Car and Driver W620 - Red and Black

There seems to have been a but of interest in the Car and Driver (or C&D) watches, so I'm blogging another variant of a watch I blogged last year.

This watch is the digital model from the Car and Driver range, and uses a W620 module (although, as discussed previously, with a completely different LCD design than the Alba W620 watch I have). The watch has an inverse 2 line LCD with date and day (6 digits) across the top, and time (7 digits with the first used for an am/pm marker). Modes are stopwatch (with a lap memory of 8 and up to 10 hours, as well as a pace function), timer, and alarm. The module also has a low battery warning which will make the digits flash when the CR2025 battery is getting low.

The basis behind the watch is a little mysterious as they share a logo with the Car and Driver magazine (-the world's largest motoring magazine), but had an original sale price of ¥15,000, making them too expensive to just be a promotional giveaway. The watches also have no internet presence, but that seems to be common for late 90s Japanese warches). On the back of the tag, there is the following statement "CDM K.K. is the exclusibe (sic) licensee of the CAR AND DRIVER im and sold owner of the Car Device tm" along with a sketch of an old car. This may suggest that the watch was licensed by CDM K.K. and may have been part of a range of products called Car Device, but I can't find anything on this either.
Based on the model number and guarantee, the watches were made by Seiko, but their name doesn't appear anywhere on the case. This watch, like the others, was made in 1997 and so I'd assume that this (or 1998) was the release date.

The full model number is W620-4220, and the catalogue number was AVAW005.

Car and Driver LCD W620 - Grey

Today is the second of my watches by Car and Driver (or C&D). It is a very mysterious brand, as it's normal name gets hidden inside the many other web hits.

My guess, based on the module number, is that these are manufactured by Seiko. Unfortunately, this watch has a module number of W620, however the display is different than the other W620 watch from  Alba (Seiko) that I've blogged before.

This watch has confirmed the date of the brand is late 90s, as the module date starts at 1995. This was made in 1997.

It has a 2 line inverse LCD display, but without the line of markers inbetween that the Alba W620 had. The top line has date and day while the larger lower line has a 6 digit time display (up to 7 digits in stopwatch mode). The modes are stopwatch, pace setting, timer, and alarm (which matches the Alba W620).

The design is such that the strap comes over the front of the case to the top and bottom edges of the LCD display, making the middle section look wide and thin. The strap is resin and has a wavy edge getting thinner and thicker along the strap length. The backlight button is on the front and comes through a hole in the strap. It has the Car and Driver name above the LCD and in a circle on the end of the long end of the strap (as well as engraved on the back). The design also has the chequered flag pattern common across all of the Car and Driver watches I've seen, giving a motor racing feel.

The catalogue number is AVAW003, and the full model number is W620-4220. The original sale price was 15,000 yen.

Nike Triax 35 Black & Orange Blaze

Its a very distinctive design of watch today, and you can easily tell the maker by how it's designed.

The watch is by Nike, and you can tell it is one of their timepieces by the angled face and strap which comes from the opposite corners of the display. This model is one of their 35 lap running watches (the Triax 35 Regular line), and is designed for robust use in wet conditions (-it's 100m water resistant). This one has a catalogue number of WR0031-009 (the 009 is this colour combination Black/Orange Blaze)

As with most of the Nike LCD watches, it displays the time in very large easy to read digits (but with small seconds). There are two other lines above and below the time to show which time is used, and the day and date. It has dual time, alarm, chronograph (35 lap with split), lap data recall, and timer modes, along with a counter function (where a button press advances the count).

The back gives the model number as W620-4020, which suggests that the modules may have been made for Nike by Seiko. If that is correct, the serial number would show this as being made in 2003, which fits with the modules date function starting at 2000.

The back also says that this watch is under US patents D394391, D394391, D394391, and D394395.

Alba Hot Gear Panelight Chronograph W620

With my collection, I've also noticed that a lot of the major watch brands don't keep their ranges particularly separate, and mix functions across the different lines they produced.

Today's watch by Alba is one of their Panelight watches, but also part of their Hot Gear line. The Panelight refers to a set of watches they produced with a specific backlight arrangement (which is activated by the big button on the front). The Hot Gear line was one of many 'Gear' lines that Alba produced in the mid to late 90s, and seems to mainly be a way of grouping and marketing their sales (although there was no major styling or function difference between some of the lines).

This particular watch was made in 1998 and features a W620 module. It is a standard 2 line LCD display, but with two intermediate lines of markers.
The top line is for day and date (or time when in other modes), and the other line covers time (or the other chosen mode with up to 7 digits). Between the lines is a small line of 9 markers which fills with seconds, and along the bottom of the display are markers to indicate the mode. The modes available on this model are alarm, timer, and chronograph, and there is a pace function for lap timing.

The full model number is W620-4020, and the strap part number is FC49HB. The original price was only 4,500 yen, and it had a catalogue number of ACDW007.