Thursday 31 May 2012

Alba Spoon W521 Dual LCD

Today it's another of the Seiko Alba Spoon watches.
This one is based on the W521 module, and has two LCD displays. The bottom LCD is a standard 7 segment LCD, and by default shows the time. The top LCD is a dot matrix display, normally showing seconds.

The watch has world time, 3 data bank slots (not too sure on this as they show CH-1 to CH-3 in the bottom screen, and the top screen allows you to write characters), and an alarm.
The full model number is W521-4A00, and this one was made in 2000.


Wednesday 30 May 2012

GSX Smart Style #51 Tezuka Osamu 80th Anniversary

Today is a special edition watch. It was released in 2008 to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the birth of Tezuka Osamu, who is recognised as the father of Anime, and was the creator of Mighty Atom (otherwise known as Astroboy).

The watch was released by the GSX brand as part of the Smart Style range (which I think is of a type called GSX216), and is #51 in the series. It is a limited edition with only 300 being made. The design is the Hyoutan-Tsugi x AMGDO, and the Tezuka Osamu watches are done by Gasbook. AMGDO seem to be the designers of this particular model, and share the design copyright with Tezuka Productions.

It uses a standard 3-hand dial, and has 3 small dials at the 6, 9, and 12 o'clock positions. The small dials are the stopwatch with one for minutes, one for seconds, and one which covers 2 seconds in tenths.
The original sale price was 14,700yen




Tuesday 29 May 2012

Cabane de Zucca - Doggy Gum

Today is quite a creepy looking watch. It is by Cabane de Zucca, and reminds me of either a spine, or something out of the movie Aliens.
The watch is the Doggy Gum, and was released in 1999 (although this one was made in 2000. It has a standard 3-hand dial display powered by a V401 module. The numbers on the dial are only the minutes, and there are no hours numbers at all.

The case and strap are the unusual parts, being made out of a bone coloured plastic. The strap is in interlinking segments which look like a segmented alien finger/tentacle. The clasp is at the front of the watch and is held closed by a metal bar which slips over the front of the face section. On the metal bar, there is what I assume is the part number 88F020.

Under the display, there is the atomic symbol for Calcium (Ca) embossed in the plastic, and Cabane de Zucca embossed above the dial.
The full model number is V401-6360




Monday 28 May 2012

Inazuma Eleven - Wide Strap Mark Evans version.

As well as watches, I quite like games and Anime, and so this watch captures something from all those things.

Inazuma 11 is an anime about a young boy's efforts to make his team the best there is. As this is an Anime, there is more than just football, with good vs evil, and special moves (such as God Hand) thrown in the mix! The character on the watch is Mark Evans, who is the main character, and the teams goalie. He is also the grandson of a famous footballer, who he finds more about as the series progresses. The anime has also been made into a football rpg for the Nintendo DS.

The watch is mainly strap, with only a small 1cm wide strip which is actually the watch. It is a very basic LCD module, with only time, date, and seconds. It is made for Sega, and is copyright of Level-5 (who I think made the anime)




Sunday 27 May 2012

Casio UV-10 UV Sensor

I was going to spend a lot of time in the garden today, so decided to wear my Casio UV Sensor watch, to make sure I didn't get too caught by the sun.

The UV-10 is an Ana-Digi watch, with a linked analogue and digital time (both change together).
On the dial, there is also a small round sensor (just under the 9 o'clock position) which measures UV throughout the day. When you press the UV button (bottom right), the dial turns to show the whether you have had enough UV for your skin type to burn (without suncream), and the LCD shows the cumulative dose (in J/cm2) .

The watch uses a 768 module, and as well as time and UV, has an alarm and hourly chime. By default, the watch. shows time with both analogue and digital, but the digital display can be set to show date, seconds, day of the week, or ultraviolet intensity. The UV intensity isn't that exact times reading, unless you hold the watch towards the sun for 3 minutes.

