This is a stunning watch. From the moment I took it out of the box I couldn't believe how good it actually looks in real life - pictures really don't do it justice. The rounded sapphire crystal glass creates a lensing effect off-angle that makes the watch face and tubes appear magnified and jewel-like. The "Moon Crater" finish on the titanium case is beautiful, and I suspect it will hide small scratches quite well. Due to the magnetic setup process and wireless charging, there isn't a button or charging port on the entire watch, making it extremely minimalist and clean, which sets it apart from the other tube watches.
After using it for a while now, I can confidently say that it is easily my favorite tube watch in my collection. Compared to my Nixoid Numitron, and Nyx IN-16 "NIXIE 01" (from kickstarter), there is a higher level of refinement here that isn't present in the other watches. Not that the other watches are bad, far from it, but the NIWA 2.0 does a lot more right that makes it feel significantly more refined.
Two things stand out the most: Build quality and reliability.
While my other watches have 3D printed housings or milled aluminium, the NIWA has a titanium case with a curved sapphire crystal glass. The battery management also appears to be better. The battery lasts longer, and there's a safety shutoff that maintains the time when the battery level is critically low. The other watches have trouble with low battery and often reset their time, which is frustrating. This makes the other watches feel more like hobby products, in contrast to the NIWA which feels more high and and seems to "just work". The NIWA was reliable from the very first charge, which isn't something I can really say about my other tube watches.
The watch is also better in everyday use. The time display angle can be set, and the tilt feature is very reliable. I was originally worried that I was going to struggle with the tilt feature, since there is no button on the watch to activate the time manually, but it has actually been great to use. The the time display is *fast*. The watch blinks the hours and minutes very quickly, long enough to read but fast enough that it doesn't feel like it's wasting your time. At first I thought it might be *too* fast, but after I got used to it, it was much better. The other watches which blink the time much more slowly, which is OK at first, but a bit slow and annoying after a lot of use. However, I do think it would be nice if the NIWA allowed the digit display speed to be configured, so it could be tuned to user preference after they're used to the watch, but the default setting is very nice.
One thing that the NIWA does allow you to configure is the 12/24 hour setting. This is a simple feature, but my other watches are hardcoded from the factory to be either 12 or 24 hour and can't be changed. So, being able to set this on the NIWA is very nice.
One potential downside of the NIWA is that it doesn't include any sort of stopwatch functionality, since it has no buttons. The setup is done with the magnet, but after that, the watch only shows the time using the tilt feature. Ultimately, I think this is a good thing. In day to day use, I almost never use the stopwatch on my other tube watches except to play around with the tubes and show it off to people, so the lack of a stopwatch really isn't an issue. It also makes the watch extremely simple to use, since there's no buttons or mode switching to mess around with.
Finally, the VFD tubes on the edges of the NIWA look *amazing*. They really add an extra level of retro-cool to the time display that the other watches fail to replicate with LEDs. They are probably my favourite part of the whole watch and they set the NIWA apart to make it look very distinctive and cool.
Overall, I'm extremely happy with the NIWA. It's definitely more expensive than my other tube watches, but it finally feels like a high-end nixie tube watch "done right". It not only looks amazing, but it's reliable enough to actually wear day to day. If you're on the fence about getting one, I definitely recommend it. It really is excellent.
