Tonneau style Astro Boy Limited Edition watch

It seems I can add another sub-collection to my watch collecting, but I haven't decided whether it is just Astro Boy watches or whether I should admit already that it is manga/anime watches in general.

This watch one of my Astro Boy watches. Astro Boy is known in his home country as Mighty Atom or Tetsuwan Atom, and he was created by the God of Manga Osamu Tezuka. Osamu Tezuka is one of the most famous Manga artists in Japan, and has been thought of as a Japanese Disney (which has also more recently been said of Hayao Miyazaki from Studio Ghibli). Astro Boy is probably his most famous work outside of Japan, but his productivity has resulted in over 150,000 pages of Manga. This watch is slightly unusual in that it has Japanese text as well as the name Astro Boy, so is mixing the Japanese and western names.

The watch is a 3 hand dial design in a tonneau (barrel) shaped case. There are also 2 smaller dials at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions which cover date and day respectively. The dial features two pictures of Astro Boy, with his face at the 6 and 12 o'clock positions. The face also has the Astro Boy name in the centre circle with the same Japanese text on the clasp on the strap. The back also feature the same two Astro Boy pictures as the dial and shows that this is a limited edition with a release of 500 units. The other information on the back is the standard, stating this is 3atm water resistant, and that it uses a Japanese quartz movement. The one major piece of missing information on the watch is the manufacturer, with only the copyright (Tezuka Productions) being included!

The date is again difficult to pin down, but if I assume that the watch came out for a special event or novie/series release, it would suggest that the most likely link would be to the 2003/04 series restart or 2005 Japanese movie. Not much had happened in the 90s with Astro Boy, and I think this looks too modern for an 80s watch, but the 2009 computer animated movie is a remote possibility.

Mighty Atom LCD watch

Watches made for TV series, characters, or films come in all manner of different styles and qualities.

This is a watch for the character Mighty Atom (or Tetsuwan Atomu) who is better known in the West as Astro Boy. This is the third Astro Boy watch, but is at the other end of the scale from the previous watches which were a Seiko AirPro and an GSX limited edition. The Astro Boy /Mighty Atom story is about a scientist who builds a robot boy as a replacement by a Dr Tenma for his son who was killed in an accident. When he realised the robot could never be human, he was given to a circus but rescued by a Prof Ochanomizu and ended up using his power to help fight crime, injustice, and other threats to humanity. The cartoon was created in a Japanese manga in1952 by Osamu Tezuka, who is known as the God of Manga.

This watch is a simple LCD watch for Mighty Atom with a 4 digit LCD, and the usual time, date, and seconds displays. It is a little temperamental so I couldn't get the display to stay on for the post. Around the LCD window is a hologram style sticker with a picture of Mighty Atom, his name, and the copyright to Tezuka Productions.

To get to the insides, you need to take off to tabs from the top and bottom of the case, and then the glass can be removed and the module lifted out. There is no way in from the back which is solid plastic, and only reveals this was made in China.

I'd guess that this was an 80s watch from the styling of the graphics, but is could a a cheap later model instead.

As an extra bonus - The background that the watch is sat on in the pictures is an original drawing used in some of the frames of the Anime.

Seiko AirPro A861 - Oh! Ya? 99SS Astro Boy Limited Edition

The problem with collecting watches from the 70s and onwards is that the materials used degrade over time.

The Seiko AirPro watches are one that have suffered so need to be handled with kid gloves.

Three variations of AirPro were released and this is the A861 version which were called Robo Air. This version has a basic LCD display (with 6 digits), but talks when you press the front button, telling the time in Japanese. It also has alarm and stopwatch modes.

This one was made in 1998 (which was the first year the trademark was registered), and is a limited edition for Astro Boy. The difference between this and the basic model (which was coded SBZV007) is that the top panel is clear revealing the speaker, and there is text printed on the panel. The text says "Oh! Ya? 99SS Astro Boy" and has Astro Boy's silhouette with the copyright Tetsuka Productions. The production run was very limited with only 300 ever being released.

Astro Boy (or Tetsuwan Atomu, or Mighty Atom) was the star of a Japanese manga by Osamu Tezuka (the "God of Manga") which started in 1952. Astro Boy was a robot made by Dr Tenma to replace his son who died in a car crash, but was given to the circus after he realised the robot could never be human. Astro was then rescued by Prof Ochanomizu and ended up fighting injustice, crime, and other evils.

The full model number is A861-4010

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