J-Axis iXa AG1159

Today's watch is by the brand J-Axis, and is the iXa AG1159-W. The watch is part of what they call the A series, with AG1159 being the model number within the series, and the W designating the colour (- I've seen 6 colours: white -w, black -bk, red -re, pink -pi, yellow -ye, and orange -or).
The watch is very thin at only 7mm and feels similar to the Casio Film Watch, but the watch face is pretty large at 46x41mm. Time is displayed on two (inverse) dot matrix LCD displays, with hours and minutes at the top, and seconds & am/pm on the bottom.
Current price in Japan for this watch is around 2000 yen (2079 yen at www.sunflame.Co.Jp)

Seiko Frequency model II - globe edition B010-4000

Today is one of Seiko's unusual designs - the Seiko Frequency. The Frequency was released in the late 90s as a club watch (for DJs, ravers, or musicians) . The unusual feature is that the watch has a built in drum machine with six drum loops, as well as both a sound and light metronome. The drum loops were composed by Tetsuya "TK" Komuro, who is a J-Pop star and a pioneer of Japanese electronic dance. The watch shown is the model II, Globe version (-Globe being one of TK's brands), and shows the text "globe" instead of "rhythm" on the display. TK's symbol is also imprinted on the back of the watch.

Other features include a chronograph, and an alarm function (for those who like to be woken by the beat of a drum).

The watch model number is B010-4000
The second picture is one of the original 1999 adverts (found on the web) showing the watches (model I) and TK himself.

Quiz time - Citizen Independent 1481010 abacus 1 D410-S70151

As I've got through around 1% of my collection, and haven't had any unusual ways to tell the time, I thought it was time for a quiz:
So what time does the watch say?
The watch is a Citizen Independent 1481010 with a D410 module using LEDs to show the time. When the button is pressed, the watch first tells the time, followed by a flashing pattern which changes by the hour. When the battery begins to run low, the patters is replaced by a single flashing LED (4 flashes for low battery, 10 for very low).
The 1481010 range has 4 variations with his module, 3 colour variations in plastic, and one metal version. There is also another set which uses the same case, but with a more traditional number display.
As for telling the time, I'll leave that to a later update after someone has guessed what the time is!

[UPDATE] The time was correctly worked out through facebook! The watch in the bottom picture is showing the time 13:08. The digits are shown in columns, two with green LEDs for the hours and two with orange LEDs for the minutes. A red LED counts as a 5 at the top of any column. So the time shown is
1 3 : 0 (5+3) = 13:08

For more info on the 1481010 line, see http://whichwatchtoday.blogspot.com/p/citizen-independent-1481010-overview.html

Citizen Independent 1481010 D380-L18404 blue & clear

Today, it's another of my Citizen Independent 1481010 collection. This watch was released sometime between 1998 and 2003, and can be found in a lot of different colours and many special editions. I'll be showing more of these as I work through my collection.

The watch itself has a curved dot matrix LCD, and the D380 module gives it a chronograph and two alarms.
The main standout part of the design is the large button with a nuclear reactor symbol on. When pressed, this sounds one of the two alarms, and the display shows jumping graphic equaliser style bars for a while.

The alarms were composed by Japanese DJ Ken Ishii (and there is an Ishii special edition in the 1481010 range).

The main strap is a one-piece metal band which is quite springy. A lot of these watches suffer from breakages of the strap in the plastic sections used for linking the parts of the watch together, probably due in part to the metal strap wanting to straighten all of the time.

For more info on the 1481010 brand, see http://whichwatchtoday.blogspot.com/p/citizen-independent-1481010-overview.html

Seiko Alba AKA W670-4000 black/red

This watch is another from the Seiko Alba AKA watch line.

The display on this watch is an LED illuminated dot matrix LCD, with a module number W670. The time is displayed when the front button is pressed, or one of the mode buttons is used. This is a more common modern take on the original LED display shown yesterday - you can tell the difference mainly by the wider and dimmer segments on the symbols, and the brightness is a little uneven across the display.
Function-wise, the watch has a chronograph, timer and alarm.

The design is very angular, with subtle curves along the edges, and could be bought in silver or black versions. The strap is the same shiny metal, with an air-vent style design on the segments next to the watch head.
The shiny black, the vents and angular design definitely remind me of Darth Vader!

Storm digi rom

Today I'm wearing another of my Storm watches - the DIGI ROM.
This watch has a true LED display in the same style as the original 1970s LED watches (instead of the more common modern LED illuminated LCD displays, an example of which I'll show in the next day or two).
The time is displayed in two windows at the touch of a button (so needs two hands), and the watch only has two modes; time and date.
For the strap, this watch has metal sections linked by a flexible plastic joint. So if you buy a second hand one, make sure your wrist is the same size or smaller as the strap needs to be cut to size.
The watch code on the back for those interested in details is AE D7

John the watch

So today is the first proof that my watch collection is not just full of rare and exclusive watches, but is home to the weird, wonderful, and occasionally downright silly! This watch firmly falls in the silly category :-).

The watch itself is a standard, watch which I've seen sold cheaply in many stores. The model is called the Rubicon, and manufactured for the Yazaki Co. Ltd from Tokyo. On the box, the Rubicon is refered to as "The Great Trick Timepiece".

