To get you started, we’ve compiled the best smart devices that work with HomeKit, including locks, switches, lights and security cameras. For more options, see Apple’s complete list of compatible smart devices, here.
The Apple TV 4K is more than just a streaming device. It works with HomeKit and can actually function as a bridge for your smart home, allowing you to control your smart devices whether you’re home or not. If you don’t have an Apple TV or a Homepod, you won’t be able to control your smart home from afar. With an Apple TV, you can also preset automation schedules, like turning all your devices on or off at a certain time. It should be noted that an Apple TV (4th-gen) is the only other Apple TV that is HomeKit enabled.
Philips Hue are the most trusted smart lights you can buy — they just work. You can mess around with up 50,000 shades of white in the Phillips Hue app, or just create settings within the App app along with all your other HomeKit devices. It’s important to note that you can buy individual lights, but you need to have a Hue bridge from them to work — that’s why we suggest buying this starter hit.
There are a number of smart thermostats that work with HomeKit, including Honeywell’s Lyric Round ($250) and the iDevices Thermostat ($130), but the Ecobee4 is our favorite. It comes with a remote room sensor, which the others don’t, that you can place in an area that is notoriously hot or cold. The sensor can then relay the signal back to the main thermostat, which will then adjust the temperature accordingly. The Ecobee4 also has Alexa built-in, allowing voice-controlled adjustment of the temperature. You can also adjust the temperature with Siri by speaking to your iPhone or iPad. (Note: this thermostat requires a three-wire installation.)
At well over $200, this is an expensive smart lock — but it’s the best one out there. The Smart Lock Pro is actually a bundle that includes a smart lock, a wi-fi hub that lets you lock and unlock the door from anywhere (even if you’re far away) and a door sensor that indicates whether the door is opened or closed. Also, the lock doesn’t replace the door’s existing deadbolt, so you still have the option of manually locking your door the old fashion way.
This indoor sensor can track things like temperature, air quality and humidity. After installing and placing in a certain room, you’ll then be able to whip out your iOS device and ask about specific rooms, (e.g. “Hey Siri, what’s the temperature in the bedroom?”). The idea is that you can place multiple sensors around your house and get a better idea of your home’s total environment.
The Circle 2 works much the same way as other smart security cameras. It can capture images in 1080p, send push notifications and keep a backlog of images for 24 hours without a subscription. It’s also weatherproof, so you can stick it outdoors (as long as it’s plugged in). The main advantage of the addition of Homekit support is it’s simpler to access: you don’t have to open Logitech’s app; instead, you’ll be able to see a live feed right from your iPhone’s dashboard. You’ll be able to see the live feed by saying, “Hey Siri, show me the security camera.” And you can set up home automations with your other HomeKit-supported devices, too — for instance, when the camera detects movement, it’ll trigger the lights or fan to turn on.
The HomePod is the first Siri-enabled smart speaker, but if you’re not in the same room as it, and you don’t have your iPhone on you either, you might not be able to turn a light on/off. That can be frustrating. This switch resolves that. After a simple setup process, you can program it to turn on/off lights and also set scenes. No more asking Siri or whipping out your iPhone required.
This is our favorite HomeKit-friendly smart plug. It features two outlets, plus a USB port on the side to charge another device. Adjacent to both outlets are corresponding buttons that you can physically press to turn the outlets on/off, which will come in handy should you misplace your iPhone. The outlet also had LED lights built-in — it can effectively turn the outlet into a night light.
Nanoleaf’s Aurora is a set of triangle-shaped LED-light panels that mount on your wall and change colors. Each panel can be light up with 16.7 million colors, according to Nanoleaf, and with varying levels of warm and cold light. It’s really a unique and funky lighting fixture that you can build out as you go. (You can add up to 30 panels; the starter kit includes nine panels.) Also, Nanoleaf just announced a 12-sided remote can be rolled like a die; whichever way the remote lands, that triggers a light configuration or scene with other HomeKit devices. |
No longer do you need to flip a switch to turn on your fan. This 54-inch, smart ceiling fan works with HomeKit so you can turn it on/off and adjust its speeds via your iPhone. It also can be programmed as part of scenes with your other devices. As for the fan itself, it has a WhisperWind motor for powerful-yet-quiet performance. Even more impressively, it’s reversible — able to provide a downdraft or updraft depending on the season and how you want the room to feel.
