Diesel DZ-1432

It's Friday, and I'm wearing a giant of a watch today.

This watch is the DZ-1432 (or DZ1432 or DZ 1432) by Diesel. The Diesel brand is a well known name, mainly in connection with their clothing line, and especially their Denim products. In the late 2000s, they started to be noticed for their fashion watch designs, and I feel that they were one of the companies which started the most recent wave of fashion watch popularity. The Diesel brand is part of the Only The Brave holding company, and this logo is a prominent feature of the back plate of the watches.

This model is one of their large but simple watches. It's a analogue model with a Miyota quartz movement inside, and this gives it a 3 hand dial display. The dial is round and split horizontally between two colours (light and dark grey) with different numbering styles in the different halves. The top half has only even numbers towards the edge of the dial with dashes for minutes further towards the centre, but on the bottom half, the hour numbers are in the same ring as the minutes from the top half while there are only hour markers at the edge. Around the very edge of the dial there is also a minute marker track on an angled section. The case is dark grey stainless steel and has an industrial style square(ish) design with visible screws. The design is finished with a soft feeling white silicone or rubber strap with Diesel markings on the strap, buckle, and loop.

The watch back doesn't have much more than the logo, model number, and serial number, just giving the material (stainless steel), water resistance (5 bar), and the CE mark.

Reading online, the Amazon UK site said this first appeared there in 2011, so I'd guess it was released around this time, but it isn't for sale anymore. One other site quoted an rrp of £89, but I've seen it for sale for higher prices!

Time Design Zirconium

Today's watch is the 3rd in my collection of Time Design watches. Looking back, I think that Time Design were the first of the 'mystery' watch brands in my collection, as I've known about the brand since early in my collecting days, but still know very little about them.

The Time Design brand has been around since at least the late 90s (if my memory serves me correctly), and produce metal cased watches in a similar style to Storm. In my previous posts I've been mistaken about the names of the watches as they are named after metals, which I'd thought was part of the material they were made from. The watches are identified by the Time Design logo which is a combination of T and D, but looks like a curly D.

This watch is called Zirconium and is an analogue quartz model. It has a 3 hand dial design in a metal case with a futuristic look. The dial has no bezel, with the glass and face going right to the edges of the watch, but the case does show at the top and bottom where it goes towards the strap connectors. The strap is a metal design with a long curved solid first section and the typical Y-shaped connections for the rest of the strap. The dial is light blue brushed metal with concentric light blue rings, and the hour markers are raised metal blobs. The brand logo is well represented on the watch, being found on the case, both ends of the strap, the strap connector, and the watch back, and the Time Design name is also found all over the watch too.

My guess for the age of the watch is that it comes from the early 00s (but it may well be earlier), and it is a pure guess as there is no real information on the watch to suggest an age.

Benetton by Bulova - Pastel Coloured Abstract Pattern

Today is another from my collection of the Bulova watches made for Benetton. This brand is another one with many different face designs that I have to work out a name for each time.

The Benetton by Bulova range started around the late 80s or early 90s, and are a collection of watches with similar cases but with many different face designs. At least some of the watches came with the phrase "Time of the World" so I think this may have been the logos tag-line.

All of the Benetton by Bulova watches I've seen so far are quartz analogue watches, and this is no exception, and this watch has a 3 hand dial design. It has the same case shape as the rest of the range, but in an aluminium colour, and features the Benetton logo at the bottom.

For this particular model, the face design is hard to describe. It has a purple background with abstract shapes drawn on. The shapes are in pastel yellow, purple, blue, and green, and all have a black scribble pattern over them. The Benetton name is written down the centre of the watch from the 12 o'clock position to the 6 o'clock position (where the only number is on the face), and 'by Bulova' is written at the 3 o'clock position.

The back has the usual info, saying United Colors of Benetton, By Bulova, and Mod. Dep. in the middle and stating this has a stainless steel back and base metal bezel.

COGU Classic Automatic Skeleton Watch

Just over 3 years ago I posted a watch by a brand called COGU, and today I'm blogging my second from this brand.

