On this fine Sunday, I thought I'd share another of my transforming watches. But this time it's not a robot!
The watch is part of the Watch-Q line of watches by Takara. The Watch-Q range, also known as Kronoform in the west, was released by Takara in 1983/84 and sold their transforming watches. As part of the line, they had a couple of non-robots in the form of a gun, an aeroplane, a stereo, and two types of car.
This one is modelled on the Nissan Fairlady Z 300ZX which was a Nissan sports car released in 1983. It looks like a special version of the 300ZX Z31 which came out to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Nissan in 1984, and this also fits the 1984 release date of the watch. The watch came in 3 colours, blue, black, and red.
The head of the watch is a mount for the toy car which sits although it's about to drive up your wrist. Time is displayed on a small LCD screen inside the car's windscreen, with 4 digits staggered so the hour digits are in the top left, and minutes in the bottom right. To change the time, you need to use the pin accessory to access the buttons through two small holes in the underside of the car. One button is used to change the display mode between the time, date, and seconds (although it's a bit fiddly for everyday use). The other button sets the time and date (but you should cycle through the mode button after setting to make sure the time starts).
To get the car off the holder without damage, you should push it to the right (with the short end of the strap at the top), and then lift the left side first. When taken off, the car has a small pull-back and go engine. The car model is quite detailed,with the car name on the back bumper, and the rubber tyres even say 'Goodyear GT radial' on the side.
The watch originally cost 2,800 yen when it was released in 1984.
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