The Calla and Lily are Phillips Hue’s first smart outdoor lights. They come in both white and color options and work in exactly the same way with the same app as the company’s other smart lights. The Philips Hue Lily is a $280 spotlight that’s designed to illuminate a single area, like a garden. And the Philips Hue Calla is a $130 ground light, designed to brighten up outdoor pathways. Both lights will work with the Hue Bridge. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait to summer to buy them — both Calla and Lily outdoor lights will be available this July.
This wireless wall switch requires no nails or wires to setup. Instead, it has an adhesive back that you can stick anywhere. It’s able to control the existing smart devices in your house that are set up as a certain scene. It also has a dimming feature to further control the room’s ambiance.
The Eve Button is, as its name gives away, a small button that can be programmed to controlled individual devices or up to three scenes. If it’s set to control one small lamp, a single tap will turn it on, two taps will dim it, and a long press will turn the lamp off. The same goes for scenes. The button is easy to use, portable and is specifically designed to work with iOS devices.
This is similar to other smart switches on this list. It can be programed to initiate up to three different scenes: with one click, two clicks and a long press to initiate all different actions. The big thing here is the aesthetic. It’s a giant button that comes in either red, black or white.
Right away you’ll notice the bunny ears. Netgear’s Arlo Baby is a smart baby monitor that looks like a bunny; for an extra $20, you can make it look like a puppy or kitten instead. The camera is simple to set up and can be integrated with up to five other Netgear Arlo cameras (not necessarily other Baby cameras). It shoots up to 1080p video with up to a 130-degree field of view. The camera can detect motion or noise, so if your child stirs it’ll send you a push notification. Additionally, through the Arlo app you can play lullabies or white noise, which could help the child sleep. The Arlo Baby just recently got updated to work with HomeKit, so you can now see live feeds in the iOS Home app.
Dreaming of when Smart House becomes reality. Read the Story
The HomePod is available now and it’s better time than ever for Apple users to turn their home into a smart home, or at least start moving in that direction. To do that you’ll want to buy smart devices that work with HomeKit. You’ll be able to control them by talking to your HomePod, or through your iPhone’s Control Center or Home app. No need to deal with each smart device’s individual app, which tends to be terrible.
To get you started, we’ve compiled the best smart devices that work with HomeKit, including locks, switches, lights and security cameras. For more options, see Apple’s complete list of compatible smart devices, here.
The Apple TV 4K is more than just a streaming device. It works with HomeKit and can actually function as a bridge for your smart home, allowing you to control your smart devices whether you’re home or not. If you don’t have an Apple TV or a Homepod, you won’t be able to control your smart home from afar. With an Apple TV, you can also preset automation schedules, like turning all your devices on or off at a certain time. It should be noted that an Apple TV (4th-gen) is the only other Apple TV that is HomeKit enabled.
Philips Hue are the most trusted smart lights you can buy — they just work. You can mess around with up 50,000 shades of white in the Phillips Hue app, or just create settings within the App app along with all your other HomeKit devices. It’s important to note that you can buy individual lights, but you need to have a Hue bridge from them to work — that’s why we suggest buying this starter hit.
There are a number of smart thermostats that work with HomeKit, including Honeywell’s Lyric Round ($250) and the iDevices Thermostat ($130), but the Ecobee4 is our favorite. It comes with a remote room sensor, which the others don’t, that you can place in an area that is notoriously hot or cold. The sensor can then relay the signal back to the main thermostat, which will then adjust the temperature accordingly. The Ecobee4 also has Alexa built-in, allowing voice-controlled adjustment of the temperature. You can also adjust the temperature with Siri by speaking to your iPhone or iPad. (Note: this thermostat requires a three-wire installation.)
At well over $200, this is an expensive smart lock — but it’s the best one out there. The Smart Lock Pro is actually a bundle that includes a smart lock, a wi-fi hub that lets you lock and unlock the door from anywhere (even if you’re far away) and a door sensor that indicates whether the door is opened or closed. Also, the lock doesn’t replace the door’s existing deadbolt, so you still have the option of manually locking your door the old fashion way.
This indoor sensor can track things like temperature, air quality and humidity. After installing and placing in a certain room, you’ll then be able to whip out your iOS device and ask about specific rooms, (e.g. “Hey Siri, what’s the temperature in the bedroom?”). The idea is that you can place multiple sensors around your house and get a better idea of your home’s total environment.
The Circle 2 works much the same way as other smart security cameras. It can capture images in 1080p, send push notifications and keep a backlog of images for 24 hours without a subscription. It’s also weatherproof, so you can stick it outdoors (as long as it’s plugged in). The main advantage of the addition of Homekit support is it’s simpler to access: you don’t have to open Logitech’s app; instead, you’ll be able to see a live feed right from your iPhone’s dashboard. You’ll be able to see the live feed by saying, “Hey Siri, show me the security camera.” And you can set up home automations with your other HomeKit-supported devices, too — for instance, when the camera detects movement, it’ll trigger the lights or fan to turn on.
