Some of the newest watches in Nike's All Conditions Gear (ACG) line are also some of its most stylin'; the Nike Ambient Frozen and the Nike Ambient Fresh.

Nike's site propaganda reassures you that they're "your best defense against inversion layers." While I don't know what an inversion layer is, being a typical man I'm convinced that I need some piece of gear to be protected against it. So I took an Ambient Frozen out for a spin.

As far as I can tell, the Frozen and the Fresh differ only in some minor styling elements and the type of band. The Frozen sports a "urethane" band (for those of us who lack a chemical engineering degree, think - plastic gets drunk and takes rubber home. They name their love child "urethane".) while the Fresh sports a more standard elastic band. The overall design of the watch is pleasing and efficient. Beneath the analog dial (which lights up at the touch of a button for 'dim' to 'dark' conditions) is a small digital readout with calendar information, a countdown timer, an event timer and most importantly, the ambient temperature gauge.

The temperature readout defaults to the current temperature and also allows the user to set an alarm to indicate when the temperature has reached a designated level. It also claims to go off if there is a sudden drop in temperature but despite frequent immersions in room temperature water and then sudden and violent trips to the darkest depths of my freezer, I couldn't convince the watch to warn me that my life might be in danger.

Overall, both the Ambient Fresh and the Ambient Frozen are stylish and good at what they do - tell time and read the temperature. Their downfall, particularly for me, is that they are too small. A great watch if you have a medium to small wrist but otherwise, you'll need to look elsewhere.