Happy Star Wars Day - GSX Smart Style #35 - C-3PO

Happy Star Wars Day to all my readers! May the Fourth be with you :)

To mark the occasion, I had to wear a Star Wars themed watch today, and so chose this one by the Japanese company GSX.

The GSX brand are well known for their collaborations with various products and films, and as part of that, they produced a line of limited edition Star Wars watches for the 30th anniversary in 2007. The release was limited to 300 watches per design.

This one is #35 in the SmartStyle range and is the C-3PO model (-I've covered the Darth Vader version previously).

The SmartStyle range are the main range for the limited edition collaborations, and are big, bright dial watches. They are a 3-hand dial watch, with three small dials at the 6, 9, and 12 o'clock positions. The small dials are for the stopwatch and cover the seconds (bottom), minutes (middle), and two seconds (top).

The character C-3PO is one of the few characters to appear in all 6 Star Wars films, and is a protocol droid to help with meetings, and he is fluent in "over 6 million forms of communication". For the watch design, the face of the watch looks like C-3PO's torso, complete with the wires across his waist. On the top end of the strap is his face (giving him a very long neck! ).

GSX Smart No. 38 - Darth Vader

This weekend I'm working at a local convention as a photographer for the Nordic Garrison of the 501st Legion.

The 501st Legion are a international group of  Star Wars characters (Stormtroopers, Clone Troopers, Boba Fett, Greedo etc.) who will be attending the event in their full uniforms and collecting money for charity. More info on these groups can be found here: 501st Legion and Nordic Garrison

Because of this, my weekend watches will both be Star Wars themed.

Today is another of the GSX Smart watches which I've mentioned about before (-you can use the tags on the right of the page to find the others I've blogged). GSX watches have produced many limited edition collaborations including a set in 2007 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars.

This watch is one of that range and is the Darth Vader version. In the range, it is Smart Style #38. The watch is in Darth Vader trademark black and has his face on the front. His mask is painted on the glass, but his real face is printed on the watch face so you can see that from some angles.

Around the edge of the (glow in the dark) hour markers are the hours, but these are in a font which makes them look a little like tie-fighters.

The back of the watch has an etched Star Wars image for the 30th anniversary, and the watch number. This watch was released as a limited edition with only 300 of this design being issued.

The watch itself is a 3 hand dial watch. It has 3 small dials for the chronograph function, but the top one of these (which counts 10ths of a second with 2 seconds per rotation) is hidden by Darth's helmet so can't really be used. The seconds dial (bottom) and minutes dial (left) are no problem to use though.

GSX Smart No.7 S.T.A.R.S

The title of this watch may have caught some interest from fans of the Resident Evil (Biohazard) games or movies.

S.T.A.R.S stands for Special Tactics And Rescue Service, who are an elite division of the Raccoon City Police Department formed in 1996 to fight terrorism and violent crime. In 1998, they started investigating what turned out to be an organisation responsible for the release of a virus which caused zombies to roam the land.

The watch is a limited edition by GSX as part of their Smart range of watches. This one is Smart No.7 and is a model GSX216, and it was produced by Noritaka Ishida, and designed by Kaori Terashima.

It has the S.T.A.R.S logo and name on the face of the watch, and the meaning on the back. It had a limited release of 1998 copies (to mark the year S.T.A.R.S was formed). The stars logo, yellow hour markers, and hands all glow in the dark. It also states that the watch was 'Made in Raccoon City USA', but I think it was more likely made in China or Japan ;-). The box it came in is also special and has the Biohazard and Umbrella Corporation symbols on.

The watch itself is a 3-hand dial quartz watch with date marker at the 3 o'clock position. It has a chronograph function using 3 small dials on the face. The chronograph dials are min (up to 60), seconds (up to 60), and 1/10 sec (with 2 seconds per rotation). It uses a VD57 (maybe V057 as the text is difficult to read), and has a 2 year battery life.

It's original sale price was 12,600 yen.

GSX Smart No. 11

This time, I'm wearing another of the GSX Smart range of watches, but a relatively normal design one.

The watch is Smart No. 11 from the GSX range, and was released in 2005.
It is a small size (unisex?) 3-hand dial watch, with red hour, blue minute, and yellow wavy second hands. The glass is imprinted with SMART in white, and a GSX symbol in which lines up with a larger white circle on the face at 3 o'clock if you look from the right angle. On the face, the watch #11 is printed, so all align when seen correctly.

The back states the number and year, and also gives information on the designer (Kaori Terashima) and producer (Noritaka Ishida), and tells that the watch is 10 bar water resistant.

GSX Smart No. 17 - Simple Material Art Made On The Earth

This watch today is another of the GSX Smart range.
The smart range are all part of the GSX200 range, which has various sub ranges including the SMARTstyle watches under the GSX216 sub-range.

This watch is Smart No. 17, and is a GSX206 (actually, the only GSX206!). It was released in April 2000, and now shows as discontinued.

The watch is a very shiny 3-hand dial display, with no markings on the face except the phrase "GSX Smart No. 17 Simple Material Art Made On The Earth"

The back of the watch has a picture of an old style film projector projecting a clock face (with the time 10:08:35) and a ribbon with the name N.I. Produce Studio across it (but I don't know what that studio is).
The watch is 10 bar water resistant, and uses a 5518 movement.

The full number is GSX206MM-1 with a model number of 5518-H26272