The HomePod is the first Siri-enabled smart speaker, but if you’re not in the same room as it, and you don’t have your iPhone on you either, you might not be able to turn a light on/off. That can be frustrating. This switch resolves that. After a simple setup process, you can program it to turn on/off lights and also set scenes. No more asking Siri or whipping out your iPhone required.
This is our favorite HomeKit-friendly smart plug. It features two outlets, plus a USB port on the side to charge another device. Adjacent to both outlets are corresponding buttons that you can physically press to turn the outlets on/off, which will come in handy should you misplace your iPhone. The outlet also had LED lights built-in — it can effectively turn the outlet into a night light.
Nanoleaf’s Aurora is a set of triangle-shaped LED-light panels that mount on your wall and change colors. Each panel can be light up with 16.7 million colors, according to Nanoleaf, and with varying levels of warm and cold light. It’s really a unique and funky lighting fixture that you can build out as you go. (You can add up to 30 panels; the starter kit includes nine panels.) Also, Nanoleaf just announced a 12-sided remote can be rolled like a die; whichever way the remote lands, that triggers a light configuration or scene with other HomeKit devices. |
No longer do you need to flip a switch to turn on your fan. This 54-inch, smart ceiling fan works with HomeKit so you can turn it on/off and adjust its speeds via your iPhone. It also can be programmed as part of scenes with your other devices. As for the fan itself, it has a WhisperWind motor for powerful-yet-quiet performance. Even more impressively, it’s reversible — able to provide a downdraft or updraft depending on the season and how you want the room to feel.
The Calla and Lily are Phillips Hue’s first smart outdoor lights. They come in both white and color options and work in exactly the same way with the same app as the company’s other smart lights. The Philips Hue Lily is a $280 spotlight that’s designed to illuminate a single area, like a garden. And the Philips Hue Calla is a $130 ground light, designed to brighten up outdoor pathways. Both lights will work with the Hue Bridge. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait to summer to buy them — both Calla and Lily outdoor lights will be available this July.
This wireless wall switch requires no nails or wires to setup. Instead, it has an adhesive back that you can stick anywhere. It’s able to control the existing smart devices in your house that are set up as a certain scene. It also has a dimming feature to further control the room’s ambiance.
The Eve Button is, as its name gives away, a small button that can be programmed to controlled individual devices or up to three scenes. If it’s set to control one small lamp, a single tap will turn it on, two taps will dim it, and a long press will turn the lamp off. The same goes for scenes. The button is easy to use, portable and is specifically designed to work with iOS devices.
This is similar to other smart switches on this list. It can be programed to initiate up to three different scenes: with one click, two clicks and a long press to initiate all different actions. The big thing here is the aesthetic. It’s a giant button that comes in either red, black or white.
Right away you’ll notice the bunny ears. Netgear’s Arlo Baby is a smart baby monitor that looks like a bunny; for an extra $20, you can make it look like a puppy or kitten instead. The camera is simple to set up and can be integrated with up to five other Netgear Arlo cameras (not necessarily other Baby cameras). It shoots up to 1080p video with up to a 130-degree field of view. The camera can detect motion or noise, so if your child stirs it’ll send you a push notification. Additionally, through the Arlo app you can play lullabies or white noise, which could help the child sleep. The Arlo Baby just recently got updated to work with HomeKit, so you can now see live feeds in the iOS Home app.
Dreaming of when Smart House becomes reality. Read the Story
T
he Los Angeles River has long been a punchline, proof of its city’s stereotypes. It is a post-apocalyptic aquatic freeway, a greenish tributary slicing through the city’s sprawl, a nature area hopelessly juxtaposed with the urban. It is most famous not for its waters, but for its role as the site of a pivotal drag race in Grease. Its banks, once rocky and wild, were surgically encased in concrete in 1938, embodying L.A.’s reputation for false vanity; its flow never wanders far from an automobile on its 51-mile path, which crawls under the congestion of nine different major freeways.
Yet today, the river is enjoying a golden moment. It is open to the public for recreation. Iconic architect Frank Gehry is helming a revitalization that could cost billions of dollars. L.A.’s 2024 Olympic bid even includes renderings of a sparkling blue flow serpentining through the city.
