In an effort to eke out a little more margin out of a commoditized product, manufacturers are combining USB flash drives with all sorts of objects that you tend to have with you all the time. When I saw EDGE's DiskGo USB Watch Drive mentioned in Bob Cringely's column a few weeks ago, I thought "what a cool idea" and immediately asked for a review unit from EDGE. A 128MB version arrived in short order for me to put through its paces.

By the way, if you don't mind a largish pen, EDGE can supply it with built-in flash too, as well as an MP3 player / voice recorder that's little more than a USB flash stick that slides into a smallish MP3 player section. I tend to like my pens on the thin side and don't need music with me all the time, so a watch format appealed to me more.

EDGE makes the watch in "steel dress" and "casual" styles and I opted for the latter, which has a rubber watchband. I thought I'd prefer the less formal style, but in hindsight, I think the metal band would have been a better choice for durability. I have a few plastic-band watches and over time I've found they tend to crack and can be a bit uncomfortable in hot weather.

On the other hand, the two styles take such different approaches to USB connectivity that you're really forced to choose between style and convenience. Figures 1 and 2 show that my "casual" model has a short hard-wired cable that rests in a custom-fitted recess in the watch band.

Figure 1: USB cable with connector covered

The USB connector then rests snugly under the watch-band loop and is pulled back (Figure 2) when you want to hook up.

Figure 2: USB cable with connector uncovered

This has the advantage of having everything you need to connect to a standard USB port always with you. But the downside is that the watch will definitely raise your geek factor, not to mention be less stealthy if that's your purpose.

I didn't request a steel-band "dress" version, but with a little Googling found that it dispenses with the hard-wired cable, opting instead for a mini-USB connector on the side of the watch. The good news is that this method results in a watch that, unless you look at it very carefully, seems completely "normal". The downside is that you now have to carry the supplied retractable cable around with you (EDGE actually supplies two - one each for home and office), which sort of defeats the always-with-you point if the product concept. Note also that the "casual" version doesn't have a date function, while the "dress version" does.