A Capacitor to Set Off the Blue in Your Eyes

FOLKS who are seeking up-to-the-nanosecond styles can choose from a growing list of jewelry laden with technology. There is quite a range: some are pieces that are basically excuses to have a helpful device nearby, others are designs with minimal practical purpose. A few manage to meld the two.

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Consider the wristwatch. Those who want to wear their technology just under their sleeves while maintaining a bit of classic style have a number of new fashionable, intelligent watches to try.

Fossil has produced a series of Bluetooth-equipped watches that add subtle phone functions to several modern designs. Meant to work with a phone stowed in a pocket or briefcase, these watches vibrate and display alerts for incoming calls and text messages, identifying callers on a small liquid-crystal-display screen. Buttons on the side let the wearer mute the ringer and send incoming calls to voice mail.

The watches have oversize European looks and classic analog faces. The Fossil Caller ID watch (9, fossil.com) has a black metal band, but versions at CompUSA and at Amazon under the Abacus label have stainless steel or polyurethane straps.

The MBW-100, a version made exclusively for Sony Ericsson (9, sonyericsson.com), offers the additional ability to pause tracks and navigate playlists on Walkman phones.

So far, the watches work only with certain Sony Ericsson phones, although the company says it plans to release a version for Nokia phones by the end of the year.

Fossil was in the smart-watch category early. For example, it developed a hand-held-computer watch and was among the first to help start Web-ready watches with Microsoft. The Fossil Abacus 2006 Smart Watch, sold at msndirect.com (9) and elsewhere is its latest product for use with a -a-year subscription service that provides news, weather, traffic and other frequently updated information to the watch, as well as extra watch faces to download.

Music fans in search of a new way to carry their music might like the Thanko FMP3 watch, sold at raremonoshop.com. The FMP3 is actually a wrist-top music player with a U.S.B. connector that can store either 512 megabytes (6) or 1 gigabyte (5) of music or data files, record audio internally and receive FM radio signals.

People can plug headphones into the watch for privacy or to take advantage of a built-in FM transmitter to broadcast stored music to a stereo nearby.

For those who desire something sportier, Suunto introduced a line this fall of wrist-borne training computers that can be worn at the office or on the track. For example, the Suunto T4 (9, suunto.com) helps plan a workout by packaging a virtual coach inside its black plastic body.

Besides digitally monitoring and displaying performance statistics, the watch can suggest workouts based on performance goals that you set. Suunto makes add-on sensors that can connect with bicycles and running shoes.

Other types of jewelry are being circuited-up with adornments suited for women as well as for men.

Simple silicone bracelets are now the norm, but a rubber wristband from Imation (, shopimation.com) helps you keep important files on hand. The blue or black bracelets unfasten to reveal a U.S.B. plug with 256 megabytes of flash memory.

While store-bought models bear no inscriptions, wholesale buyers at the Imation Web site can personalize the bands in a wide assortment of colors, and order bracelets with up to 1 gigabyte of memory.

The Lexar JumpDrive Lightning pendant is a memory stick that can be worn as a necklace. Resembling a silvery pack of gum, the three-inch-long stainless steel case catches attention swaying from the neck. It can also be personalized, with free laser engraving for orders placed at lexar.com. Inside the Lightning is a high-speed U.S.B. flash drive available in capacities of 1 to 4 gigabytes ( to 9), which can read files up to 30 megabytes a second. People who frequently move files between computers may be pleased to know that the drives come loaded with software that makes porting programs easier and more secure.

The JumpDrive can run popular Windows applications on its own without installing software on a host computer, and can protect sensitive data with 256-bit encryption.

This month, Pretec updates its holiday catalog with the I-Disk Vogue. More bedazzling than the Lexar Lightning, the costume pendant, studded with fake stones, disguises its technology in a penny-size package. The Vogue is available in a sterling-silver-plated one-gigabyte version for , or a two-gigabyte gold-plated drive for .

For true geeks, there are accessories that highlight the hardware, dispensing altogether with function.

The jewelry at fractalspin.com offers pieces made from computer parts like fan guards, microcontrollers and MIDI cables. An artist and shopkeeper named Liz McLean Knight brings an industrial yet feminine charm to jewelry pieces like teal or metallic-yellow capacitor earrings () and a matching triple-capacitor necklace (), which hangs from a cable link chain.