But the journey to its present, near-idyllic state wasn’t easy. To get here, the river followed a narrative arc worthy of Hollywood, with all the key players: an out-of-touch governmental agency, a whistleblower’s bold move and an unlikely hero’s ad hoc, bootleg journey.
In 2008, Heather Wylie was a young, idealistic biologist, craving a chance to make a real impact. But, instead of changing the world, she sat mired inside a governmental agency she claims was neglecting public interest. A fiery, sharp-tongued contrarian, Wylie offers bold proclamations and researched facts in equal doses when she speaks, without ever seeming to pause for air. In interviews, she avoids small talk and propels into meaty conversation unprompted, often surging forward for 10 minutes without even a question lobbed her way. Wylie embodies her role of whistleblower and never hesitates to defend the L.A. River when the opportunity arrives. “I didn’t care if I lost [my job],” Wylie said. “I just wanted to stay there long enough to get the things I wanted.”
The Los Angeles River Watershed.
In 2004, she arrived from college at the Army Corps of Engineers as a biologist, thinking she would be tasked with enforcing the Clean Water Act for Southern California waterways. By 2008, Wylie said her bosses Aaron Allen and David Castanon hampered much of her original enthusiasm and, in one instance, barred her from a project in San Luis Obispo due to her repeated concerns that a proposed development would destroy vernal pools. She was amply fed up. Then, in March, Wylie came upon a classified memo from Allen, preparing to issue a decision that would likely strip Clean Water Act protections from the L.A. River’s tributaries and 870-square-mile watershed, leaving the river open to unpenalized pollution and ecosystem-damaging development. Allen’s memo was the result of what the Army Corps calls a “jurisdictional determination” — a ruling on a waterway under their purview, resulting from an outside inquiry. In this instance, an area rancher named Wayne Fishback was petitioning the Corps for approval to fill in a seasonal L.A. River stream on his property in the Santa Susana Mountains, north of Chatsworth. In order to build a road on the tributary, Fishback needed, and was poised to receive, the removal of Clean Water Act protections. This decision, critics argued, would set a dangerous pro-development precedent for the L.A. River.
Wylie was well versed in the way this process played out: the Corps made a ruling on a waterway in their control, like the L.A. River, and sent a draft of their decision to the EPA. The EPA, Wylie said, would typically raise concerns about environmental impacts and give robust but largely ignored feedback on the project before it would move forward, unimpeded. To note, the Army Corps processes about 60,000 permits per year, but the EPA has only exercised their veto power 14 times since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972. (The Army Corps couldn’t provide figures comparing the EPA’s feedback for the less-formal jurisdictional determination process, but said it is also “relatively rare” that the EPA overrides a decision.)
“At the end of the day, EPA Region 9 bends over and takes it from the Army Corps and does nothing, and the Army Corps knows that’s exactly what’s going to happen,” Wylie said. “People are used to coming to the Army Corps and getting their ‘Destroy the River and Wetlands Permit’ rubber-stamped,” she added. “I knew the EPA would do nothing about it unless we stepped up and made them.” The EPA, which operates on allocations from the federal government, must be realistic in picking their battles. “They can only use their political capital on so many things,” Wylie said. The Clean Water Act is an area that she says is particularly prone to “regulatory capture” — the idea that any group created in the public interest will eventually serve to advance the commercial or political vision of special interest groups instead.
The L.A. River is an enigma, sitting in plain view, but hardly touched. It is a post-apocalyptic aquatic freeway, a greenish tributary slicing through the city’s sprawl, a nature area hopelessly juxtaposed with the urban.
So, in an attempt to stop the rancher — and other, future, more environmentally damaging developments — Wylie went public. She leaked the Army Corps’ memo to a bevy of top environmental law firms and Congressman Henry Waxman, who almost immediately opened a Congressional inquiry that forced the Corps into publicized, transparent proceedings. “If the EPA takes no action, then the Corps determination will go into effect,” Waxman wrote in a letter to EPA head Stephen L. Johnson in 2008. “There is no doubt that you have the authority to block the determination of the Corps.” Still, despite public outrage, the Corps soldiered on with their plan to deregulate part of the river. They hoped to do so under the protection of a 2006 Supreme Court ruling called Rapanos v. United States.
