Latest news with #OceanofStorms
Stuff.tv
6 days ago
- Business
- Stuff.tv
Swatch x Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Green Abyss might be the best version yet
It's fair to say the Swatch x Blancpain Fifty Fathoms collab hasn't made quite the same splash as the MoonSwatch did with Omega. But quietly, patiently, Swatch has been chipping away with hit after hit. Ocean of Storms, Blue Lagoon, Pink Ocean… all solid. But the new one? Green Abyss. It might just be the best yet. The Green Abyss is a stunner. The case and bezel come in a deep, swampy green Bioceramic with a black resin insert. There's a splash of sandy beige on the water contact indicator, a proper military-issue-style complication originally used in 1950s Blancpain MIL-SPEC models to detect moisture and ensure water resistance. It's right there at 6 o'clock on the black-green dial, and I think it looks great. The lume is a vintage radium-style Super-LumiNova, giving the watch a military-inspired retro dive watch vibe. Swatch's SISTEM51 movement ticks inside – mechanical, self-winding, and made with just 51 parts. It's not haute horology (like the pieces found in our best watch guide), but it is a clever bit of mass-produced Swiss engineering with a solid 90-hour power reserve and anti-magnetic tech, thanks to the Nivachron hairspring. Flip it over and you'll spot the Felimare picta nudibranch – also known as the Regal Sea Goddess – digitally printed on the rotor. Not just a fancy name; it's a bright sea slug that lives deep underwater and ties into the whole ocean-explorer vibe of the Scuba Fifty Fathoms collection. The strap is a two-piece NATO made from recycled fishing nets, and features the same colours as the case, dial and lume. The Swatch x Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Green Abyss is available from June 7 in select Swatch stores (it's still one-per-person-per-day). At $400 in the US and £350 in the UK, it's not exactly cheap for a Swatch, but I can see this latest Scuba Fifty Fathoms model being very popular indeed. The Blancpain x Swatch collab has finally found its groove – and Green Abyss is my favourite model yet. Liked this? Omega boss teases new Swatch collab, but who's getting the MoonSwatch treatment next?
Engadget
09-05-2025
- Science
- Engadget
Spanish company GMV is bringing GPS to the Moon
If you've ever taken a wrong turn at the Sea of Tranquility and ended up lost in the Ocean of Storms, then you're in luck, because the Moon is getting GPS, sort of. GMV, a Spanish capital business group with extensive experience in the space sector, has announced a navigation system for the Moon akin to GPS. The ambitious project, dubbed LUPIN, aims to help astronauts, industrialists and even future settlers navigate more easily across the lunar surface. In a press release for LUPIN, GMV explains part of the problem with current navigation systems on the Moon. "Existing communications also depend upon direct visibility with the Earth, or on the use of relay satellites in lunar orbit. These factors generate communication shadow zones and lag times, and this makes it harder to make immediate decisions," the company said. GMV is developing LUPIN together with the European Space Agency, a working partnership that goes back to GMV's first government contract in 1984. The technology leverages existing Moon-orbiting satellites and signals similar to GPS to help rovers and astronauts find their real-time exact location on the Moon's surface. "These are satellite signals that will be used in the same way as GPS signals are used on Earth, although in this case the satellites will be in orbit around the Moon. This system will also be adapted to particular areas of interest (for example, the lunar south pole, the far side of the moon, and permanently shadowed regions)," the company adds. In a statement to Reuters , the project's director, Steven Kay, said, "With this software, we bring Europe closer to establishing a presence of humans on the Moon and, potentially, this would be a stepping stone towards Mars exploration or human presence on Mars." Engadget has reached out to GMV with questions about LUPIN's accuracy, underlying technology, and deployment roadmap. We'll update this article when we hear back.
