Seiko Alba Spoon W626 - Nagano Winter Olympics Special Edition

The weather here is still pretty cold, and many friends are going skiing for their Easter holidays from today, so today's choice is a winter watch.

It is a special edition watch to commemorate "The XVIII Olympic Winter Games, Nagano 1998" (to quote the embroidered fabric sign on the inside of the strap). The watch is from the Spoon range of watches that were released by Seiko under it's Alba brand from the mid 90s. The Spoon watches were one of the first of the modern unusual design fashion watches from the 90s, and I guess was inspiration for the Seiko AKA, and Citizen Independent 1481010 watches.

This design is one of the common Spoon designs with the LCD display in a narrow band across the middle of the curved case. The display is a white LCD with mirrored numbers and has 6 digits. It uses a W626 module (full number W626-4000) and has alarm, chronograph, and timer functions. The module also has a light which uses the main button on the watch's face.

The range was for the 1998 Winter Olympics but this one was made in 1997. The original price was 13,500 yen, and had a catalogue number of AZRC002.