In Rapanos, the court narrowly held that a tributary or wetland must share a significant nexus with a “navigable-in-fact” waterway (one on which a boat can be piloted) for the Clean Water Act to protect it from pollution. “As absurd as it is, your right to have clean water is hooked to how navigable waterways are defined,” Wylie said. “Having someone demonstrate that [the L.A. River] is boatable means it would fit within the bounds of the Clean Water Act.” The Corps planned to declare only four miles of the L.A. River as navigable, leaving the surrounding 47 miles of flow, and the entire watershed, susceptible to pollution. “Presently, the occasional use of kayaks and/or canoes on other reaches of the river are sporadic and do not support any associated commerce (in addition to being illegal),” read the leaked memo signed by Aaron Allen, which was preliminary and had not yet received EPA feedback. “Finally, the capacity [for the river] to provide navigation at some point in the future is highly doubtful given the river’s configuration, hydrology and fundamental use as a flood control channel,” he concluded. (In a phone call about this story, Allen stressed the narrow nature of the memo, adding that it was only a determination for the tributary on Wayne Fishback’s property, and saying, “There is nothing in the memo that says [the L.A. River] is not a navigable water, which is what is regulated under the Clean Water Act.”)
The L.A. River would be one of the first waterways to set precedent following the Rapanos ruling. “If the Corps of Engineers applies a similar approach to other rivers, protections against water pollution that are now taken for granted could be seriously eroded throughout the nation,” Waxman wrote in his 2008 letter to the EPA. Whether the Corps implementation was nefarious, as Wylie characterizes it, or dutiful, as Allen does, the river’s future clearly depended on its ability to float a boat. If someone could publicly kayak the entire river, Wylie thought, it would definitively and blatantly prove that it was “navigable.” It would see no development in the watershed, no filling up of tributaries, no unpenalized pollution.
In a determined fervor, she sought a solution on the then-nascent video platform, YouTube. “All night long, I combed through anything I could find,” Wylie said. She eventually stumbled upon a video from a man named George Wolfe, a New England-born L.A. transplant who ran a satirical website called lalatimes.com. Wolfe had previously made a comedy clip for the website that depicted him kayaking down a portion of the river to avoid rush-hour traffic. “I literally became George’s stalker,” Wylie said. “I found him and his wife and they were willing to do the trip.”
Wolfe, his wife, and a handful of other activists aimed to kayak all 51 miles of the river in three days, in a manner secret enough to avoid authorities, but still well documented so as to definitively prove navigability to the Army Corps.
Wolfe has an Oberlin pedigree, which he credits for his appetite to think against the grain, and a long, knowledgeable history of boating, making him an ideal fit for this endeavor. In person, he is effusive, waving around his lanky arms as he speaks and wearing a warm smile with a mischievous bend. He has a subversiveness that feels contagious; it’s easy to see how he recruited partners for his illegal journey. “You have to have a little bit of a rabble-rouser in you to do a trip like this,” Wolfe told me. His trip in 2008 was logistically complicated, with Wolfe, his wife, and a handful of other activists aiming to kayak all 51 miles of the river in three days, in a manner secret enough to avoid authorities, but still well documented enough to definitively prove navigability to the Army Corps. “This was a wonderful coming together of elements of intrigue, adventure, and an edge of illicitness,” Wolfe said. “[The river] was literally unknown to us.”
The enigmatic river with which Wolfe longed to commune gave birth to modern Los Angeles in the 1700s, bringing fresh water from the San Gabriel Mountains into the pueblos and missions near present-day Downtown. Its flow was fickle, creating numerous catastrophic floods throughout history, including those that killed 85 people between 1933 and 1938. This prompted city leaders to scrap a series of proposed riverside parks at the height of the Depression and instead commission the Army Corps of Engineers to cast the river’s banks in concrete and seal it off with chain-link fencing.
Today the river’s flow is mostly treated industrial and residential water, originating from the Owens and Colorado Rivers before passing through homes and various reclamation plants. A facility like Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys takes about a day to process water, and the river flows visibly stronger on weekday afternoons, as local residents have settled into their consistent weekday routines of showering and cooking. The reclaimed water is relatively clean, but the river turns brown the moment rain hits, releasing trash, oil and other urban detritus from nearby roads into the hemmed-in channel and shooting it along at 45 miles per hour. Even on the driest days, the river trickles 30 million gallons of water to the ocean, which is equivalent to the needs for the entire city of Long Beach.
The river is colossal in size, but insignificant in scope; in plain view, but hardly touched. This, more or less, is how the L.A. River stood for decades, and was how Wolfe and Wylie found it when they set off on their clandestine journey.
The crew started deep in the San Fernando Valley, just past the trickling confluence of Calabasas and Bell Creeks, where the river still has a soft bottom. When I met Wolfe, almost exactly seven years after his journey, at the former drop-in point — a smoothly flowing stretch of water hidden underneath a bridge — Wolfe waxed nostalgic and talked like a dreamer, invoking names like Joseph Campbell and John Wesley Powell. He recalled the trepidation that came with the trip. “It was a modern-day quest,” Wolfe said about his 51-mile journey. “It’s really rare — the sheer boyish adventure of it. How many times do you get a chance to take back a river?”
