Casio Casiotron S-15

Today's watch is another old LCD watch from the 1970s - the Casiotron S-15 (S15) from Casio.

The watch was originally released in 1976 for a price of $158 (based on digital-watch. Come information) and has a few more features than the watches a few years prior. This model has time memory (which seems to be some sort of dual time), calendar, and stopwatch, as well as a small bulb-based light. 

The LCD display shows 3 1/2 digits (so no 24-hr display as the first digit can only be a 1), but pm denoted by a symbol in the upper right of the display. The seconds display works with the numbers 0-5 in boxes above the time, so 0 means 0-9 seconds with the number showing for 5 seconds and flashing for 5 seconds before going to the next 10-sec symbol.

The watch is powered by the less common AG5 battery accessible through a separate battery hatch. Time setting was not intuitive, and after many trial and error attempts, I found a scan of the manual on digital-watch. com. What I was missing was that the adjust button needs to be pressed when the 50-59 second number is displayed in order to work (for some reason unknown to me).

COGU "Jump-Hour" Automatic Watch

Today's watch has one of the most awkward ways of telling time that I've seen in a mechanical watch.

The watch is by the brand COGU, which is a brand I've blogged before, and appears to be a Chinese brand which is said to be an Italian brand founded by Cosimo Gucci. Many things do not make sense with the brand/description so I can't vouch for the accuracy, but they make some interesting watches.

I called this watch a "jump-hour" but it isn't like the more common jump-hour which has a rotating disc. Instead this watch has a normal looking dial, but closer inspection shows the numbers are scattered around the dial. The way the watch works is that at the change of the hour, the hour hand jumps 5 numbers clockwise (5/12 of a rotation) around the dial (instead of the usual 1/12th), but the minute hand rotates as normal. It takes the first few minutes of the new hour for the hour hand to move though. This is all powered by an automatic mechanical movement with a glass window in the back where the weight (and some of the mechanism) can be seen.

Because the hour hand doesn't move during the hour, and the number placement is definitely abnormal, it is a watch that takes some time to get used to telling the time on. But it's definitely a cool idea and fits well into my collection

Deadman Pcychoroid GV8695

My watch today is another of the wonderfully varied Deadman watches. The brand was released in the late 90s and seems to have sold many different styles, but seem quite rare. 

This time it is model number GV 8695 and has the name Psychoroid. 

The watch has a standard Japanese miyota module powering a rotating disc design in a quite elegant looking rounded case.

Casio B640W Retro Style LCD

Today's watch is a modern watch in a retro style. Casio is known for their destinctive LCD watches and this is one of their recent versions.

Thw watch is the B640W, or B640WB-1B to give it it's full title. This version has a black resin case and black ion plated strap, as well as an inverse LCD display (as opposed to the -1A version which has the more 'normal' black on white display).

The watch has a 2394 module with a stopwatch and countdown timer features, as well as an alarm and hourly chime option (and it is possible to get the amber backlight to flash when the alarm sounds).

Being a modern version, the calendar is set to run to 2039, and should last 2-3 years on the CR2016 battery. 

Freedom from my smart watch

After I began using a smart watch with fitness tracker, it became hard to do my regular wearing of new watches. If you don't wear the watch every day, it loses a lot of the value in the tracking.

So, I decided to move my fitness tracker to a smart ring instead, freeing up my wrist for whatever watch I want. Of course, I'll miss the message notifications from my Withings watch, but now I can work through more of my watch collection instead.

Because of this, I plan to get back to occasional blogging. Not as frequent as before, but better than I have been recently.

For those interested, I chose the Oura smart ring. The reason was that it was the most comprehensive in terms of sensors/data for the price. It has a subscription model, which I dislike, but there was no good enough alternative without the fees.