Kronos is a gimmick that allows the magician to control a borrowed battery operated quartz watch while the watch pin is completely covered by a strip of electrician’s tape. The gimmick is unique, easily concealed and very well made. This is the real deal.

Is it worth $250?

The answer to that question is dependent on what you intend to do with Kronos. In the right hands, this effect will be “a reputation maker.”¹ But if you’re just going to post a single video of your poorly practiced routine on YouTube then, no, it’s not worth it. If you are considering buying Kronos (which has become rare due to its manufacturer discontinuing its production) for YouTube use, then the powers that be have set the price too low.

It is my hope that truly amazing and powerful illusions like Kronos will be priced out of reach of the YouTuber magic hacks. It’s unfortunate that the rest of us will have to pay more for them, but at least we’ll do so knowing that we have a very good chance of being able to perform these effects without someone in the crowd shouting out that they’d seen it exposed on YouTube.

If you plan to astonish and inspire audiences with Kronos, your $250 will be well spent. If you just want to be able to freak a few minds here and there, don’t waste your money by disenchanting this amazing gimmick.

Kronos comes with the gimmick, a roll of electrician’s tape, and a micro-disc DVD (French with English subtitles) in a very nice box. If I have one slam to make against Kronos it’s that, in a time where slot-loading DVD drives are so prevalent, the instructions for how to use this gimmick are on a disc that won’t play on anything but a tray-loading DVD player. That’s not a big deal if you intend to watch on a common DVD unit in an entertainment system, but if you want to watch it on a laptop computer, you may need to first find a friend who has a computer with a tray loading optical drive and rip the little DVD’s contents to a digital file you can view in your laptop’s media player².

1. I just threw up a little in my mouth as I typed that phrase
2. which is a good thing to do with all your magic DVDs anyway…back ‘em up, Kreskin

A total utter waste of money. Loops Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 by Yigal Mesika & Finn Jon is torturous to watch and way too expensive for the level of instruction you get. If you want to know the history of Loops, by all means, pony up the bucks and buy this. If you’re having trouble sleeping at night, play this and you’ll be nodding off in no time. The video above should give you enough idea of what effects you will be taught and none of them are difficult to figure out for anyone who is familiar with Loops…or IT for that matter.

A much better video for your Loop-minded money is The Million Dollar Knot from Penguin Magic. If you’ve played with Loops for longer than a few minutes, you know they break and you only get 5 on the card when you buy them. So you’d be better off buying an inexpensive, “Instant Download” video that teaches a few effects and, more importantly, shows you how you can make your own Loops very easily with two items that should already be in your magician’s case. The Million Dollar Knot also comes with a spool of PET2.0 that, in my experience, is better than Mesika Elastics for stretch, strength and most importantly, invisibility.

Forget Yigal Mesika and Finn Jon (and Luna Shimada¹ for that matter) and steer clear of Loops Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

1. who talks like she’s wearing vampire teeth, but isn’t…odd