Kayaking any river presents its challenges, and L.A.’s is — save the pun — shallowness. The waterway ranges from ankle-deep to thigh-deep and begs a boater to bottom out at any moment.
Wolfe and his core contingent of 11 other paddlers, including Wylie for parts, were utterly unaware of the terrain around each bend. Save for a cursory glance at some satellite images, they uncovered the river without context and engaged with relatively-untrodden nature in one of the busiest metropolitan areas in the world. For three straight days, the crew set off in the mornings and pulled out at nightfall, staying in the backyards of houses near the river they had arranged ahead of time. They usually moved in a tight pack to avoid attracting attention from passing motorists, though they did have multiple run-ins with police. One memorable dust-up featured a police helicopter hovering low over the waterway, a voice squawking from the loudspeaker, “Get out of the river, now!” Wolfe had a pair of novelty handcuffs at the ready, prepared to link himself to his kayak if necessary. Wylie was poised to fight a war of words, arguing that Article 10 of the California Constitution guaranteed the public’s access to waterways. The group had no permits to kayak, of course, but a film permit did, at one point, inexplicably satisfy the authorities, who let them carry on. Ultimately, the river spat Wolfe and crew into the Port of Long Beach, where they finished their epic paddle in the shadow of ocean liners and cargo ships. “We were in these little toy boats…then there was the Queen Mary — this giant boat,” Wolfe remembered. “It was fitting that this was our take-out spot. The macro and the micro. The confluence of these two entities.”
Their toiling three-day journey left no doubt in their minds. “We publicly, boldly displayed that [the L.A. river] is navigable,” Wolfe said. “There was a lot of power in that.”
Wolfe, acting on advice from environmental lawyers and Heather Wylie, immediately reported to the EPA the details of his journey. Then came two years of waiting and bureaucratic wrangling. In 2010, the EPA officially declared the river as navigable-in-fact, keeping it and its surrounding watershed entirely protected by the Clean Water Act. “We want the L.A. River to demonstrate how urban waterways across the country can serve as assets in building stronger neighborhoods,” EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said at the press conference to announce the ruling. According to Wolfe, the EPA internally acknowledged his kayak journey as proof of the river’s viability. “Our trip sort of spun a whole positive chain of events around the L.A. River,” Wylie said. “There’s been so much more public involvement since our trip. People are a lot more engaged with the river and I don’t think any of that would have happened without us drawing attention to the river.”
Since the decision in 2010, the L.A. River has seen some recent improvements, with 30 connected miles of revamped bike paths and a handful of small “pocket parks” now lining the banks. Still, the master plan for revitalizing the river remains unclear, and many groups around L.A. are loudly expressing their thoughts. Despite the noise, one voice rises above: Frank Gehry. The 86-year-old renowned architect has assembled a team and partnered with L.A. River Revitalization Corp (LARRC) to build a plan for revamping the channel. Gehry is currently “getting smart on the river,” the LAARC says, working pro bono to gather data on its hydrology and ecology (one recent task includes mapping the riverbed using 3D imaging from a Google car).
Gehry’s team is also building a case to the public and legislators for investment in the river, coalescing its benefit to arts, lifestyle, health, public transport, and the environment into one easily digestible, grand vision. “Part of our goal right now is to not predetermine what it needs to look like; it’s to understand what its purpose needs to be,” Anand Devarajan, one of Gehry’s partners in the project, told me over the phone. “We can draw all the pretty pictures we want; if we don’t actually have a methodology to fund and build them, it’s kind of pointless,” added colleague Tensho Takemori.
The master plan for revitalizing the river remains unclear and many groups around L.A. are loudly expressing their thoughts. Despite the noise, one voice rises above: Frank Gehry.
The river’s final vision, which Gehry’s team imagines as a series of public works projects mixed with private money, will have to go through plenty of red tape: 15 different cities, plus the Department of Water and Power and the Army Corps of Engineers, have some stake in the outcome. “The most amazing part about hanging out with Frank in his studio is that he really is one of the most comfortable people at sitting with hard questions,” LARRC communications director Eli Kaufman told me. “When most of us are desperate to figure out the answers, he really thrives in the discomfort of not knowing.”
Gehry’s embrace of the unknown is welcome, because the river’s direction is still a mystery. Will it ever be swimmable? Will its revitalization really cost around $1.2 billion, as the L.A. Times reported in March? Is it feasible to remove the unnatural concrete and restore the original ecosystem of the river? All undetermined.
