United Colors of Benetton Soft Digit LCD drivers watch

For today's watch, I'm blogging one that is a mix of brand and styles which have each been blogged before, but not in this combination.

The watch is from the brand United Colors of Benetton, but isn't one of the Benetton by Bulova models. Benetton has been around since 1965 when it began as a family business after one of the family members produced bright colourful clothing which was unusual at the time. Their most famous line of products came around in the 80s or 90s as United Colors of Benetton. This line was mainly where the most colourful and fashionable products were marketed, and the also produced various ranges of watches.

This watch is from a range called Soft Digit and is an LCD drivers watch. The drivers watch design means that the display is on the front edge of your wrist rather than on the top. This was originally designed so that you could see the time while keeping hold of the cars steering wheel, hence it was a watch for drivers. This Benetton model is a modern take on the design with a mirrored LCD display with 4 digits. The LCD panel is rectangular and shows 2 digits per line to make the digits as large as practical and easy to read. There aren't any real modes to the watch, but it can show time, date, or seconds.

The side mounted LCD is surrounded by a thin metal rectangle with the United Colors of Benetton name engraved into it. This is all mounted in a one piece rubbery plastic (maybe silicone) strap with an expanding clasp. As the strap needs to be cut to size, you should check what size it is if you want to buy one second hand.

I haven't worked out when this was released, but as the only ones for sale are on auction sites, I'd guess it will be from the 2000s, but not older than 2002. The earliest date is set because the price label is in Euros, and the watch sold for €40.