Seiko AirPro A861 - Oh! Ya? 99SS Astro Boy Limited Edition

The problem with collecting watches from the 70s and onwards is that the materials used degrade over time.

The Seiko AirPro watches are one that have suffered so need to be handled with kid gloves.

Three variations of AirPro were released and this is the A861 version which were called Robo Air. This version has a basic LCD display (with 6 digits), but talks when you press the front button, telling the time in Japanese. It also has alarm and stopwatch modes.

This one was made in 1998 (which was the first year the trademark was registered), and is a limited edition for Astro Boy. The difference between this and the basic model (which was coded SBZV007) is that the top panel is clear revealing the speaker, and there is text printed on the panel. The text says "Oh! Ya? 99SS Astro Boy" and has Astro Boy's silhouette with the copyright Tetsuka Productions. The production run was very limited with only 300 ever being released.

Astro Boy (or Tetsuwan Atomu, or Mighty Atom) was the star of a Japanese manga by Osamu Tezuka (the "God of Manga") which started in 1952. Astro Boy was a robot made by Dr Tenma to replace his son who died in a car crash, but was given to the circus after he realised the robot could never be human. Astro was then rescued by Prof Ochanomizu and ended up fighting injustice, crime, and other evils.

The full model number is A861-4010