What got me interested in buying this one was that it had been given a cute personality ( reminding me of cookie monster from sesame street), and that we share a name - yes, the watch is called John! Everyone, say hi to John the watch :-) The conclusion of this post is that if you want to make a cheap plain watch interesting, give it eyes and a name, and make it cute (and I'll buy it. ;-) ) !!

Swatch x kidrobot: shout out by MAD. GP133

Today's watch is a swatch from their collaboration range with kidrobot. This watch is called "Shout Out" and is designed by Kansas-based artist, illustrator and t-shirt/toy designer MAD. MAD's quote about his design was "Sometimes you just need to scream. This design pulls elements from my various illustration artwork and transforms it into an all over pattern that we can relate to at all times. ". The watch is part of a 2011 fall/winter range including many artists (8 in total) , and each comes with a matching Dunny art toy. This particular watch is designated GP133

Casio Film Watch FS-02

My watch today is a Film Watch by Casio. There are several different versions of the Film Watch (more will come in later posts), but the thing that all of them have in common is their thinness.
This version has a round (donut) shaped display that can be used in 3 modes:
Digital time display with day and date.
Digital hands/dial display.
Digital time with animated animals running back and forth along the bottom.
In the animated animal display, the animal changes every 10sec, and will have done 10 widths or 1 width in the time (and this alternates every minute). My guess at the animals are - horse, cat, squirrel, dog, shark and frog.
The model number of this Film Watch is the FS-02, and has a World time, data bank, and stopwatch feature.

Alba AKA dual dial

Sunday's watch is one from the Alba AKA group of watches. Alba is a subbrand of Seiko watches, started in 1979 with the name bring used mainly in Asia and the Middle East. The AKA range was designed to appeal to young fashionable people, and was in competition with the Citizen Independent 1481010 line (one of which was shown yesterday).

This Alba AKA has two independent watch dials, each can be set separately and has its own battery. The model/movement number is Y15W, but also shows (Y151 + Y150) reflecting that the two dials have slightly different movements (only the top one has a second hand). As the dimensions of the watch are quite narrow, I'd guess it was designed as a unisex or youth watch.

Citizen Independent 1481010 neophilia yellow - D510

Here is the first from my Citizen Independent 1481010 collection - the neophilia (yellow).
The definition of neophilia is a tendency to like anything new, or a love of novelty. So by that definition, my watch collecting habits definitely make me a neophiliac!

The neophilia is one of a number of different designs released under the 1481010 banner between 1997 and 2003 mainly in Japan. For more info on the 1481010 brand, see  http://whichwatchtoday.blogspot.com/p/citizen-independent-1481010-overview.html

This watch has a mirrored inverse LCD which by default shows the seconds. When the time button is pressed, the display changes to a 3 line standard display, which only turns back when the watch has remained still for a set time. The neophilia also has a chronograph, timer and alarm setting.

The full model number for this watch is D510-S90887

Timex Skiathlom (also accidently referred to as Skiathlon)

Today's watch is a retro LCD watch by Timex. The Skiathlom is designed for easy use on the slopes, with a chronograph function (with large front buttons for easy use in ski-gloves), and an outside temperature sensor (which shows on a bar along the top of the display).

Two versions of the watch strap exist (with the shown elastic strap, and with a plastic/resin strap), and at least two different colour schemes were sold (blue & red, and purple & light blue). The watch has also been mis-quoted as Timex Skiathlon in many sites, but on closer inspection, it is indeed Skiathlom!

The watch has two lines of LCD (date along the top and time along the bottom), and the LCD bar where the temperature measurement is shown. It has alarm, chronograph, and timer modes as well as the time and temperature sensing.

It seems that the watch was released in the late 1980s and into the early 90s. One forum post from a collector mentioned that this came out in 1987 with a big advertizing push from Timex.  The trademark for the Skiathlom name was registered by Timex in 1986, and cancelled in 1993

A copy of the watch manual has been put out by a kind collector on a blog post at http://248am.com/mark/personal/timex-skiathlom/
The direct link is http://www.248am.com/files/Timex-Skiathlom.zip

A slightly different version called the K-28 Surf was released a little later with the same design, but for surfers. More information on this watch can be found on it's page here.

Timex Skiathlom logo

LED dot matrix

Today's watch is a bit of a mystery item. I bought it because I liked the looks, but know nothing about the maker or the history. The only hint is the logo of an eagle within a triangle. This is another watch that you can't check at a glance as you need to press a button to activate. When you do, there is a random animation of the display clearing, and then the time is displayed.

Storm Dyno

Today's watch is is by the London design brand Storm (which was the first one I started collecting).
This watch is a Storm Dyno limited edition in light red, and only 1000 have been made in this particular model.
It's a watch you can't check at a glance, as only the minute dial is visible from the front, and you need to turn the watch to the side to see the hour wheel.

First watch on the list - zucca safari zoo

After deciding to collect watches, I have been wondering how to share information about my watch collection for other like-minded people. So here it is...
The first watch I'm sharing is a Cabane de Zucca Safari Zoo. This is one of a set of (at least) four different animal prints (which will appear in later posts). The watch seems to be based on a Citizen movement (W240-4120).
So hopefully you'll find this interesting and please comment (especially if you know any more info about these watches)