Description
Over 20 years ago in 1996 Fred Hagar was in trouble with the original Collectors’ Workshop owners, Rich Bloch and Nick Ruggerio, because they claimed (with authority) that Mr. Hagar was ripping off their original Perfect Time which was introduced in 1982 and the first ad I saw in Genii was in May 1983. Well since then the basic effect for Perfect Time has been copied many times. The only current version, with the exception of the authentic CW one, that I know of is in fact this item, Blown Away. So you have to give Mr. Hagar some respect for staying power.
The big distinction with CW’s watch is that it actually keeps time, whereas Blown Away does not. Now, the one “improvement” that Blown Away has is that the cycle time is 45 seconds vs 70 on the current CW version. Depending on your routine the extra 25 seconds could be significant.
I’m a great supporter of the rights of original inventors. Rich Bloch himself says that Collector’s Workshop was shut down from their hey day of 13 workers primarily because of Intellectual Property theft. However, even if CW had a patent out on Perfect time it would have expired almost 16 years ago and anyone would be free to create the same effect today. Of course magic is a little different and there are very few patents issued due to the cost and cottage industry nature of magic itself. So the best we can hope for is recognition and respect and where possible only buy from the originators. That being said if you have been creating and selling the same effect for over 20 years maybe you deserve some credit.
This watch appears to be well made, if a little lighter than you would expect based on the size of the watch. I prefer the look of Blown Away and if I was to perform this effect I would probably choose this over Perfect Time assuming all else is equal. Though to be honest I’ve always wanted a version of the other classic time prediction from CW: Gift of Time in watch form, but not like the Cesaral one. Maybe one day George Robinson will deliver that bad boy and finally we can stop looking.
(Notice: Includes: Printed Instructions.)
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