Nixon - The Murf

The Nixon brand is an American watch brand, operating out if Europe and the USA. They were founded around the year 2000.

The Murf is one of their many designs, and comes in several colours (but the blue one I've shown here doesn't seem to be available anymore).

The watch uses a rotating dial to tell the time (where it crosses the vertical blue line). Setting the time is unusual in that you first unscrew the large metal button on the face of the watch, and it then becomes a button. Pressing the button cycles through the time (automatically turning the dials).
The mount for the time setting button protrudes from the side of the watch, and acts as the light button, bathing the inside of the watch in a blue glow.

Inside the watch, there a 3 batteries, one operating a standard looking quartz movement, and the other two seeming to be there to operate the light (and possibly be involved in the time setting).
On the back of the watch there is the quote: "Like a record baby". There is also a (model?) number on the back - 7K

The watch is still on sale from Nixon (as of Mar 2012)  for $400

Takara Watch-Q Gamera transforming watch

Today is another transforming watch day, but this time, not a robot, but a monster.

Gamera is a giant flying turtle monster, from the Japanese giant monster films (Kaiju) of the 60s and 70s (but still had movies as new as 2006) . He is 60-80m tall, around 5500t, can fly at mach 3, and can breathe fire.
The watch is part of the Takara Watch-Q line of transforming watches (released as Kronoform in the US), and was issued in 1984 for the price of 2980 yen. One was sold recently (Feb 2012) on E-Bay for $576.92

The monster is released from the base with two sliding switches on either side of the base (compared with two push buttons for the robot watches).
Once released, the head of can be lifted from the body, the arms pulled out, and the legs flipped open (by pulling out the tail). Gamera mouth can also be opened and closed.
Another difference with the robots is that the watch display is on Gamera back rather than the front.
The watch module is a basic LCD with time, date, and seconds, and runs off an AG4/LR626/377 battery.
The watch number shown on the box is 203357-4.2980

Zeon Nintendo Super Mario Bros watch

Ever since the early days of the LCD watch, there have been attempts to make game watches. This is the first I'm showing of my game watches, and is a Nintendo Super Mario Bros watch manufactured by Zeon.

The Super Mario Bros watch was first released by Nelsonic in 1989, but was released in Europe in the early 90s by Zeon.

Zeon is the British subsidiary of the Chinese Herald Group (and is the current owner of the Ingersoll watch brand name), and is the largest watch company in the UK. In the early 90s, they handled the European versions of many of the Nelsonic Nintendo watches (including Zelda, and Tetris).

This watch is the first of 3 Super Mario watches, and also seems to be called Super Mario World.

The watch part itself only has a time function, and is mainly set-up for the game. The game uses the 4 buttons at the bottom, and is typical of the 80s/90s Game and Watch style games. In the game, 3 popular characters appear: Mario, Yoshi, and Bowser, but I don't exactly know what the aim of the game is (apart from somehow defeating Bowser).

The most unusual feature is the large section at the top of the watch housing a headphone socket. When used, the beeps of the game are able to be heard (very loudly) through the headphones (and a set were originally included as part of the package).

The model number of this watch is ZR9910 UI

Radioactive LED watch - Quiz

For my 50th post, I have chosen probably the hardest to read LED watch from my collection.
This is the Radioactive watch from SeaHope, and was released around 2007. For more details on Seahope, see http://whichwatchtoday.blogspot.com/p/seahope-watches.html

The watch tells the time using 19 LEDs, but has no numbers to help. When the time button is pressed, the LED lights fill up and flash showing the time.

The watch model number appears to be Sea09, but on the back, it only says "Warning Radioactive".

As usual for a quiz day, let me know what you think the time is on the watch picture below. I'll update the post with the answer and how to read it after someone has got the right answer!

[UPDATE]: The time was correctly guessed, so time to explain how the watch works. 
The way you tell the time is: The bar on the right is the hours (showing 5), and because the warning light at the top is on, you add another 6, giving 11 hours. For the minutes, the lights in the radioactive symbol mean 10, 20 and 30 minutes. The first and third of those is on, so it is 10 + 30 minutes = 40, and the number of reactor lights is the individual minutes (4), giving 44 minutes - so the time is 11:44

Black Dice Industries - Duo Project

Today it's the turn of a watch by the London brand Black Dice Industries. The company was started in 2005 with an aim to revolutionise the concept of luxury fashion timewear.

The watch is an Ana-Digi watch with an analogue display on the top half, and a dot-matrix LED display along the bottom.

When the LED's button is pressed, the time slowly appears through a random animation. After 5 seconds with the time showing, the display disappears again through another animation.

The model number is BD-049-04

Seiko talking watch - SBJS001 (A860) round case

Today's watch is something a little unusual in my collection as you can still buy it new. (www.seiko-watch.co.jp/p_search/detail/do.php?no=SBJ001)
The watch is a Seiko SBJS001 (or sometimes just SBJ001) talking watch. The look of the watch is very distinctive with a rounded case, speaker holes on the front, and a very sci-fi appearance.
The watch uses an A860 module with a basic LCD display and no light (as it can speak the time to you in the dark).
The watch speaks the time in Japanese, with a female child-like voice, when the large silver button on the front is pressed.
The watch mode is set with the bottom left button, and appears to have time, chronograph, and alarm functions (with the voice announcing which is selected). In time mode, the other buttons set the hourly chime on or off (top right), or set the time (hold the top left).

Casio Ana-Digi Alarm Chronograph AQ-441G

Today is the most unusual Casio watch I own. A Casio Alarm Chronograph Ana-Digi AQ-441G watch with a rotating dial and LCD display. There is virtually no record of this I could find on the web, so I know very little about the watch (apart from the fact it is rather rare).

What I can say is that the watch operates with a 307 module, and from the serial number, I'd guess this was made in 1987 or 1997, and at least 1500 were manufactured in the same month.
The analogue display uses 3 continuously moving discs (hours on the outside and seconds in the middle), and is set by the crown on the right.

The digital display has two buttons, the left for setting the time, and the right for changing modes. The modes on offer are dual time, date, alarm, and chronograph.