There are some smart thoughts percolating, though. Artist Lauren Bon received private funding for a water wheel that will reuse water from the river to irrigate nearby urban farms. The LARRC has been having conversations about erecting inflatable dams in the dry season to pool and repurpose water. At some points on the river’s path, LARRC found, there is an opportunity to drive water into thirsty aquifers, recharging them during California’s ongoing drought. “Because of the drought, I think the public conversation has reached a tipping point,” Takemori said.
Still, the water composition is “fuzzy math,” according to Gehry’s team, and they’re in the throes of figuring out just how to adequately reuse the 30 million gallons that flow through the river on even its driest days. “Right now, we’re doing nothing. Literally nothing,” Kaufman said, referencing the community’s years of ignorance around the river. “In this four-year drought, it’s not optional. Figuring out the L.A. River is integral to our health, vibrancy and resilience. If we don’t figure out our water needs…” he trailed off.
I board my own kayak on a warm September day at a flowing, bushy section of the river known as the Glendale Narrows. My partners are Steve Appleton, an artist and activist who runs a touring company called L.A. River Kayak Safari, and a smattering of other civic-minded L.A. Residents. Though kayaking is allowed on the river today, the specter of Wolfe’s civil disobedience seems to hang in the air: onlookers gawk and bikers double-take. We paddle in a concrete canyon, underneath Camrys and Range Rovers, alongside illustrious graffiti murals, between invasive palms. It all feels absurd and distinctly unique, a hyperbole of the urban adventuring trend. One member of our troupe remarks that the ride feels like Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise, and it’s uncomfortable to realize that she’s right — we’re more passengers of a tame river than we are adventurers on rapids that resist control. Still, there is a profoundness to communing with this neglected, betrayed bit of nature, and it is found in small ironic moments, like California buckwheat shrouded by a grocery bag, cattails sullied by a soda bottle, or herons resting their talons on a concrete perch.
Kayaking any river presents its challenges, and L.A.’s is — save the pun — shallowness. The waterway ranges from ankle-deep to thigh-deep and begs a boater to bottom out at any moment. There are some Class I and II rapids that are good for a brief thrill, though, and the finish of the Glendale Narrows is marked by a brilliant juxtaposition of man and nature. “At the end, you look up and there is a train, the 110 [freeway], the 5 [freeway]…and then it’s beautiful,” Anthea Raymond, a kayak guide for another touring company, L.A. River Expeditions, tells me while motioning to the surrounding flora. “That’s the L.A. River.”
I float past the freeway tangle and pull my kayak out of the water at a sandy, tree-covered inlet not far from Dodger Stadium. The din of the nearby I-5 is still plainly audible, but not the least bit visible, a sort of urban disorientation one becomes accustomed to on the river. I emerge from the shroud of greenery, life jacket over my neck, kayak at my side, paddle under arm, and walk the concrete sidewalk in concert with the gridlocked traffic of Riverside Drive. Confused drivers stare as I cross the street, and I’m mindful of my stern as I squeeze between two luxury sedans. I recall some of Eli Kaufman’s words. “As L.A. is known for Hollywood, for being filled with plastic people, for its beaches and its beautiful weather…wouldn’t it be amazing if it was known for being a river city? Wouldn’t it be amazing if we got back to where we started in the first place?”
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T
he corner of 40th and Avenue of the Americas, on the south end of New York City’s Bryant Park, is officially named Nikola Tesla Corner. In the adjacent building — 8 West 40th Street — Nikola Tesla, the less-remembered partner of Thomas Edison, worked for the better part of 12 years. “He was a god,” says Jay Sales, innovation strategist for VSP Global and co-lead of VSP Global’s innovation lab, The Shop. “If you go to Niagara Falls, the whole generation system is Tesla’s. He was also the first one to do electric over the air. He was so much ahead of his time.”
Tesla is long gone, but the air of innovation lingers for others. In the same building is The Shop East, where a small team of industrial designers, software and biomedical engineers and others work to push the boundaries of vision technologies. “The teams we build here are self-run and they’re also looking for new ways to do things,” Sales says. “They’re experimenters, explorers.” And they’re all working toward one goal: evolving design and technology to enhance lives.
The Shop is part of VSP Global, which is the largest healthcare company on the planet with over 80 million members. Also under VSP Global’s umbrella is: Marchon, the third-largest manufacturer of eyewear; the VSP Optics Group, an industry leader in new lens technologies; and Eyefinity, the largest EHR and EHR software company in the eye-care industry. And fortunately, The Shop pretty much has free license to innovate using all of VSP Global’s vast resources. And they can innovate quickly.
