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Monday, 24 September 2012

Seiko Alba Field Gear V701 Thermo and Lens

Today's watch is definitely designed for the outdoors enthusiasts.

It was released under the Seiko Alba brand, in a line they called Field Gear. Most of the Field Gear watches have a rugged feel to them, but only this model was designed to help in the great outdoors!

The watch itself is a standard 3-hand dial watch based on the Seiko V701 module. It has a strong woven strap, fastened with velcro with size adjustment. What sets it apart from the other watches is the additional functions built into the case.

The first item is the thermometer dial, which I guess uses a bi-metallic strip which coils and uncoils with temperature.

The second item is maybe noticeable in that the watch face looks a little magnified. When you open the lid, the magnifying lens stays on the lid, and could be used for either starting fires, or examining things.

The final item is the signal mirror which is hidden under the lid. If you get lost or stranded on an island, you can use this to reflect the sun to attract passing aircraft or boats, (or just annoy cats if you don't venture too much into the wilderness).

Unusually for a Seiko, there is no model number on the back, but from the catalogue I know it is V701-1Y9-2L9. The catalogue number is APBT093, and it was sold for 11,000 yen.

The watch originally came out in the early /mid 90s (1996 or earlier), but had stopped by 1999.






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