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.

Happy Halloween - Super Lovers Skull Watch

Hi blog followers.
It's been a while!
As it is Halloween today, and I'm wearing a spooky watch, I thought I'd do a quick blog post while I'm sitting on the bus.

Today's watch is by one of my favourite brands for unusual designs - Super Lovers. The watches are from the Tokyo based company Super Lovers, who seem to release many different watch designs, but only in small quantities.

This particular design uses a watch head designed as a skull, with a small round dial in its forehead. The face also has text around the centre, with phrases "1950-1998 good future for you!", "Tokyo Rock", and "80s New wave ivy punk".

This skull design is coupled with a black leather strap with a presstud type fastening. The strap is also decorated with a skull design, and the words SUPER and LOVERS on the top and bottom sections of the strap.

Inside is a typical Miyota quartz movement, using an AG4 battery.

Deadman Quartz GV 4089

Even though I've not been blogging for a while, I've been keeping up with trying to find more watches in some of my sub-collections.

Today's watch is one of those and is from the Deadman (or Dead man) watch line that I still only know small amounts about. I do plan to pull together a brand page to cover all of the models I know about (which is more than I've blogged so far) so keep an eye out for that page soon!

This model is the GV 4089 (or GV4089), and is one of the more 'normal' designs that Deadman produced. It is a quartz analogue design with a very 60s/70s feel to the design. It has a deep metal case with an oval face covered by thick glass. The face is a 3 hand dial design with silver hands and numbers at the 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock positions on a black background. The only text on the front is Deadman and Quartz, and the back has the brand name and the model number. The design is completed with a silver metal strap with the usual Deadman embossed bracelet clip.

I have confirmation that the Deadman watches were out in the late 90s, but don't know how long they lasted, and when released, they seem to have been sold around the ¥4000 mark.

Super Lovers Floating Dial

Sorry it's been a while since my last blog, so I home some of you out there are still following! I plan to get back to blogging a bit more, but don't think it'll be back to daily updates just yet.

For today's watch, I'm wearing something that expands the mystery of the linked designs even further. Regular readers may remember that I've been following various Japanese fashion watch brands which seem to be linked by common designs. Watches by Deadman, Module, Deep, etc. seem to have produced their own versions of the same watch over different time periods.

Until today, the Super Lovers brand seemed to be separate from this group, but this watch shares a remarkable similarity to the Deadman Live Wire I posted last year. As I have a hunch that the Super Lovers brand commission watches from a variety of manufacturers, I guess it shouldn't be unexpected that they ended up with something similar though!

The Super Lovers brand originate from the  Harajuku district in Tokyo and have been known for their mix of punk, clubbing, and cute influences.

This watch I've nicknamed the Super Lovers Floating Dial as the dial and mechanism is surrounded by glass so you can see right through the watch from front to back, with the only connection to the case being the stem linking the module to the crown. The back glass in this design isn't completely clear, but is in red glass, and has the text Super Lovers All Stars written around the edge. I think the All Stars name might refer to a line of watches, as I've seen it before on other designs.

Time is shown on the "floating" 3 hand dial and is powered by a Japanese quartz module. The dial features the Super Lovers logo which is like the Superman symbol but with a heart instead of the S. The strap is metal mesh with a buckle, and matches with the metal case. There is no information on the back of the watch, but you can see right through to the quartz module.

I don't know exactly when the watch wad released, but I'd guess this was late 90s or early 00s based on the link to the Deadman design.

Benetton by Bulova Shaking Salsa

Sorry about the lack of posts at the moment, but I've been a little snowed under, but I've managed to find enough time to squeeze in this quick post. Normal service will hopefully be resumed soon!

Today, I'm picked one of the watches from my Benetton by Bulova range. The range started in the 90s, but so far I've not found out when they stopped. This watch was part of a line that they made called "Time of the World", and they all seem to have had this general case design.

