Thames & Kosmos Spy Labs: 9-in-1 Spy Watch | Time, Date, Alarm Clock, Stopwatch, Magnifying Glass, Secret Message Tools & More| Essential Gadget from The Detective Gear Experts for Young Investigators

Grandson loves it, works great.

This review is for the Thames & Kosmos Spy Labs 9-in-1 spy watch. I got this for my 9 year old as part of a spy/detective themed gift. At first I thought that the watch was a little over-hyped since most of the 9 features are pretty basic and not really unique to a spy watch like1-4: time and date, alarm clock, stopwatch, and timezones.But then once I dug into the directions and features a little more I saw that there were some cooler features too. And the timezones do seem a little cooler since they have all 24 and include the major city associated with it; I could picture a spy kid having fun with that.5: Red decoding window and paper for secret messages. This comes with about 20 little slips of paper. You use a pencil to lightly write on the paper (it’s a splotchy red and white), twist the red decoding window on the face of the watch, and then hold the paper behind to see the message. I’m not going to try it because I want this to be totally new when I gift it.6: Magnifying function of the decoding window. Yup, this works, though the window is pretty small the magnification is decent.7: Flashlight. I’m not testing this one because I don’t want to remove the battery tab yet. THe light is on the side of the watch and can be directed, as opposed to the typical watch light that illuminates just the face of the watch.8: Secret capsule for messages. There are small capsules attached to the band on either side of the watch face. The paper needs to be rolled tightly to fit.9: Security alarm with motion sensor. Directions say to press and hold button D for 2 seconds. You have another 5 seconds to place the watch where you want before the sensor activates; they suggest putting it on a door handle or your backpack. If the watch is moved the watch will vibrate, beep, and blink. Press button D to turn the alarm off; the alarm will turn off automatically after 8 seconds. The sensor will remain activated, even after silencing the alarm, until deactivated by pressing and holding button D for 2 seconds.The watch feels pretty lightweight. Assuming that this holds up well to play I’d say it’s a pretty cool toy for my imaginative 9 year old.

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Not the best from Thames and Kosmos, unfortunately. Usually I love the things they produce. They're educational, fun to build, high quality. You name it.This one missed the mark a little. The watch is really cheap feeling and clunky. It doesn't fit well on the wrists of little ones. It seems a little overpriced for what it is. Many of the features and more can be had on kids smart watches. And the spy features... They're not the most interesting in the world and rely on many loose pieces that are just begging to get lost.

My kid got really into James Bond recently so I got him this watch. He loves it! There's a lot of features in addition to the normal (time/stopwatch) watch features. I think it's a little bit of a stretch calling it "9-in-1" since things like time, date, alarm clock, and stopwatch are built into any digital watch, but the other 5 features are really neat. He likes the decoder function in particular.Worth a try, it costs about as much as a cheap generic digital watch anyway, why not get one with extra features?

It looks good but nothing but junk.

I have a very "techy" teenager, and he worked on this watch to figure it out, be he still says it cannot keep the time well at all. He did say the rest of it is ok. The red film and special notepad works fine, as well as the stopwatch.

My daughter loves watches and really like all the things that you could do with this watch. She liked the "secret notes" feature and that it has a flashlight built in. Not bad for the price point overall. I got it as a reward for good grades/behavior. She's gotten into "STEM" and science so thought this would be a good/fun reward!