The Tactico Geomaster Is A Crowdfunded Watch I Could Get Behind

GNN - There are more Kickstarter watches out there these days than grains of sand on the beach. Everyone with a quartz movement and a NATO strap figures they can make and sell some kind of fashion watch to the masses, a concept that is as silly as it is flawed.

That’s why the Tactico Geomaster GMT is actually interesting. First, it uses a mechanical ETA movement – an rare movement these days given their scarcity – and the design is at once familiar and unique. In short, it’s what I wish more watchmakers were doing in crowdfunding circles.

The Geomaster is a GMT watch. This means it can display the time in multiple time zones – depending on how to read the bezel. It’s great for travelers and pilots. It also features Superluminova hands, coat steel case, and a custom date dial. In short, it’s very unique and very clever. It was created by Compañía Relojera Especializada para Actividades Subacuáticas aka CREPAS, a custom diver manufacturer in Zaragoza, Spain.

At about $900 you’re paying an awful lot for a GMT watch but based on the quality and design as well as the movement, it’s not that much. My pet peeve is the date wheel. These sorts of open date wheels – where they show multiple days in order, usually three to five, with today’s date specified by a pip – annoy me because they clutter the dial.

That said if you’re into mechanicals and want something that decidedly can’t send winking smiley face emojis to your friends, this might be a nice starter watch.

Syngenta may seek partners, JVs after product review: chairman in paper

GNN - Syngenta AG (SYNN.VX) may seek partners to help improve its product lineup after a thorough review in the wake of a rebuffed takeover approach from Monsanto Co (MON.N), the agrichemicals group's chairman told a Swiss newspaper.

Syngenta's board is under pressure from shareholders to show how it plans to generate value after turning its back on Monsanto's $47 billion cash-and-share offer, which it said undervalued the company and had too great an execution risk.

In an interview with Finanz und Wirtschaft, Michel Demare said it was too early to discuss what steps Syngenta planned to boost its results.

But he added: "We will subject our product portfolio to a total review, especially on the seed side. Then we will see if there are appropriate transactions to improve ourselves, perhaps with partnerships and joint ventures."

Asked about short-term steps it could take, he said: "Some of these things can be done in the short term. But what we do not want is to improve earnings in the short term at the expense of the future. We must remain responsible."

Demare said he had no concerns about activist shareholders and had no immediate plans to try to forge a group of core investors from the company's fragmented investor base.

"But if we made a major acquisition, it would be possible for example to take a major investor on board who co-financed the transaction by purchasing Syngenta shares," he added.

Demare said he took six calls from Monsanto boss Hugh Grant in the first two weeks of August alone and had no idea what Grant planned next.

Some Syngenta investors have expressed dismay that the company did not at least open talks with Monsanto. "For me it is clear that the chairman did not behave as many shareholders would have wished," FuW quoted Artisan Partners fund manager Richard Logan as saying.

Demare acknowledged Syngenta had to "explain ourselves, regain trust and deliver results" but also dismissed as "illusion" the offer price of 449 Swiss francs and then 470 francs per share that Monsanto said it had proposed. He noted the 18 months it would have taken to wrap up any deal.

Syngenta shares fell 18 percent on news Monsanto was abandoning its approach and closed on Friday at 323.70 francs.

Demare noted the stock was slightly above the level it was when Monsanto emerged as a suitor, while rivals' shares were down by as much as a fifth.

He said Syngenta's cost-cutting program was ahead of plan but could be expanded should it find more room to cut.

(Reporting by Michael Shields; editing by John Stonestreet)

Erika no longer a tropical storm, loses steam over Cuba

GNN - Erika, a tropical storm that was losing strength as it hit Haiti with heavy rains and strong winds, fell apart on Saturday over eastern Cuba, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

"Erika has degenerated into a trough of low pressure," the Miami-based hurricane center said in a Saturday morning forecast advisory.

Erika's maximum sustained winds had dropped to 35 mph (56 kph), just below the tropical storm threshold.

Dominica in the eastern Caribbean was the island worst-affected by Erika, with 20 killed and some still missing.

Still posing a threat of wind gusts and flash floods, the remnants of Erika were now expected to move over central Cuba, potentially providing welcome relief from a drought, before heading out into the Gulf of Mexico and skirting South Florida.

The NHC said the weather system could still regenerate into a tropical storm before reaching the northwest Florida Panhandle.

Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency on Friday, noting the storm could travel "up the spine of Florida." He planned to give an update on its potential impact later on Saturday.

Forecasters have described Erika, the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, as unusually hard to predict due to disruption from wind patterns and interaction with mountainous terrain.

Meteorologist Jeff Masters with the private U.S. forecaster, Weather Underground, said the island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, "has saved us so many times in the past", thanks to its 10,000-feet (3,000-meter) peaks.

"It's probably saved thousands of lives in South Florida over the years," he said.

Impoverished Haiti also appeared to have dodged a bullet as Erika's sustained winds dropped to 45 mph (72 kph) as it moved over the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Friday night, the NHC said.

Haiti is acutely vulnerable to landslides due to widespread deforestation of its hillsides.

After a rainy night, the city woke up Saturday to clear skies and no signs of serious damage. Normally dust-covered trees were a lush green as bulldozers cleared mud from Route 1, the main road north out of the capital.

Dominica's prime minister, Roosevelt Skerrit confirmed in a Friday night address that 20 people had died from swollen rivers and rain-triggered landslides that swept away homes, roads and bridges.

He described the loss of life and economic damage as "monumental", with some communities cut off on the small, mountainous island with a population of about 72,000.

(Reporting by David Adams in Miami and Peter Granitz in Port-au-Prince; Editing by Alison Williams)

Libya arrests three suspected smugglers over migrant boat disaster

GNN - Libyan authorities have arrested three people on suspicion of involvement in launching a boat packed with migrants that sank off the country's Mediterranean coast, killing up to 200 people, a security official said on Saturday.

The vessel, with up to 400 sub-Saharan, Syrian and Asian migrants on board capsized on Thursday, after setting off from the town of Zuwara, a centre of operations for people smugglers exploiting the anarchy in a country with two rival governments.

Libya has turned into a main transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to make it to Europe.

Three Libyan smugglers involved in launching the ill-fated boat and other vessels to take migrants to Italy have been arrested, said a security official, asking not to be named.

"They are in their twenties," he said. "We think that more are involved which we are still chasing."

By Saturday, 115 bodies had been recovered and about 198 migrants rescued, officials said.

Arrests of smugglers are rare in Libya, where the judiciary has little power since the country is effectively controlled by former rebel groups which helped to oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

On Thursday, Zuwara residents staged a protest to demand authorities clamp down on smugglers who use the town to launch boats due to its proximity to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Libya has asked the European Union for help to train and equip its navy, which was largely destroyed during the 2011 uprising.

But cooperation was frozen in 2014 as the European Union boycotted a self-declared government controlling western Libya, which seized the capital Tripoli a year ago by expelling the internationally recognized premier to the east.

Western and most Arab powers only deal with the eastern-based government, which has no control of western Libya where smugglers operate.

The number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe has passed 300,000 this year, up from 219,000 in the whole of 2014, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.

(Reporting by Ahmed Elumami, Writing by Ulf Laessing, Editing by Mark Heinrich and Angus MacSwan; Reuters)