Alba Disney Mickey & Minnie Y950 Ana-Digi

In April 2013, I blogged about a vintage Alba watch with an analogue dial and an LCD in the glass. One of the conclusions of the blog post was that it was quite an uncommon model.

This watch shares the same module as that watch, the Y950, but this time it is a Disney version.

The Y950 watches came out in the early 90s and was one of the designs which seem to have been reasonably high tech and expensive for the time. The Y950 has a 3 hand dial which uses a crown for setting purposes. The glass has an LCD display built in with various display options. At the top and bottom of the LCD are two lines of digits, the top one able to show letters too. By default, these show day and date at the top and time at the bottom, but are also used by the alarm and stopwatch modes. In the centre of the display you can normally bring up a full month-view calendar with this module, however in this watch, the calendar has been replaced with an LCD picture of Mickey & Minnie.

This particular version is done as part of the collaboration between the Seiko brand Alba and Disney which has been going on maybe since the Alba brand was established. The watch face features a picture of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and above the face are the words 'Mickey & Minnie'.

This watch was made in 1983 (same as the previously blogged model) and has a full model number of Y950-5030.

Mickey Submarine watch

There seems to have been many different designs and makers of Disney watches, and this is another less known model.

This watch is called the Mickey Submarine and is a more adult looking watch than many of the Mickey Mouse watches. It is a divers design watch, with a thick rotating bezel that has minutes (or seconds) markers around. The face has the famous outline of Mickey Mouse, along with the watch name Mickey Mouse, and a copyright to Disney. The Mickey outline is also on the end of the crown. There is only one number on the face, the number 6, with only hour markers on the others.

The back of the watch has no markings, but the buckle has the name Adriano. This may be the makers name, but I haven't found a website for the brand.

The watch is a 3 hand dial design with a date window at the 3 o'clock position, and inside is a quartz movement.

There are no indications of the date on the watch or online, so I'd have to guess this is a 2000s model (based on the condition but lack of online info), but could also be 90s.

Disney Limited Collection - Mickey Mouse Chronograph V655

I'm wearing another chronograph today, but this one is a little different.

Today's watch is a Disney Mickey Mouse Chronograph, which is a very child friendly design, but with a more adult watch feature. The design charts the progression of the Mickey design from Steamboat Willy in 1928 through the early colour design (1931), and on to what I presume was the present when the watch was released (1994). The strap also features this motif with the 3 Mickey designs running after each other. The Mickey Mouse theme also continues with the rotating bezel which has Mickey's name and a little Mickey Mouse head shape at the top.

The watch is made by the Seiko brand Alba and uses a V655 module. It is a 3 hand dial design with 3 chronograph hands on the dial. The chronograph style is similar to quite a few other watches (such as the GSX Smart Style) with a top dial covering 1/10 sec (2 sec per rotation), bottom dial for seconds, and left dial for minutes. If the chronograph dials become misaligned, they can also be adjusted by using the chronograph buttons while the crown is pulled out.

The chronograph dials also are designed to fit in with the Mickey over the ages theme. The seconds dial is designed like the old Mickey Mouse watch design with Mickey's hands acting as the watch hand, and the minutes dial has a picture of Mickey as Steamboat Willy on his boat.

It seems to be part of a range called Disney Limited Collection, and only has a 4 digit serial number, which implies there are 9999 or fewer watches (mine has a number less than 1000 though). It has a full model number of V655-605A.

Disney Time - Cinderella mechanical watch

Today's watch is another of my Disney watches, but this time I think it's a much older model.

This model is a Disney Time watch, which was made by Seiko, and their name is hidden on the bottom of the dial and can only be seen when you take the movement out. It has a Seiko movement in the shape of a Diashock 7 jewel movement. This Diashock movement is a hand wind mechanical movement which drives a 3 hand dial. Looking inside, it seems to be a DT731 caliber 375.

The front of the watch shows the Disney character Cinderella in a pink dress rather than her more well known blue dress. It also has the name Disney Time which I presume was the name of the line.

The back also has the Disney Time name and copyright to Walt Disney Productions. It also details the Diashock 7 jewel movement, and the model number which is 73979.

With regards to the age, I've found two different conflicting dates. One site has a Mickey Mouse version in this line quoting 1961, but another site has a Cinderella watch stating 1977. From the design I'd say 60s looks more likely, but I'm not completely sure. The Disney Time watches might be quite rare and expensive, as the Mickey watch was selling with an price of ¥44,000.

Mickey Mouse Comic Strip watch by Lorus

I'm working at the opening of a library today so thought that a comic strip watch might be appropriate. The comic also mentions the movies, and as the library shares the same building as a cinema, it makes it especially right.

The watch is a Disney Mickey Mouse comic strip watch which works from one end of the strap, across the face, and down to the other end. The story tells of Mickey going to meet Minnie for a trip to the movies. She is running late, so Mickey let's on that he new that would be true and so told her that he'd said an hour early as he knew that was likely (which is told on the watch face). This backfires, as when Minnie finds she has more time, she uses it to get changes again!

