Metro Starlike

Today is another of the watches from the mysterious Metro brand. I've blogged about this brand before, and what it looks like is that they are a Japanese brand (possibly linked to a furniture store), but with very little firm information around.

This model is called Starlike (deviating from the more common American city naming convention). It is an automatic mechanical watch with a 3 hand mechanism, but only using 2 hands. The seconds hand is replaced by a rotating disc which makes moving patterns with another disc below. There is also a date marker at the 3 o'clock position. 

The strap is a leather strap with a matching geometric pattern, and a Metro branded buckle. 

My best guess is that this is from the late 2000s, and I found an auction article which suggested an original sales price of ¥12600.

Handmade Crescent Moon watch

Today, I'm at a conference where I'm making a presentation on a system I have developed, so wanted a watch with a more home-made feel.

This watch may be unique! It isn't a watch by a major brand, or even a minor one. All I know is that it is a handmade craft watch, and it was made by someone in Japan.

The watch part has a 3 hand dial with a quartz movement. The special bit is the case.

The case is designed as a crescent moon surrounding the round watch part. The text on the dial and around the crescent are hand etched roman numerals, and there is the makers name on the centre of the dial (but I can only make out that it starts with the letter T). From the crescent are two loops where the leather strap loops through. The strap is made from thick leather and is riveted at all joints, making me think that this is hand made too.

Watch brand summary page - SeaHope

Today, it's time for another page summarizing a particular brand or line of watches. All of the details can be found on the page:
http://whichwatchtoday.blogspot.com/p/seahope-watches.html

Citizen Independent 1481010 D380-L18404 blue & clear

Today, it's another of my Citizen Independent 1481010 collection. This watch was released sometime between 1998 and 2003, and can be found in a lot of different colours and many special editions. I'll be showing more of these as I work through my collection.

The watch itself has a curved dot matrix LCD, and the D380 module gives it a chronograph and two alarms.
The main standout part of the design is the large button with a nuclear reactor symbol on. When pressed, this sounds one of the two alarms, and the display shows jumping graphic equaliser style bars for a while.

The alarms were composed by Japanese DJ Ken Ishii (and there is an Ishii special edition in the 1481010 range).

The main strap is a one-piece metal band which is quite springy. A lot of these watches suffer from breakages of the strap in the plastic sections used for linking the parts of the watch together, probably due in part to the metal strap wanting to straighten all of the time.

For more info on the 1481010 brand, see http://whichwatchtoday.blogspot.com/p/citizen-independent-1481010-overview.html