“The teams we build here are self-run and they’re also looking for new ways to do things. They’re experimenters, explorers.”
“In the old days,” Sales says, “you’d design in 2D, send stuff off to model makers in factories and cross your fingers.” If the prototype model was wrong, the whole process started again; development went slowly. The Shop has 3D printers, a Shopbot and other professional equipment that makes prototyping efficient; all the tools are on site, so they make what they want, when they want it. “Essentially we are taking advantage of the maker movement and process,” Sales added. “If you’re a large corporation then you can invest in major pieces [of equipment], but there’s no fucking reason to; what’s going on in the maker movement is good enough, and sometimes better.”
The Shop has its hand in wearable technologies, the internet of things and even digital and precision medicine. The group worked on Google Glass, but is best known for its collaboration with Nike and Zeiss Optics on The Wing, a masterfully crafted pair of $1,200 sunglasses for elite runners. The Wing is a single lens that wraps around a runner’s head completely, weighing just 26 grams.
Level frames in various stages of prototyping.
“Nike challenged us to completely redefine the DNA of what Nike Vision eyewear looks like,” says Leslie Muller, VP of design for Marchon Eyewear and co-lead of The Shop. Nike wanted glasses specifically designed for sprinters, but they found that most sprinters didn’t wear eyewear; there were fogging issues, and the glasses moved during runs, which was distracting. Working with doctors and wind tunnels, The Shop’s team studied everything — head positions, heat mapping, energy use in sprinters’ bodies, flow dynamics — to design lightweight, comfortable sunglasses that reduce drag. The design had to “look” fast, too, as psychology is intertwined with performance.
The Wing blurred the boundaries between lens and frame. Everything extraneous was taken out, including the hinges. Simply put, they were sunglasses designed to do a 15-second sprint, and that’s it. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, a few athletes wore them: Yasmani Copello (Turkey), who won bronze in the men’s 400m hurdles; Ruth Beitia (Spain), who won gold in the women’s high jump; and Brittney Reese (USA), who won silver in the women’s long jump.
After the games, Nike sold a limited run of them, which sold out. But technology from the Wing has been drafted into more commercial pieces still available today, like Nike’s Vaporwing, Vaporwing Elite and Tail Wind. (They all have hinges.)
For the past two years, The Shop has also been working on Level, a pair of bespoke eyeglasses with activity-tracking sensors built into the temple. In each pair there’s a gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, Bluetooth and a battery. Sales also notes that Level won’t be any more expensive than a nice pair of traditional eyeglasses. “We’re not adding $200 on what is already an expensive item.”
Level will measure steps and activity time, and calories burned will be calculated in a companion app. Because Level will measure data from above the shoulders, in many ways it will be more accurate that a wearable on your wrist; swinging your arms while your dog stops to pee won’t be counted as steps. The glasses are made to look like a normal pair of eyeglasses and are manufactured in Marchon’s factory in Puos d’Alpago, Italy. And they will eventually come in numerous styles.
The idea is that these “smart” eyeglasses can become part of people’s daily wardrobes; the adoption potential is huge, as, according to Muller, 15 million people wear glasses in the U.S. alone. Level will not be a hardcore fitness tracker — it’s not for runners or athletes, specifically. All the data tracked is designed with the goal to sync with an individual’s medical record, should they want to sync it, and in that way Level could as the backend of a HIPAA system, Sales says. “Most importantly we’re making this data your data, not ours. It [all] comes back around to enhancing lives and not being intrusive.”
The possibilities for Level and The Shop are immense. In the coming years, expect more technology to go into the company’s frames and lenses, which, as Sales explained, will further encourage people to get a full eye exam from a licensed optometrist. “When you do a full health assessment through the eye, you can get early detection for diabetes, glaucoma and hypertension,” Sales says. “Diabetes, for example, can be detected six years before anyone else can pick it up — it’s all seen in the back of the eye.”
The Shop is currently working on numerous confidential projects, such as a project to help people with low vision, and maybe something with augmented reality. As for Level, prototypes are being tested by USC’s Center for Body Computing, and an academic study is expected later in 2017. There are currently three frame designs, each named after an inspirational person: Hedy (after Hedy Lamarr), Minsky (after Marvin Minsky) and Nikola, for the man whose building The Shop East’s team currently calls home.
NY Sports Science Lab uses metrics to fine-tune an athlete’s every stride, punch and leap. We tried it out. Read the Story
