Animal releases the Pipeline watch, their most feature heavy watch yet.

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Animal Pipeline Watch

This unique Tide watch has been developed especially for watersports users although the Pipeline is equally at home on the beach or in the boardroom.

The Pipeline has been designed in-house and only 500 units will be made, each watch bears an individual laser-engraved serial number. Once they’ve all been sold, no more will ever be made.

True to Animal’s freesports roots, the Pipeline features a sophisticated and highly accurate tide display system to take the educated guess-work out of tide tables. At the push of a button, tide information can easily be seen in both analogue and digital format. Right now there is no other watch on the market that has this dual digital and analogue feature.

The tide display can be set to display information for any surf break worldwide where tidal information is available so the watch is not restricted to pre-programmed breaks. Tidal push and pull (rising or falling), neaps, springs and anywhere along the tidal cycle can also be seen.

The Pipeline is equipped with a Swiss-made technical Ana digit movement and built from solid marine-grade stainless steel with a surf board fin-compatible bolt-secured strapping system and packaged with both bracelet and traditional Animal style webbing straps. This gives you the ability to swap the stainless steel bracket for a strap more suitable for water sports as well as being able to fix your fins with the included Animal fin key.

The Pipeline is the most exclusive and feature-rich watch that Animal has ever offered. Other features include:

  • 3x time-zones with fast time-zone-change world-traveller feature
  • One-touch soft blue display backlighting in every display mode for night-time use
  • Precise 120-step unidirectional rotating elapsed time/compass bezel
  • Day, date, month, year, and easy to read phase of the moon
  • Alarm & optional hourly time-signal
  • Fully user adjustable countdown timer
  • 1/100th-second stopwatch
  • Long-life battery with clear battery-level/end-of-life indicator
  • Custom thermally-insulating case back insert
  • 100m water-resistant
  • Pipeline-only Animal Heritage deluxe webbing strap also included for freesports use
  • Supplied in a luxurious Pipeline-only black presentation box
  • The new Animal Pipeline watch is available from Animal Stores or online at shop.animal.co.uk RRP £299.99. For stockist info please visit www.animal.co.uk/watches.

    11 COMMENTS

    1. The watch is nice, but rubbish unfortunately: the way the strap is attached to the watch is just unacceptable in a watch retailing at GBP300. You expect the strap to be attached with screws, considering you got a ampul key to switch straps? Well the once on the left side of the watch are just decoration GLUED to the watch. The once on the right are GLUED to proper screws. It is so easy to brake the glue linked between the joint and the screw which makes switching straps impossible – it is not possible to unscrew them anymore. Animal: either you provide buyers with replacement being proper joints and screws or you should be ashamed.

    2. Hi Krzysztof

      Thanks very much for your feedback. Here at Animal we take our rider refined product incredibly seriously and continually test our gear with riders at various levels, so any feedback is good and of interest to us. With regard to the Pipeline we have worked closely with our team to ensure we deliver a product that delivers on function and aesthetics. We would like the opportunity to reply to the specific points you raise in your review.

      It would have been easier for us to make the screws on the right-hand side of the case as one-piece screws, however, after rider refining test samples we made the decision to make them bonded assemblies. The reason for this is that the bond provides a “safety valve , so that in the event of a customer accidently over-tightening the screws, no harm can come to the watch. The screw can be quickly and easily replaced if necessary by our watch repair team.

      We found that if these were one piece screws, a customer could potentially over-tighten them until the internal hex or the screw-threads were damaged, making removing the damaged bars more difficult and time consuming.

      The screws on the left-hand side as you rightly point out are purely there to balance the watch aesthetically. If they were functional, you would have to use 2 x keys at once to change the strap, making the process more difficult for no gain. We did test your suggested route as I mentioned earlier but were not happy with the outcome from a customer perspective.