The manual for the 768 module can be found here



UV reading mode

Saturday 26 May 2012

Casio G-Shock GT-001AT-7 - Royal Academy of Fine Art, Antwerp

Today's watch is a Casio G-Shock GT-001, and the design was one of the first with a sleeker G-Cool design.
The design was first issued in 1996, and the basic model cost 15,000yen, but this model came out in August 1997 at a cost of 20,000yen.

This version is a special edition in the Antwerp Tokyo range, and promotes the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Antwerp). It may have been designed by Annelies Braeckman or Mode. The watch strap is white leather, and embossed with various countries. The backlight shows the shape of  Belgium in red with a white hand in the middle. The back shows the crest of the Academy with a box showing 1663 over (which is the date the academy was founded).


The watch looks like it is a limited edition, due to the date box, but I don't think it actually is.
It uses a 1595 module, having the normal time, alarm, timer and stopwatch modes. The time and date are shown across two lines, and there are two bars across the top which fill up with the seconds (one bar for ones, one for 10s).
The full model number is GT-001AT-7




Friday 25 May 2012

Citizen Independent 1481010 - Agosto D500

This watch today is one of the special editions in the 1481010 range, and is a limited version of the black leather D500 I posted in March (link).

The watch is made in conjunction with Agosto, which is a clothing shop in Shibuya, Tokyo. The shop sells designer clothing, including its own Agosto designer collection.

It has a D500 'shutter' module in a lightly gold coloured case (compared to the normal silver colour). The strap is a brown textured/patterned leather one, with a red leather lining stamped with Agosto. The watch has the normal D500 functions (time, alarm, chronograph, and timer), and usually shows the seconds on the 3-line mirrored LCD. I refer to the 'shutter ' as when the time is activated, the screen scrolls open like a shutter.

The box details the origin of the watch, and states:

Citizen "Watch" Independent
This wristwatch came into the world with epoch-making high technology of Citizen and distinct sensitivity of Agosto.

The full model number is D500-L20867, and was made in 2001


More information on the 1481010 range can be found here





Thursday 24 May 2012

o.d.m Vigorous II

This is my second o.d.m watch to be posted here (but not the last!). The name o.d.m stands for original, dynamic, and minimal, and the company was set up in Hong Kong in 1999.

This one has a basic 3-hand dial for telling the time, but behind the hands is a mirrored LCD display in a C-shape. This display has 3 sets of double zeros by default, but is activated by the two buttons either side of the crown. The top button sets the stopwatch going (and stops it) , with tenths and hundreds on the bottom, seconds in the middle, and minutes on top. Surrounding the numbers is a segmented circle which fills up as the time progresses. The bottom button resets this back to zero.





Wednesday 23 May 2012

Casio BP-300 Blood Pressure Monitor

It's the second of my Casio Blood Pressure Monitor watches today.
This one is the BP-300 model, and it looks almost identical to the metal BP-120 version I posted a while back (link). There are some minor differences in looks; this version has a slightly gold coloured LCD display, gold writing, and hold bands on the strap. The watch also has a text panel next to the sensor which is different than the metal BP-120, but the same as one of the black resin versions (link)

Function-wise, this is the same as the BP-120 and uses the same 1101 module. This gives the watch the same time, date, and blood pressure reading options.

For this model, the strap has a part number of S-402-N

More details on the methods used for the blood pressure monitoring can be found here

The manual for the 1101 module can be found here


Tuesday 22 May 2012

Casio WM-11 Gauge-It Timer 45

When I got this watch, I had no idea about what it did as the large dial that takes up half of the face doesn't show the time!

Actually, the dial is part of the sports timer function given in the name. When in tiner mode, the dial shows the countdown time remaining (in minutes, defaulting to 45 min, hence the timer 45 name). To get to this mode, you need to go to the time display, and hold the front button until it shows 0. The countdown can then be started, or changed with the small adjust button.

The dial also shows which mode is in use (alarm, stopwatch, recall (of previous stopwatch readings), and a mode to reset the hands to zero).

