I have to say, this has to be one of the weakest articles I've seen on Gizmag. I mean really, some scholcky cheap Chinese made watch makes it up? This thing even reads like it's just taken from the manufacturers web page, where you can buy it for $15! And does anyone really believe this watch is made from the same material as a samurai sword for that price? Unless the ancient techniques of sword smithing are now making their way into the cheap labor force of near slave like Chinese workers! Oh now, whats next? I hope I don't find out from Gizmag.

Well, if it's just the folding of the metal, you can make a machine to fold and stamp heated metal sheets over and over again. The hard part of a Katana isn't the folding. I've seen documentaries on the construction of such a sword and the folding part was only the first step. The master guided the metal while 3 or 4 apprentices were bashing it. The really difficult part is making a well-balanced properly made sword while getting the hard/sharp-strong/soft interface correct. An apt comparison would be to Sara-Lee's dough machines that fold dough dozens of times to create flakey pastry dough for croissants. Just because you can create the folded base material does not mean you can craft a artifact of quality from it.

Ahh...Samuel---I believe you missed the point--it's light sarcasm--humor--a little light-heartedness......not everything is serious, y'know.......

Come on guys, this watch is a typical Chinese "hide the ungainly thickness behind the band" piece of junk. I like the idea behind it however, if they can't make the watch itself a little thinner i.e., as thin as the band, then the Swiss have very little to worry about, at any price.

Carbonized steel I would believe but, I would dispute the claim that the steel is folded 1000 times (or even 100 times) because, unless they have some process unknown to the rest of world, their hammer and anvil guys must be losing money.

Gee Sam, taking it a little hard, aren't you?

Folding of the steel in samurai swords and other metal objects was not to create a sharp edge, but exceptional flexibility and strength.

I dunno... I thought it was pretty well written considering what the guy had to work with. Also, I could spring 15 'large' for a watch that epic. What was that ulr again? And, commence storm....

Steel folded 1000x becomes iron I'd say. Every time its folded it loses some carbon.

Can you say "Hari-Kari"???

Not even close to a Samurai sword.

shows the way that is done.

Just folding metal a number of times only means you've folded the metal a number of time. But for $15 what would you really expect?

Hmmmmmmmmmm a $15 retail watch made from carbon steel folded 1000 times.... yeah sure.

I could envisage it tho, hot slab, bend fold, bend, fold in some madly hammering automated forge.

But the only reason the Japs did that was to mix the stringy silicon and carbon and other clods of crap, throughout the mass, and to oxidise out the excess carbon in the iron.

Modern steel is clean and easy to control in manufacture and processing in controlled atmospheres.

I also not that no where does it say "chrome steel" (stainless or rust resisting)...

Next great party trick - "Heyyy look at my rusty wrist!!!"

Good idea overall tho....

I love the occasional articles that are awe-inspiring for their stupidity or assumption of our gullibility as much as the ones that are truly genius. This is obviously in here because it's funny. Lighten up! It's also an entertaining way to differentiate science from pseudo-science.

Regardless of whether this is a joke or not, but I doubt the steel has been folde 1000x over. Maybe it has 1000 LAYERS which means it was one layer folded only 10 times.

Tried to buy these from Chinavasion. Basically they ripped me off. Had to get refund of Credit card company after 9 months of waiting for order and Chinavasion saying they had lost order, it was with customs, they had re-done order, hell had frozen over, you weren't in went it arrived!

AVOID