Right up there with wallets mentalists have always had a fascination with watches. Personally I own two Samborn watches. Used to own a Stull watch, and two Stull watch outdone. In the past I thought about buying Perfect Time from CW but heard so many stories about them breaking, that I decided against it. About two or three years ago, Bazaar De Magia in Argentina came out with Watch and Wear. Word was that it used gravity rather than magnetism as an MO and was more reliable than Perfect Time. It also sold for less than half the price. Though remember the Kross dictum, the expensive items are the ones you don't use. Now about 4-5 months ago. An item called the Time Machine appeared on the market. One of the Edison group brought one to a luncheon and it looked like Watch and Wear ads. But advertised at about half W&W price A bargain ? More later

Being curious, I wrote for both W&W and the Time Machine. I receive W&W from Argentina and TM from Brad Burt here in the US. They arrive and from my untutored point of view, they look the same. They appear to work the same. Though Bazaar De Magia says their mechanism is silver and TM is mercury. I'm not sure what difference this makes. Neither looks like a luxury piece of jewelry. But both are acceptable to me

The differences I see are as follows. W&W comes with several routines. TM comes with one basic one.
W&W comes with a year warranty. None enclosed with TM. W&W sells for $195.00 TM for $129.95.
Regular readers of my column will know I'm fascinated with who owns what. I truly believe if you come out with a "clone" of an existing effect, in deference to original creator. You should make a significant improvement in either method or routine. I see none here. Only a significant reduction in price. I call TM a "clone" to avoid litigation. Maybe there's a significant difference but I don't see it. On a couple of mailing lists, friends of TM creator have stated this isn't a new idea. And for example they list other effects that predict time. NONSENSE! All the effects they describe work with different methods. The ones I describe at the beginning of this column, both predict time. But have methods totally different than the effects I'm reviewing here. W&W and TM same effect apparently same method.

So you have to decide, do you say screw the originator. I'm looking to save a buck. If so, and someone markets an original idea of yours, don't belly ache. Or you can say, I'm going to DO this effect. The price isn't significant.

You can order Watch and Wear at Bazar de Magia.com or Bazar de Magia ,195 Tacuarei Street, Buenos Aires , Argentina. $195.00

You can order Time Machine from Brad Burts Magic Shop , 4204 Convoy St, San Diego, Cal 97111 or email bburt@magicshop.com $129.95