Tuesday 18 August 2015

Alba W800 Compass Watch

It's sunny again today, so I thought I'd choose a colourful model for today's watch. The watch I chose is by the Seiko brand Alba, and is one I've nicknamed the Alba Pokéball watch due to the colour scheme of the face.

The watch is based on the W800 module and it seems has been marketed under the 3 main Seiko brands, Alba, Pulsar, and Lorus.
It is an LCD watch with a very busy display to show lots of information at the same time. The bottom third of the screen is the time and date display over two lines. The remaining 2/3 is dominated by a circular area where the compass mode is displayed, but acts as a crude seconds marker when the time is on. Around the top half of this circle is an area which fills with the seconds (10 segments), while at the sides of the bottom half of the circle are boxes which show the selected mode.

The W800 module is a compass model, but doesn't seem to give a live compass display. From what I've read, you select the direction you are wanting to find, point the watch at the sun, and it will then point to the direction you are wanting. The watch has the other normal digital watch features of chronograph (with recall function) and alarm. Setting the watch is simple, and is done by holding the top left button until the display flashes, and then using the right side buttons to change the time (bottom to change the number, and top to move to the next option/number).

The case is a plastic design with metal back, and this variation is a light purple with yellow and light green buttons. The face is red and white with a light green circle, and this is what gives it the Pokéball appearance. Overall, the watch is 10 bar water resistant, and it was assembled in China.

The full model number is W800-0010, and both the serial number and the start date for the module date function show it is from 1992.

5 comments:

  1. Hi I just buy one in black. So have you figured out how the direction works? Thx

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  2. Hello. Does this watch have light? I happen to have previously LORUS W800-0020 and it doesn't have light. Sold already unfortunately. Thanks.

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