That’s right, gentle reader – what we have here today is an automatic watch of a totally different persuasion.  Ventura Watches has introduced their Sparc MGS model, a digital watch with rotor built in, relying on your movement to power the watch.

Now, watches powered by movement are nothing new.  However, we’re more familiar with them in the context of mechanical watches, where the movement is winding a spring.  In this case, the rotor is actually part of a micro-generator, which in turn is charging a power cell of some sort.

The automatic movement isn’t the only familiar component from the world of mechanical watches, either.  The watch contains two sapphire crystals (over the LCD display and the rotor, one assumes), and a power reserve (though this one stretches to 45 days).  Putting it firmly back into digital watch territory are the LED backlight, dual time zones, alarms, chronograph, and perpetual calendar.

Another twist to this watch is the fact that it’s actually running an operating system.  One would assume that this may be upgradable at some point to offer additional functionality – though I don’t see any mention of a connector on the watch.  There are two more surprises that await the potential buyer.

The first one is the fact that this watch comes with a watch winder.  Not something you expect to see from any watch purchase, whether mechanical or not.  Of course, that may serve to soften the blow, ever so slightly, of the second surprise – this thing costs $5,500!  If you’ve not fainted, and want to get this watch, you’d better head to Ventura’s site pronto.  The black model is limited edition, and only two remain.  The silver model, at $5,250 (still stings, doesn’t it?) doesn’t appear to limited edition, and may be easier to obtain.  That said, if you see me spending this kind of coin on a digital watch, be sure to slap me.