      We hope this explains why we have designed the watch the way we have. If you are unhappy with your Pipeline in any way, please get in touch with our watch department, who will do their best to resolve things to your satisfaction. They can be reached at service@animal.co.uk or +44 (0)1202 440127

      Ben Cooper
      Brand Marketing Coordinator
      Animal

    3. I’m a big fan of ana-digi watches and this is truly one of the best designed models I’ve tried.

      Pros:
      – Full face digital module with attractive curved digits.
      – Analogue time viewable in every mode (which is very useful with the next feature):
      – Good (& surprisingly rare) long countdown timer & stopwatch.
      – Solid constructions with lugs that allow fitting standard leather / rubber straps
      – Classy ‘winder’ push mode button.
      – Attractive combination of technical bezel, number hour markers and orange highlights.
      – The ‘xxx of 500’ engraving on the back is a nice exclusive touch.

      Things that could be improved in the next model:
      – Full face ana-digis only work if the display is viewable; the hands are nicely designed in this respect. However, to then print ‘Animal’ across the crystal is just infuriating. Have a look at the moon phase in the above promo photo, it is rendered unreadable for almost a quarter of the month. This is especially unnecessary on a watch that already has 6 logos & 3 more on the strap.
      – This type of display usually offers unparalleled, easy to read digital segments. Unfortunately the moving moon phase means the lower section (used for timers) has disappointingly small digits. Solution: As the left is used for indicators, the display would look more balanced if the moon phase was a stationary segmented icon on the right. Full height digits could then be used top and bottom.
      – A unidirectional bezel is essential for lapsed time measurement. However this bezel is marked for compass bearings. A nice touch but a bi-directional bezel would allow bearing readings to be corrected without requiring another entire rotation.
      – The setting to toggle off the hourly chime at night, is buried quite deep.
      – Three time zones is probably probably overkill for most users. An extra alarm would be more useful.
      – The ‘shark fin’ bezel is grippy but personally, I think it makes this look like a fashion watch rather than a £300 performance watch.

      That’s really not supposed to be a lot of negatives. The combination of (pros) features above make this an extremely good watch. I’m going to keep an eye on Animal’s future limited edition models as they look extremely promising.

    4. I’ve been a fan of animal watches since the W002 series that sold back in the late 90’s. (Which I’ll add still works like a star to this day) So myself and many others already know that there’s never a need to question the durability of an Animal watch.

      I am now the proud owner of one of the above limited edition Pipelines.

      This watch facilitates everything the above add makes it out to be. It’s not often you can get a good board watch that is both digital and analog that allows the every day “beach bum wanna be” to wear it to their board meetings during the day but keep it on later on when they hit the waves to vent from a long strung out day in the office. Those who work hard, generally play harder and this watch is made for those individuals. From boardroom to beach to the nightlife afterwards this watch can see you through it all folks. For those with growing friends across the Globe or who dabble in International business the 3 time zone feature is excellent. I deal in International business and can have one time zone in digi format and one in analog so it’s a great multitasking, multi time zone device. The other features such as the stop watch and long countdown timer are all what you expect them to be in an Animal watch and more.

      The strap feature is brilliant! There are times for a full metal jacket or times you just want to strap on some Velcro and go and this key change feature is a definite seller for me. Those who commented above about the strap feature being one of it’s cons, kudos to free speech, but I clearly disagree.

      The laser engraving is a perfect touch to let you know that you might have paid a bit more for this limited edition piece but that only you and 499 others are privileged enough to own such an amazing piece of machinery. Definite hats off to the horologist that pumped this one out!

      For all those who wonder if 300 is a bit excessive to pay for this watch I tell you spend the money and you won’t be disappointed. Animal is known for making great watches we all know this but I do think that there is something to a company that stands behind it’s brand and I think the team at Animal focus on not only customer service but customer experience and you might want to consider that a part of the limited edition package on this watch versus another brand. Also given that I’ve had my W002 for about 15 years now, take that into consideration as well, these watches are durable and addicting and their style doesn’t fade.