This particular model has a white case (which is a first) with a bright green strap. The face is also green, and has the words Shaking Salsa in purple and black written across it.

I got this model in its box, so I found out that the original sale price was ¥7,000. Unfortunately, the guarantee card hadn't been stamped, so it didn't help with the date (but I think these models may have been from the 90s).

Freestyle Shark - Tigershark

Today's watch is another from the Shark watch range by the American brand Freestyle USA. This time, the watch is called the Tigershark, and is a different shape than the other Shark watches I've blogged.

The Freestyle USA brand has been around since the 80s, gaining popularity through word of mouth, and becoming recognised for the Shark fin silhouette that they chose for their logo. The Shark watches continue to be popular today, with many different types of Shark being produced.

The Tigershark model is an LCD model, but with a more unusual round design. The case is primarily made of plastic, but has a metal top making it look more solid than the normal all-plastic designs. For the LCD, it has a two line design with day and date along the top, and time (6 digits with smaller seconds) on the lower line. The LCD has an el-backlight, and when pressed there is a very visible Shark logo in red on the display. This model has the normal modes for a sports watch, with stopwatch, alarm (multi), timer, and dual time options. All of the modes actually display along the top line, leaving the bottom for the normal time, which is unusual, as this is usually swapped.

The back has the Freestyle Shark logo and name, along with the statement 'performance timing'. The back also states this was designed in California, but made in China.

I've looked around online for this model, and it appears that this isn't one of the models which is currently being sold, so I'd guess it was an older model. To me, the design looks to match with the styles seen in the 90s, so it may be that old (but there are no indications on the watch as to when it was actually released).

Deadman Quartz GV5766 Red and Blue

This is my second Deadman post in a row, as those one was close at hand and ready to wear.

The model will be easily recognised by long-time followers of my blog as the quartz rotating disc design GV5766. What I'd been finding about the Deadman watches was that there were more different designs than I was finding duplicates of any design, but this model is the exception. So far, this seems to be the most popular of the models, with many different variations of strap colour and texture being released.

This particular version has a silver case and a black face with gold writing. The strap sections are in a smooth leather and this time are red for the top half and blue for the bottom half.

Deadman Skull Watch GV 6674

I'm going to a late Halloween party tonight, so wanted to have a watch with a bit of a horror theme, and this Deadman watch seemed to be perfect.

The Deadman (or Dead Man) brand is one of my favourite lines of watches, but are relatively unknown online. They are a fashion brand which was around in the late 90s, making a wide range of different designs, but I don't know how long they were active for. Some of the designs used have been used by other brands as well, so that just makes it more of a mystery.

This model is the GV 6674 (maybe GV6674), and has the most unusual case shape of the range so far. The design seems to be an alien skull with a large forehead where the face sits, with the eyes and smiling mouth below. The clock part is a quartz analogue 3 hand dial design, with no numbers, just markers at the 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock positions. The Deadman name is on the face, the back plate, and also on the clasp of the matching metal strap.

One other mysterious thing with this design was that one day I also found a fabric sew-on patch with a similar alien skull shape, but with a yin & yang symbol where the clock is here, and it was also being called Deadman...

Swatch Black Board SAB103

Today's watch is my second Swatch Automatic on this blog (-the first was in April this year).

The Swatch Automatic watches were released in 1991 and continued until 1997 when they were replaced by the Autoquartz technology. They have a mechanical automatic movement, and there is a load of information about that on my earlier post.

This model is one of the later models, having been designed in 1994 and released as part of the 1995 Spring Summer collection. It is called the Black Board and has a model number of SAB103. The watch has a white face with black numbers in all different sizes, and the top of the 2 in 12 is an open crescent moon shape with the movement just visible through. It has a black plastic case with matching black plastic strap, and the back is see through so you can see the rotating weight for the movement.

K.Swiss World Time 503

Today, I'm wearing a new brand to this blog, but one of the more well known names in trainers/sneakers.