The rest of the information, and the time is shown on the standard LCD display.

The module controlling this is the 766, and the watch model number is WM-11. It was originally released in 1986. The instruction manual for the module can be found here


Monday 21 May 2012

Harajuku Super Lovers - Lovers House Jump Hour

Another late update today!

This is the second of my Super Lovers watches, from the Harajuku based design house.

The watch seems to have been designed by Frame Graphics, and shows a cute anime girl. The display has dials for the hours and minutes, shown in windows, but a traditional seconds hand.

The text on the display states the it is:
distribute(d) by
Lovers House
Super Lovers.

It was made in Hong Kong, but apart from that I don't know much about it.



Sunday 20 May 2012

Android USA Radar

Today is my second watch by Android USA. Android USA was founded in 1991 when Wing Liang decided to blend traditional values of watch making with modern living.

This watch has two displays, one normal 3-hand dial, and one 'radar' dial, each with their own (Miyota) quartz movement. The radar dial has a front disc with a section cut out which rotates with the seconds. Behind that disc is a second disc connected to the hours. On the hour disc, there is a small red aeroplane, so the plane is visible on the radar once every minute.




Saturday 19 May 2012

Storm RX 2 twin dial

I only got this watch recently, but as it was ready to go, I thought I'd use it today.

The watch is another from the London based design company Storm.

I think the watch is called the RX 2, and is likely to have been released in the early 2000s. It has two 2-hand dials, each under a domed glass which magnifies the face.

The watch has the large Storm name embossed under the dials, and the clasp also has the Storm logo.




Friday 18 May 2012

Casio AE-20W Twin-Graph

Retro LCD again today!
This is the 1989 Casio Twin-Graph, with the model number AE-20W.

The watch uses the 588 module, and has time, dual time, timer, and stopwatch. The LCD display shows both analogue and digital time and has a separate LCD dial for the seconds.

The original sale price was around $50, but to buy a good quality one now will set you back up to $150-$200.


Thursday 17 May 2012

Citizen Independent module 1502

Today is a smart watch day as I'll be dressed up to celebrate the Norwegian national day.
The watch I've chosen is one of the newer Citizen Independent range, and is a very chunky looking analogue watch.

It has a 3-hand dial display with date and day at the 3 o'clock position. The day can be shown either in English or Japanese. The hands and hour markers are glow in the dark, and the watch also has a rotating bezel.

As the forecast is for lots of rain today, it is good that the watch is also 10bar water resistant.
The full model number is 1502-003107-02, and this watch was made in December 2009.


Wednesday 16 May 2012

Axcent X7600 Shuttle

Today's watch is an unusual design, but this time from Scandinavia!
The watch is by Axcent of Scandinavia, and is called Shuttle. It was designed by Daniel Jakobsson, and has his signature as part of the design on the back.
The watch has half of the dial hidden behind a panel, so only the top half is visible. To be able to tell the time, the hands have a black and white end, which corresponds to either the black or white numbers. For hours (strangely with the hours being the long land and the outer dial), 9 to 2 has black numbers, and 3 to 8 has white. Minutes also change at the 15 and 45 points. The method is similar to the Alba nn (Neatnik) but that was split vertically instead.
The model number is X7600, and it was available in red or black versions.


Tuesday 15 May 2012

Star Wars "naked" C-3P0 watch

I have quite a few Star Wars watches in my collection, and this is the newest.

The watch was released around 1999, under authorization of Lucasfilm Ltd.

The face is shaped as the head of C-3P0, with fake chronograph dials as the eyes. The decoration is a "naked" C-3P0, as he is not covered in his normal gold shell, as it was released for Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (and it is set before he was completed).

The strap is a molded plastic one, with the pattern of bare wires down the surface.

There is no makers mark, but was made by Nelsonic. The watch back has the model number SW1011 and/or 056-PC21AE.

It was released at a price of around $50, but is still sold in some shops for a heavy discount.