The watch part is a 3 hand dial design by Lorus. Lorus is an company under the Seiko Corporation, and this was one of multiple watches that Lorus made for Disney. It uses a V515 module and has a full model number of V515-6610. On the back it also says Shiojiri Ltd (probably named after the city of Shiojiri in Nagano). Shiojiri Seiko make a range of watch movements and would have been the supplier of the V515. I don't know when the watch is from as there is no serial number, but I'd guess it is from the 80s.

Alba Mickey & Minnie melody alarm watch Y758

Today, I'm back on the old kids watches again with an old-school Disney LCD watch.

This one is another mystery watch, as the only search hit is for one sold in 2011, and I've not found a single photo online.

The watch is from the Seiko brand Alba, and was made in 1981 (and the model was still on sale in 1982). There are many discussions about these being 70s watches, but as Alba was only started in 1979, most are 80s at the earliest.

Alba had a collaboration with (copyright holders) Walt Disney Productions where they produced a range of Disney watches including Mickey and Minnie Mouse. This model has a Y758 module, and is a melody alarm watch which uses the Mickey Mouse song as the alarm music. The face has a music theme with Mickey playing the flute for Minnie, and their names written across musical staves at the top. The LCD display follows this theme with the markers for days being musical notes above the 3 1/2 digit time display. The LCD also includes Minnie's face and has her winking and blinking every 1/2 second.

The full model number is Y758-5000, and the watch has a plastic construction. The leather strap (which looks to not be original), also has Mickey's head on the buckle. The watch came in 3 different colours (black, red, and brown), and this is the brown version (however the red and on the face has faded). The catalogue number was WK014R and it was originally sold for 7,800 yen.

Mickey Mouse Projector watch

I'm blogging a modern kids watch today.

I saw it while looking for a kids present, and decided as I am a big kid at heart, I'd buy a watch while I was at it.

The watch is a basic 4 digit LCD watch, with two buttons on the front (left for setting, right for mode). The more unusual part is that there is a projector built in.
When you press the yellow button on the left of the watch, one of four Disney pictures are projected from the right side of the watch. Around the projector lens there is a black ring which can be rotated to focus the image depending on where you project it to. The image can be changed by rotating the yellow ring around the display. Overall, there are 10 different images.

There are no manufacturers marks on the outside of the watch, and all it states is that it needs 4x1.5V batteries.

Seiko Alba Donald Duck LCD Game Watch

After the flashy modern LED watches of the last few days, I've gone retro again.

Today's watch is an LCD watch by the Seiko sub-brand Alba.

The Alba watch line has been an official manufacturer /distributor of Disney watches since the 1970s, and has released many LCD and dial watches. The copyright on the watch is held by Walt Disney ProductToys. This watch was made in 1981, and seems to never have been worn. Unfortunately, I can't wear it either as the strap has become brittle with age.

This design is a Donald Duck watch with a Y755 module. It features Donald flipping pancakes for two of his nephews on the front. The pancake theme also works through the LCD display, as the day markers along the top of the LCD are also pancakes.

It is also a game watch, and it seems that you can have to flip the pancakes and press a button to land them on Donalds nephews plate. Do it right and a small stack of pancakes appears on the bottom of the display, but if you miss you restart. This is my best guess on the action, but I can't work out if there is a score or not.

As well as the game, the watch has date and alarm (shown by a bugle on the LCD panel), and uses a 4 digit LCD display. Light is provided by a small bulb behind Donald.

The full model number is Y755-5000, and the catalogue number is WZ024R. It's original sale price was 7,800 yen.

Dinosaurs (TV) Baby Sinclair watch by Hope Industries

When I was in my teens, I used to watch a TV puppet series about a dysfunctional family of dinosaurs called the Sinclair family. The series was called Dinosaurs, and included Jim Henson Productions as one of the two production companies, and was released in association with Walt Disney Television.

The series is set in Pangaea in 60,000,003 BC, and was a sitcom around the dinosaurs family lives. Many names in the series are linked with oil companies (Sinclair Oil (who use a dinosaur as a logo), Phillips, Hess, Richfield, and BP) referencing the belief that dinosaurs were one of the origins of oil.

This watch was released in the 1990s by Hope Industries Inc. from New York (but made in China). It features one of the most popular characters from the series, Baby Sinclair (who shared a voice actor with Elmo from Sesame Street), with the LCD display showing in his baby bottle. The copyright for the watch is held by The Walt Disney Company. The watch head is Baby Sinclair lying in its basket, and the strap is textured to be like rock.

The watch only has a simple LCD module, with time, date, and seconds.
I really like the way these old watches promote themselves as having 5 functions, when that only means day, month, hours, minutes, and seconds! It also promotes that this has an adjustable strap (!), and a battery included (!!).