Universal Smoke Watch by João Miranda

I've always been a fan of smoke devices. My very first one was Ellusionist's Pure Smoke from almost 15 years ago. I was so excited when I got it. I was a freshman in high school at the time and I'll never forget one winter I hooked up my pure smoke under my jacket and headed to school. I produced smoke all day long. In people's hands, as I combed my fingers through my hair, in other people's hair, making people's phones smoke, playing pranks on the teachers, and on and on. I thought it was the coolest thing ever...

...until a friend said "Haha can you imagine he takes off his jacket and there's just tubes and wires and stuff all over his body and they are hooked to a fog machine." We all laughed it off, but little did they know I was so uncomfortable sitting in class because of all the tubes and wires running down my arms attached to the big fog machine tightly wrapped to my chest/under my arm with another wire running to a battery pack on my belt.

The other big downside that I didn't consider was that I was forced to wear this heavy wool coat all day long in the heated classrooms. I was a sweaty mess by the time I got home. Sure, I could have gone to the bathroom and taken it all off, but they didn't allow bags in the bathroom so then I would have had to walk back into class holding all the tubes, wires, and fog machine.

It really is crazy. The entire unit is there in that picture under the watch band. João Miranda is the man making it happen.

As soon as I first saw mention of this new smoke device that is so small it fits under any watch band, I knew I would be ordering the very second it was released (and I did.) I liked the idea of Joao's previous smoke watches, but I didn't like the idea of switching my watch out for a non-functioning and very large watch just to make smoke appear.

This thing is so stinking small. It can be used under most watch straps, but it could also be hidden in a prop (like literally within the pages of a book) and triggered whenever you'd like thanks to the supplied remote control.

The tutorial is outstanding as well. The teaching page features 10 small videos. The teaching videos are all 4 minutes or less which makes it perfect bite-sized content while still gaining all of the valuable info you need. It's such a breath of fresh air in this modern world of 3-4 hour tutorials.

The unit has two trigger methods: a button on the unit and a remote control. Each puff can last anywhere from 1-6 seconds. You do have to refill it after every two or three puffs depending on how long the puff is, but refilling is quick and easy and you don't even have to take the unit off to refill it. They also suggest waiting 5 minutes between puffs to allow the unit to cool, but what performer is using smoke more than once in a 5 minute span? The unit vibrates so that you know it's working. It also comes with a web app that connects via wifi and allows you to control the length of each puff, the delay time, the vibration intensity, and how long the device waits before automatically turning off.

I was a little confused by the "turning off" thing before I watched, but basically, once you press the activation button it is "turned on" and waiting for your signal. When you press the button again, it will smoke. As soon as it smokes, it turns itself off to conserve battery. So before you can make more smoke, you'll have to press the button to turn it on first. Basically that time setting is for how long you want the device to be listening for the cue to smoke. It can be anywhere from 5-20 minutes. There is actually a "low power" option that you can trigger which allows the device to be "listening" for the cue to smoke for 3 hours. This is perfect if you're using it in a prop and need to turn it on before the show and won't be near the prop that will smoke. This only works with the remote as the trigger, but in that situation, that's most likely how you'll be cuing it anyway.

João also provides some routine ideas in case you need some inspiration. The routines aren't the strongest in the world so I doubt we'll see a lot of people using the routines exactly as provided, but that's not a big deal since they are just to get you thinking.

The only thing to be aware of is the fact that your watch band needs to be 22mm wide to hide the device and it will really be an easier fitting process if you use a watch band that has holes and a buckle instead of a metal clasp type band. It will still work, but you will more than likely need to add another link to fit the gimmick. The extra link could make the gap too big to hold the gimmick in place. Joao provides some glue dots to attach the device to the inside of the strap in those cases. I plan on using it with my apple watch that I wear daily, so that's not a big concern for me.

Also, the smoke output on this thing is insane. It produces so much thick white smoke. I also loaded it up with fluid at 8:00pm and tested it at 9:30am the next day (Over 13 hours later,) and it still produced the same huge amount of smoke. So you can load this thing up long before you actually need to produce the smoke.

I've posted some videos to my instragram @themagicreview I'd highly recommend checking them out so you can see the smoke output and see my thoughts as I'll continue to update them there.

I think time will tell if this is a smoke device that lasts. The great thing is João has a fantastic support team who does a great job of taking care of their customers.

So far it's exactly what I've been wanting.