I’ve had the Werrd Minute for about a week or so (or is it up to 2 weeks now? I think just one…) which is enough time I feel to give some overall impressions on the throw.
The short version:
Pros: Amazing grind finish, supreme comfort, nice touches (CT bearing, IRG, spike), at an incredible pice!
Cons: Sub-optimal stock response, compromised spin times.
More details (in no particular order):
Feel: The Minute is very comfortable in the hand. I mean, nothing’s quite as comfortable to me as a rounded-off yoyo like the Punch Line, but that pretty much goes without saying. In the stepped-V category, there’s the risk of the edges being sharp-feeling, but the Minute addresses this by flattening right out right before the rim’s edges. There’s about 2mm of flatness, and that’s all it takes for amazing comfort. At 52.5 mm, the yoyo is in the upper regions of “undersized”, so it doesn’t have a particularly small feel in the hand, either.
Finish: Let’s get this out there: I have some yoyos that are considered to have good grinding finishes (much of the SPYY lineup, the DS Wrath), and the Minute beats them all. This is the best grinding yoyo I own in terms of finish. I did have one accident that left me with the impression that the ano is a bit weaker than some yoyos I own, but that could have been a fluke.
“Solidity” and Spin: This throw is definitely more on the floaty side, jumping from string to string with a light touch and never fatiguing your arm or throwhand finger. The flipside of this is that it is not the world’s most powerful spinner. It’ll get you through your combos as long as they’re not trick marathons, but clean technique is the order of the day to keep the spin going. Too much slop and it’s going to slow down even more quickly than a full-sized competition-style throw.
Stability: It’s a touch more stable than you would think! It’s wide enough to provide a bit more stability to the undersized diameter. It’s no stability monster, but nor will you feel that this yoyo is hard to control or keep on-axis. There’s always give-and-take in the stability equation, and any lost stability (not a whole lot!) translates into easy on-the-fly tilt correction.
Horizontal: I still haven’t gotten past Banana Turnover. 
But it does pretty good with that. Lacking extreme rim weight, it’s not going to be your best horizontal throw, but it does well enough from what this rank amateur can see.
Design features: This yoyo is stocked with nice touches. The small and sharp spike is matador-friendly, and I could turn the yoyo horizontal for a whipping bind just as easily with the Minute as with any of my spiky SPYY throws. Companies seem to be going for very subtle inner grind rings lately (thumb grinds not exactly being hot in competition right now) but the Minute’s is more than adequate for hop-up thumb grinds with confidence. The flattened rims are a nice touch for comfort, and the… er… face? side of the rims have a concave shape to them, meaning minimal skin contact with palm grinds using the cup. The spike and raised hub interfere with a truly optimal fingerspin cup, but if you do certain kinds at a slight angle, you can get the job done. Won’t be doing any Mo-inspired tricks, but tilting to an angle, hopping up to a finger, and whipping to bind… yup, you can do that!
Weak Spots: Shortly after getting the Minute, I swapped in a flat bearing to see how it would play. Binds became snappy (too snappy, but I chalked it up to fresh response), but more troubling: the spin time became even shorter. Perplexed I had a quick look and it didn’t take long to spot that the response pads are slightly raised above their grooves. They’re protruding enough to easily be seen by the naked eye, and you can tell by running your finger over the inside of the yoyo that problems will arise. The stock CT bearing compensates for this to a large degree, but in my opinion that’s a bandaid solution. Response should be flush or (even better) slightly recessed for optimal unresponsive play. I have no doubt that this design oversight is what is causing slow spin times. When I feel less lazy, I will be ripping these out and pouring some flowable.
The colour selection in the first run was pretty weak, too. Or at least what YYE had in stock (not sure if other stores have different colours or not…). Green, red, and gold… not a lot to choose from! I went with the gold, and it’s a beauty! But I would have wished for more variety in colours (solid, of course… that’s one concession for keeping the price down).
Value for money: This has to be one of the value for money leaders out there right now. While it’s not the world’s strongest spinner, I would reach for this over pretty much any of my other ~$50 throws right now. It comes with a clean and well-performing Center Trac bearing, which adds to the value in my opinion.
Final thoughts: If you already own a bunch of yoyos, a lot of whether you get this yoyo or not comes down to whether you place value on having a fun, light undersized in your case or not. If you are looking to get your first metal (or unresponsive yoyo in general!) for a good price, you should definitely put the Minute on your short list. Most of what’s compelling about this yoyo (other than the finish!) is that it’s available for only $50. For some enthusiasts, that’s practically an impulse buy. For others, it’s a way to get finish and features simply not found anywhere else in that price category.
Update: After a Month
I was tempted to sell this along, simply because I didn’t “need” it in my collection. That never happened, so eventually I decided to silicone it as per my complaints above.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE!
Suddenly the spin times were there, the response was what it should be (not snaggy and snappy), and the yoyo became a true joy to play. This is definitely going into my daily rotation not just as a “picking up when I want something smaller/fun” yoyo but as a serious yoyo for developing my skills with and as a daily carry.
I don’t know how to put this in nice terms, but Werrd really did a disservice to this yoyo with that stock response oversight (in my opinion). With a “proper” (again, IMO) response in it, this thing opens up and becomes something that is flat-out ridiculous to have paid only $50 for.
but I’ve been playing the new 2K13 Irony JP all weekend (we had a long weekend here this weekend in Australia for Labor Day) and it’s a work of art.