Jean Paul Gaultier D296

Today's watch is another unusual design by Jean Paul Gaultier, and is the second of his watches I've blogged (-the first was blogged July 2012).

Jean Paul Gaultier is a very famous and flamboyant fashion designer. He started his career after Pierre Cardain was impressed by his designs and hired him as an assistant. He worked his way through the haute couture and pret-a-porter world and was the creative director for Hermès. He is most known for his outrageous designs such as Madonna's cone shaped chest, men in skirts, and various outfits for Marilyn Manson and Kylie Minogue.

In the late 90s (around 1997), he collaborated with Citizen to produce a range of watches (at least 3 designs).

This model, like the last one, is based on the D296 module. It has a 2 section LCD display in pink and purple with a custom shape for the digits, which have a wider bottom section on the vertical lines. The top LCD is 6 purple digits on a pink background, while the bottom LCD only has 4 digits in pink on a purple background. The case could be described as either round with rectangular top and bottom, or rectangular with a bulge at the middle, and has the JPG initials in a yellow band across the middle.

For modes, this model has two alarms, stopwatch, timer, and dual time with the normal time dropping to the lower screen when another mode is selected.

The back also has a large JPG logo engraved in, and mentions water resistance, but with no rating. It also mentions that the case is base metal rather than stainless steel. This one has a replacement strap, so I'm not sure what the original was like.

The full model number is D296-L16711, and the watch was made in 1997. A new old stock one is for sale at the moment in Japan for around ¥30,000.