The COGU watch brand is a difficult one to research a definite story around. The brand is reportedly an Italian brand, but there is no Italian website that I've found, with the main online presence being on the watch sales sites Bodying and Rakuten. When I blogged the previous model, I also found a Japanese website where it appeared they had checked and the import office had no record of the company. The brand name is a shortened version of the founder's name Cosimo Gucci, who is a 4th generation Gucci (son of Roberto and born in Florence in 1956). According to a YouTube interview, the brand was started in 2004 to allow Cosimo to explore his unique take in design, and the company is French owned. The trademark however is owned by a Chinese name/company, Sun Xianbo of Hong Kong. Last time I posted the about the brand, I was sceptical about its Italian origin, and I still haven't found anything to reduce that scepticism.

The watch itself is another mechanical watch with an automatic movement. It is also a skeleton design with the mechanical movement being visible through the face and the back of the watch. Unusually, the movement is offset from the centre of the watch with the dial closer to the bottom of the case. Above the dial is the COGU name and logo, and the text 'Classic Automatic'. This model comes with a Chestnut coloured leather strap which is imprinted with the COGU name and logo on the back.

There is no model number to this watch, so I can't confirm the release date, but this model doesn't seem to be on the sales sites anymore.

Boy London 'Tie-Fighter' shaped watch

Today's watch is one of those where there is no marked name or model number so I've had to make up a descriptive name for the blog post.

This particular design of watch reminds me of a Tie Fighter from Star Wars. It has a central section with the face as well as two vertical 'wings' on the sides.

The watch is by the Boy London brand. The Boy London watches seem to come in a couple of distinctive styles - one with an all metal design, and one which is more simple watches with two tone leather straps. This model. Is actually a little bit between the two, but closer to the metal watches. It has an unusual metal shaped case, and the leather strap has a metal attachment with Boy on that is similar to the links in many of the metal straps.

The watch part is a quartz analogue design. It is a 3 hand dial model, but with a seconds hand which is moulded with the Boy name. The face design has the totem style Eagle logo that Boy London often uses, and only has numbers for 2, 5, 8, and 11.

The back is one of the typical Boy London designs, showing the address of the Boy London original shop - 153 Kings Road. It also states that the original creator is Stephanie Raynor, which might imply that this was made by someone other than the original Boy London company. The back also says the copyright is MCMXCIV (1994) which is when the original Boy London brand was on hiatus. Other information on the back is that the watch has a Japanese movement and a stainless steel back.

Agnès b LCD W205

I've posted a few agnès b  watches on the blog so far, but this one is a little different than all of the others.

The difference here is that this model is an agnès b LCD watch rather than the more common quartz analogue watches.

The agnès b brand is a French fashion brand started in 1973 by the designer Agnès Andrée Marguerite Troublé. The fashion brand is the main business, but there is also a film production company, and Agnès has also funded completion of various movies. The fashion brand started with womens clothing before moving to menswear in 1981. The watches started in 1989 and are made in collaboration with Seiko, with the watches still being produced at this time. The logo is the agnès b name in a script style font, but this also means it is confused by many to read 'agnis b' instead.

This model is based around the Seiko W205 module. It has a small inverse LCD display which shows 3 1/2 digits. The module is one of the typical simple digital modules, and has only time, date, and seconds displays.

The case is quite thick at the centre, where the LCD display is, and there is also the brand logo and 'paris' above and below the display. The case then slopes down towards the strap connection, and the strap is a stainless steel expanding bracelet design (part number E0D7AG-S) where the links rotate when expanding.

The full model number is W205-4480, and this model came out in 1997 or 2007. As I've featured this module before in two Cabane de Zucca watches which came from the mid/late 90s, I'd reckon this watch is also from the same time period.

Void Sond NYG

Today's watch is my second Void watch after I blogged the V02 in March.

Void Watches was started in 2008 by David Ericsson, a Swedish designer who started the brand originally as a side project.

The Void Sond (or Sønd as it looks on the case) is a very simple watch in how it's constructed. The case is one moulded piece of nylon with the display module mounted into it. The nylon fabric strap loops through the case itself with no need for additional parts such as spring bars, meaning that there are very few pieces to the watch (the case, module, battery cover, strap, and two silicone loops to hold the loose end of the strap). The website states that each part can be made in any of 8 colours, so there are a lot of combinations available to them. This particular colour variation is called the Sond NYG and is still on sale for $95.

The time telling is done on the rectangular inverse LCD display on the lower part of the front of the case. The display is for 5 1/2 digits (as the first digit of the hours can only show a 1). The module has an el-backlight, but then that is it, with no other functions!

The name of the watch means either 'That which is sent', or is a type of balloon used for measuring atmospheric conditions in the upper atmosphere.