The Kahuna watch is a 'surf' type item, with the usual rip-stip Velcro strap and waterproof casing. In a world where you can pay effectively whatever you like for a surf company logo-branded timepiece, Kahuna watches definitely register in the lower price-range market bracket; a ladies Kahuna watch will generally cost £30 to £40, with the men's models perhaps £10 to £20 more than that. This model - which is dated 2000 in the product sheet that accompanies the watch on amazon.co.uk, currently sells for about £23.

I've found this particular watch attractive and so far, fairly reliable item. Bought new, it comes with a two year warranty (but as I got mine 'reconditioned new' off Ebay for a tenner, I guess the warrant will be invalid on that). It's a simple analogue watch, which doesn't show numbers on the face - the positions of these just being indicated by triangular symbols. What it does have however are dots of fluorescent paint on the hour and minute and second hands, and in the places the clock-face numbers would be (Unfortunately these don't glow in the dark very effectively I find, so it's not much use in the middle of the night). There is an inset date register that runs to 31 days irrespective of the month so this isn't much practical use unless you update it religiously, as it needs to be adjusted at the end of any months that have fewer than 31 days in them - and frankly, who can be bothered to do that? It does give you a ball-park figure for the day of the month, in terms of 'early', 'mid-month' or 'late', however.

The casing for the watch part is made of matte-silver looking brushed stainless steel, with a 'rotating bezel' round the face in shiny steel. This has the usual points north notation on it and corresponding degrees of the compass - I don't know what rotating bezels are actually for, but this one clicks round quite nicely when you turn it. The face is pale metallic lilac and the watchstrap, made of plastic-layered Velcro, is lilac and grey, to match this. The strap is of the thinner sort, and is about 2cm across; rather than being a 'rip on and off' type strap, it's the type of Velcro watch strap where you have to thread the long part through a metal loop and double it back on itself before fastening it, which sound like it should be too fiddly to bother with, but is actually very easy to do in practice - and I'm a person who's generally all thumbs and has zero patience with this sort of thing, so if I can do it, anyone can.

Incidentally, while I hate lilac as a concept / on principle, despite the colour I still think this is a nice-looking watch.

It's a nice, well-made watch with a pleasant amount of weight to it (at 200g all in) despite the small (ladies') size; it's been effectively waterproof through days out at the beach and at the swimming pool and so on so far. Notionally the product spec says it'll be waterproof down to 100m depth but honestly, as my ears start to 'pop' painfully down the bottom of the deep end of the swimming pool, I can't say I'll be testing that feature in the field myself.

The only slight drawback I've found with the watch - and it is a very minor one - is that the pull out knob that you use to adjust the time and date is tricky to operate as it's difficult to tell which position it's clicked into (the first pull-out position adjusts the date, the full pull-out, which is easy to use does the hands adjustment).

I'd definitely buy this watch for a tenner or even £20 again!