It seems I can add another sub-collection to my watch collecting, but I haven't decided whether it is just Astro Boy watches or whether I should admit already that it is manga/anime watches in general.
This watch one of my Astro Boy watches. Astro Boy is known in his home country as Mighty Atom or Tetsuwan Atom, and he was created by the God of Manga Osamu Tezuka. Osamu Tezuka is one of the most famous Manga artists in Japan, and has been thought of as a Japanese Disney (which has also more recently been said of Hayao Miyazaki from Studio Ghibli). Astro Boy is probably his most famous work outside of Japan, but his productivity has resulted in over 150,000 pages of Manga. This watch is slightly unusual in that it has Japanese text as well as the name Astro Boy, so is mixing the Japanese and western names.
The watch is a 3 hand dial design in a tonneau (barrel) shaped case. There are also 2 smaller dials at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions which cover date and day respectively. The dial features two pictures of Astro Boy, with his face at the 6 and 12 o'clock positions. The face also has the Astro Boy name in the centre circle with the same Japanese text on the clasp on the strap. The back also feature the same two Astro Boy pictures as the dial and shows that this is a limited edition with a release of 500 units. The other information on the back is the standard, stating this is 3atm water resistant, and that it uses a Japanese quartz movement. The one major piece of missing information on the watch is the manufacturer, with only the copyright (Tezuka Productions) being included!
The date is again difficult to pin down, but if I assume that the watch came out for a special event or novie/series release, it would suggest that the most likely link would be to the 2003/04 series restart or 2005 Japanese movie. Not much had happened in the 90s with Astro Boy, and I think this looks too modern for an 80s watch, but the 2009 computer animated movie is a remote possibility.
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