Citizen Independent 1481010 5351 Special Edition D420

Day 3 of the 4 day LED watch electronic festival marathon!
Today's choice is a special edition within the Citizen Independent 1481010 line of watches. The 1481010 range was aimed at ping fashionable people, had many collaborations with clothing brands. More can be found on this range at my overview page (link).

This one was a special edition for Harajuku (Tokyo) based 5351 Pour Les Hommes. The brand is a male clothing brand which is under the umbrella company of Abahouse and one of the most expensive under that group! Their designs are sexy and fashionable without being overbearing, using sober colours, leather, blacks and greys.

The design of this watch fits their profile. It has a huge padded black leather strap, sewn in segments, and two foam sections between the watch head and your wrist.

The watch itself is a D420 GSD module with LED display. It is similar to the leather strapped versions under the normal 1481010 range, but much much bigger! Apart from that it uses the normal abacus method of time display - each row is a number (you count the number of lights and a red light in the first column is 5). You can set it to a sequential digit display too!

The full model number is D420-L19931, and this edition was released in 1999.

Citizen Independent 1481010 Round D420 Turquoise

Every autumn, there is an electronic music festival in my town. Today is the pre-party, so I needed a flashy LED for the occasion.
The watch I chose was a D420 module LED watch in the Citizen Independent 1481010 range. I've featured the square leather strap 1481010 that uses the same module, but they also issued a more common rounded version.
The 1481010 range was released in the late 90s and had a large number of interesting designs. More can be found about the range in my overview page (link).
The D420 watches have a matrix of 5x5 small LEDs, which show the time in two ways. The default is an abacus display where the two digits of the hours are the top two rows showing greens for 1 and red for 5, and the bottom two rows for the two minutes digits (orange for one and red for 5). The second mode shows the time in sequential digits with a colon shown between the hours and minutes. After the time is shows, there is a quick animation with the LEDs.
To show the time, you press the large silver button on the front, and if you are still uncertain, the watch sometimes shows an animated arrow pointing at the button.
The model is part of the G.S.D (Graphic Sparkle Display) collection, but does not flicker the same way as the D400 watches. It was released in late 99 or early 00 for 14,000 yen. This particular colour version had disappeared from sale by 2001.
The full model number is D420-S76159, and the catalogue number is IT21-4552H.

Citizen Independent 1481010 Square Leather Abacus D420

There are many different designs in the 1481010 range, and the rarity varies with each model. Out of the Abacus models, the square design with a wide leather strap is probably the rarest (based on how infrequently you see them for sale).

The watch has an array of 25 LEDs which is uses to show the time, powered by a D420 module. Pressing the large button on the front sets the time off, starting with an animation before showing the time in two ways. The first is the g mode, which shows the time as an abacus (in rows) with hours in green (and red for 5s), and the minutes in orange (also with red for 5s), with a row inbetween. This is similar to the D410 module that I've shown before here. The second mode is the n mode, where the display shows the time as a sequence of numbers (with a colon inbetween).

Time adjustment, and display mode changing, is done with a button hidden round the back. While the time is showing, holding this button will start setting mode, with repeated presses shifting what will be changed by pressing the front button.

This version came out around the year 2000. The full model number is D420-S77783

More information on the 1481010 range can be found here.

Abacus display (15:39)

Time display (showing a 4)