This watch is my first watch by the American brand K.Swiss. The K.Swiss brand was started in California in 1966 by two Swiss brothers, based on their love of Tennis. They mainly produce Athletics shoes, but over the years have produced a range of watches too.

This watch has the model number of 93-0038, and there is a name on the front, which says World Time 503. The watch is a large LCD model with an unusual case shape. The LCD has 3 lines of information in a blocky digit design. The top line has the smallest text and covers the day and date, with the slightly larger bottom line covering seconds. The time is the largest part of the display, and has 4 digits over the middle line. It seems to have been designed as a sports watch, and has the usual range of modes - chronograph, timer, world time, and 2x alarms, and there is an el-backlight for nighttime use.

The case and strap is the unusual part of the design and makes the watch stand out. The middle of the case is white plastic, and the white rubber strap is designed in one piece and splits where the case is, going round the both sides of the case.

The watch is water resistant to 30 atm (which suggests a European model) and was assembled in China. The K.Swiss logo is on the front of the watch above the LCD, and is also engraved on the back plate.

There is no information about when this watch was made, but I'd guess it was from the late 90s or early 00s when the brand was going through a big marketing push.

Benetton by Bulova Cartoon Exclamation

As it's Friday, I decided to wear something colourful, so picked a watch out of my seemingly very large Benetton by Bulova watch collection.

The watch was made by the watch manufacturer Bulova for the Benetton fashion brand, and I've covered so many of these watches in previous posts, so I won't go into details here.

This model is the typical 3 hand dial design, with the standard case shape, but this time with the case in black. The design for this particular model is a pop-art cartoon style, with the face covered in green dots on a light blue background. Instead of the 9 on the dial, there is a curvy apostrophe symbol, and in front of the 3 is a giant exclamation mark. The strap has a matching design, but this time with back dots on a green background, and has cartoon explosions and a 'One Way' sign.

The Benetton by Bulova range started in the 90s, but I don't know yet when they ended.

DJ Honda DJ009

There are a lot of watches out there which are parts of special collections made by/for celebrities. Out of those I have come across, the watches from the DJ Honda fashion collection are the most interesting and varied set that I've seen.

This watch is the DJ009 (or DJ 009) and is an LCD model. It has a sideways inverse LCD, with the display being viewed best from along your arm. The case is plastic with a shiny silver surround to the LCD being screwed onto the front. The strap is rubbery, and is in one piece, going across the front of the face, and fastening with a buckle at the back. The LCD is a 2 line design, with the top line normally showing day and date, with the 6 digits for the time below. There is a standard collection of modes in the watch - stopwatch, timer, alarm, and dual time, and there is also an el-backlight (which beeps when you press, so it's not good for quiet night use).

The back has the DJ Honda 'h' logo in the centre, along with the usual statements (water resistant, stainless steel back, Base metal bezel) and the model number. Based on the designs in the collection, I think that they were produced in collaboration with Seiko (or Alba) as a couple of models are almost the same as late 90s Seiko AKA designs.

Cosmo Queen Flip-Top Compass Watch

One of the key starting points for my collection was the idea of "interesting and unusual". The collection has expanded beyond this, but I still have a thing for unknown gadgety watches like today's.

This watch seems to be called Cosmo Queen, based on how I've interpreted the hard-to-read script that the name is written in. I've found two main references to the name Cosmo Queen - one is a card from Yu-Gi-Oh! while the other is a range of watches by a Swiss brand called Titoni. I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with Yu-Gi-Oh, and based on the design, I don't think it is by Titoni either, so it must be one of the unknown fashion watches.

The watch is a standard 3 hand dial design with a Japanese quartz movement. The difference is that you can flip the lid up to reveal a compass underneath, and when you do, you can also Flip the watch part over so you can see the time and compass together. The strap also has another feature - there is a round thermometer set into the lower part of the strap.

I don't know much more about the watch (as the back of the case only says Swiss Army, but I think that is only used as a name rather than a reference to who commissioned it). This type of watch has been around since at least the 90s, so it could be from anytime since then.

