Monday 30 June 2014

Super Sea Story Super Lucky Watch

Today's watch was very confusing as it wasn't promoting what I thought it was.

The watch is called Super Sea Story Super Lucky Watch, and has a very fishy theme. The colour scheme is different shades of blue and white and the face features a couple of fish (possibly Dugong). The strap is also following the same theme and features pictures of different sea animals along its length. The featured animals are: Octopus, Porcupine Fish, Turtle, Shark, Lobster, Goosefish, Dugong, Angelfish, and Crab.

So based on this, it looks like a promotional watch for an aquarium or sea life centre - but that isn't the case.

The watch was made by Sanyo Bussan Co., Ltd, and when searching for all of those terms together, it revealed that this is a promotional watch for a Pachinko machine. Pachinko is a very popular mechanical arcade machine in Japan, and is equivalent to a slot machine without the cash. You play by firing small metal balls into the machine, and if the balls go in the right places, more balls are released, with the aim of getting as many balls as possible. Due to the gambling laws, you can't swap these for cash at the venue, but can get prizes or tokens, or they can be 'sold' at nearby (but separate) venues for cash. The Super Sea Story pachinko seems to be a series of machines with a sea life theme, and seems to be pretty popular. The earliest examples I've found online was from 2008, but there have been new versions since.

The watch is a limited edition model, with a release of only 300 units. It is a 3 hand dial design in plastic, with a rotating bezel. The only hour marker on the dial is the number 7 which is shown in a bubble, and I assume is there because it is 'lucky 7'.

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