Alba Neatnik Round V501

It's a second Alba in a row for today's post, and one that's quite a different style.
The watch is from the Alba Neatnik range that was released in 1999 (Alba's 20th anniversary year). A Neatnik is defined as someone who is habitually neat and tidy, and the adverts for the range asked the question "are you neat?".

The early watched from Neatnik range are easily identifiable by small dials, plastic clip or rubber straps, and aluminium cases. The cases are usually stamped with the phrase Aluminium h.a.o.c. which stands for hard anodic oxidation coatings, and refers to the process used to prepare the Aluminium.

This model has a round case and a V501 module. The dial is in the middle of the face, and is a two hand dial - but minutes and seconds! The hours are shown using a smaller circular window at the 5 o'clock position with a rotating disc behind. As this window is so small, between the hour numbers there is a half hour marker which actually shows the hour as as e.g. 4½.

This model has the rubber strap which is a one piece design passing behind the case of the watch. Reading the info on the back is therefore harder, but it shows a full model number of V501-5F60 and details it was made in early 1999. The watch doesn't appear until the later half of 1999 in the catalogue and had a catalogue number of AMXS005. The original sale price was 12,000 yen.

The Neatnik range seem to have been less common than other watches of the time, as you don't see them for sale very often compared to others such as the Seiko AKA, Citizen 1481010, or Alba Spoon.