Deadman GV4062

I'm back to one of my favourite mystery brands again today with this watch by Deadman.

The Deadman (or Dead Man) watches are Japanese fashion watches which I've managed to pin down to being from the late 90s (based on a couple of magazines from that time). They have produced many different designs, and I've so far found more different models than I've seen duplicates. There also seems to be a connection to other brands such as Deep, Module, and Eccentric Classic with common designs, but I've not concluded why so far.

Today's model is the GV4062 (or GV 4062) which has a style which I would say is heavily influenced by the Seiko Alba AKA designs. It has a quartz analogue display with a 3 hand dial design. The face design and colour /pattern around the edges is very similar to some of the AKA watches with silver hour markers and a red, blue, and grey square pattern around the edge of the dial.

The case is round at the top, widening towards the back and the strap connection points, and makes me think of the shape of a volcano. The strap is metal and also very AKA-like with the tuning fork (or chunky American Football goalpost) shaped first link.

The back just has the usual Deadman style, stating it is Stainless steel, and showing the Deadman name and the model number.

Royn Jump-Hour Style Watch

Throughout my collection, there seem to be a lot of watches which have been done in the style of the old jump-hour watches. Today's watch is one of those, but from a manufacturer who's name I can't work out definitively.

The watch is by a company that I have only a logo for, and so need to determine a name based on their logo. In the centre of the logo, there is a y  in the middle of an oval, which could be an 'o'. This could mean that the name is just Ryn (with the oval being decorative), or the 'o' is in different places, for example Ryon, or Royn. As usual, the company doesn't have any presence that I've found on the web, so that doesn't help. The only other references I've found are the site Retro World who used Ryon, and an eBay auction which used Royn. So, as Ryon sounds like a better name, I'm assuming that is right.

The watch is a quartz rotating disc watch, with a left side display. As with the Deadman GV 5766 watches I've blogged a lot about, the strap is connected at the front of the case, leaving only a small strip of case visible across the middle (with the top and bottom of the case hidden behind the strap). Apart from the display, the face is blank, and with its brushed metal finish it feels nice and minimalist. The back of the watch just has the name/logo and the construction materials (base metal case and stainless steel back).

Due to the lack of information on the brand, and the 60s style for the design, it is hard to work out a date. As there seemed to be a lot of different brands taking the 60s style at the end of the 90s and just into the start of the 00s, my best guess is that it's from around then.

Swatch Turn Around PAN205 Pager Watch

Today's watch is a gadget watch of an era which is now over...

The watch is by Swatch from 1994 and was part of a series called The Beep. The special feature of the watch is that it contains a pager. A pager (or beeper) was the device that would be used to transfer messages in a small mobile package before mobile phones became so popular. Even I am so young that I never really used a pager, and the only times I remember it was from TV medical dramas where they used to ask someone to "page the doctor, this is an emergency"! Pager technology started in the 50s and work through short messages being sent from a radio transmitter to the device. By the end of the 90s, pagers hand become niche products, only being used by hospitals and emergency services as they are reliable and need only a low signal strength to work.

The Swatch pagers were released around the early 90s but have no signal anymore, meaning that they are not so collectable because they don't work. They are larger than the normal Swatch watches and have an ana-digi display. They are also recognisable by the 3 wires stretched across the display which is part of the aerial. Time is displayed on the 2 hand dial (where the hands move in jumps rather than continuous motion), while the LCD is reserved for the pager function.

This model is called Turn Around and was part of the Spring Summer 1994 collection. The model number for this design is PAN205.

The back of the watch has lots of information about the Pager functions. It says it is by Hutchison paging, and can be called on 1128003. It also states the Pager runs on a frequency of 279.7125, but doesn't give the units. There are also two small buttons on the back with the message 'press both buttons and pull wristlet out' which is the way to get to the watch battery, so I don't actually know how to switch the Pager on.