      So for those of you who read the above and understand where I’m coming from, go ahead and indulge yourself in this one!

    5. I can partly confirm what Ben Cooper says above about the ‘safety valve’ Lug design:  
      Suunto use standard through bolts on two of their ‘Core’ models.  It is indeed very easy to break the heads off those tiny bolts by over tightening. (I think I’m on my 3rd set).

      The difference is: Animal’s design means you then need to post your watch back, wait for it to be repaired and then wait for it to arrive back in the post.  Suunto’s design means they just post you two new bolts.

      Admittedly, stronger bolts is the real answer but from a customer perspective, using a one piece non glued bolt means the watch will be back on their wrist far quicker.  

    6. Well I found my whole flirtation with Animal and this watch majorly disappointing.

      When I saw the Pipeline Watch, I thought *how absolutely brilliant, a watch I can set to tell me what the tides will be wherever I am* and contacted Animal to ask where I might see a watch in London before buying, as I couldn’t find a thorough description on the net and didn’t want to shell out £300 without seeing one first and having it explained properly.

      So Animal write back, defend themselves against the review at the top here about the glued screw, but fail to answer my simple question, where I could get to see one/have it explained in London.

      So I email back and ask again. I am given the names addresses and phone numbers of two shops. Neither phone number works. On a mission now, I go and take a look when i am cycling in that area of London. One of the addresses is now a DIY and paint shop, the other an address that, thanks to the rebuilding of the area, doesn’t even exist any more.

      I get back to Animal again, explaining the duffness of the info they are giving me, and for the third time saying I’d really like to see one of these watches before buying. Their cheerful unhelpful advice is to call the technical department (without saying where it is) to have it explained.

      The nail in the coffin of this purchase happened today, when I had 30 minutes to spare in another major UK city and stumbled across an Animal Store. The staff were absolutely lovely, really nice and totally clueless. They had one of these watches in stock, had no idea how it worked and were probably even slower than me fannying about with the instructions as they seemed to know almost nothing about tides and phases of the moon. I won’t say where they were though, for fear of stirring it as they were really nice.

      But what a shambles. It’s really as if Animal doesn’t give a shit about its customers, has no interest in selling what could have been something fantastically useful. Such a pity. Sorry boys, I can’t help reading all the above and thinking this watch is all about fashion victimisation and nothing to do with surfing. Glad I’ve saved myself £300, anyway.

    7. Have just ordered mine today – looks very nice and having never been able to break my titanium animal watch (whereas I have gone through quite a few Nixons), I know it will last. Also, nice to see that animal are still making some nice watches.

      The animal logo over the face does seem a little OTT, but I can live with that. More importantly, the velcro strap looks very nicely thought out and will stop a metal strap cutting in as I have experience when in a heavy wipeout – the old animal retrofit velcro straps were a bit crap.

    8. Received my watch today and have mixed feelings about such a (relativly) expensive watch.the back light is awful and glow in the dark hands would be nice.as other people have said the “animal” written across the face is very annoying and lastly the alarm tone is very quiet compared to other watch alarms.ok moaning over I love the look the feel and the fit of the watch.I don’t regret buying it but had I seen it and handled it before hand I might not have bought it. 6/10

    9. So as I live in Sydney if I buy this watch will I be constantly sending it back to London for screw repairs? If the backlight is a dud is it good enough to read the time? And lastly, is the velcro band as big as it looks because in the box it looks like it’s OTT. Someone please let me know because I thought this looked like a pretty good watch especially for an aging surfer who’s eyesight is probably not as good as it could be. Cheers.

    10. Rod.I’ve been wearing mine for months now including at work (in a motorcycle dealer) and my straps been fine.as for the backlight it’s poor compared to others but not poor enough to stop you buying the watch.all in all it’s a very nice watch for the money.hope this helps mate.

    11. These are great watches and I have had mine stolen unfortunately. So if any ons reading this is looking at selling theirs please let’s me know

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