Seiko Alba AKA V743 - Black and Aquamarine

As I'm quite a collector of late 90s fashion watches, the AKA watches are a little under reported.

Seiko released the AKA brand under their Alba brand new the mid 90s. They followed on from the Spoon watches which seemed to mark a change from function to fashion in the popular watch styles. The AKA line featured various different designs with sci-fi looks and bright colours, and were the main competition for the later Citizen Independent 1481010 watches.

This model is an oval design based around the V743 module and is similar in style to the silver limited edition V742 AKA I blogged just over 2 years ago. Looking at the differences between the watches, it seems that the V743 just has the addition of the day window compared to the V742.

It is a 3 hand dial design with the centre hidden behind a spot painted on the glass. There is a day and date window at the 3 o'clock position which fits nicely with the oval dial, and the crown is at the 4 o'clock position. This model is one of the less common black anodised versions with a black case and strap, and the case is 10 bar water resistant.

The full model number is V743-5A10, and this one was made in late 1996. It was part of a sub-range called black&gold which came out in 1997 and had black and gold cased versions for a higher cost than the normal silver models. This model had the catalogue number AMBN007 and it cost ¥15,000.