Super Sea Story Super Lucky Watch

Today's watch was very confusing as it wasn't promoting what I thought it was.

The watch is called Super Sea Story Super Lucky Watch, and has a very fishy theme. The colour scheme is different shades of blue and white and the face features a couple of fish (possibly Dugong). The strap is also following the same theme and features pictures of different sea animals along its length. The featured animals are: Octopus, Porcupine Fish, Turtle, Shark, Lobster, Goosefish, Dugong, Angelfish, and Crab.

So based on this, it looks like a promotional watch for an aquarium or sea life centre - but that isn't the case.

The watch was made by Sanyo Bussan Co., Ltd, and when searching for all of those terms together, it revealed that this is a promotional watch for a Pachinko machine. Pachinko is a very popular mechanical arcade machine in Japan, and is equivalent to a slot machine without the cash. You play by firing small metal balls into the machine, and if the balls go in the right places, more balls are released, with the aim of getting as many balls as possible. Due to the gambling laws, you can't swap these for cash at the venue, but can get prizes or tokens, or they can be 'sold' at nearby (but separate) venues for cash. The Super Sea Story pachinko seems to be a series of machines with a sea life theme, and seems to be pretty popular. The earliest examples I've found online was from 2008, but there have been new versions since.

The watch is a limited edition model, with a release of only 300 units. It is a 3 hand dial design in plastic, with a rotating bezel. The only hour marker on the dial is the number 7 which is shown in a bubble, and I assume is there because it is 'lucky 7'.

Sanyo RaWatch R10P AM Radio Watch

Another watch I've unfortunately been unable to fix today.

The watch is by the Japanese electronics company Sanyo (which is now a subsidiary of Panasonic).

It came out in the mid 80s and is a watch and AM radio called the RaWatch. Sanyo produced quite a few different radio watches in the 80s (both AM and FM radio options). This model has the designation RW-R10P (-the RW is only mentioned on the box which I found in a photo).

The watch has a mono headphone socket on the bottom left, and tuner dial on the bottom right. The top right has another dial called ATT. which I think means attenuation.

The watch part has a basic LCD display, with mode and setting buttons, and will display time, date, (and I'd guess seconds). Across the top of the LCD is a marker for the day too.

There isn't much info on the back of the watch, as it just has the Sanyo logo and model number. Internet searching has shown me that the watch originally cost 7,500 yen, and it included the ear piece in the box.

Sanyo Amorton Solar Watch 514-67

The sun isn't really out anymore, but I found that this solar watch I thought was dead had been revived. So to avoid the risk of it dying again before it was blogged, I thought I'd share it today.

The watch is by Sanyo who are a Japanese electronics company and are now part of the Panasonic group (since 2009). The Sanyo logo can be found on the face and engraved into the back.

The watch has an Amorton Solar panel to provide the power. Amorton is Sanyo/Panasonic's range of integrated amorphous silicon solar cells. Sanyo was one of the first companies to focus on this type of solar cell. They used the technology on self branded watches originally, but now the panels are normally made for others.

Internet searches for the model number (514-67) lead to no hits, suggesting that the watches may not have been produced in large numbers. I'm guessing that it is from the 80s, but haven't been able to confirm that. It was made in Japan and has

It is a standard LCD display watch the with a 6 digit display and day marker along the top. Mode-wise, it has multi alarms and a countdown timer. The model number is on the back, along with a two part number split into 3 and 4 digits which I guess is a serial number.