Seiko Alba My Neighbour Totoro V501 watch

Today's watch mixes a major manufacturer with a well loved Japanese anime character.
The watch is part of the My Neighbour Totoro collection by the Seiko brand Alba. My Neighbour Totoro is a feelgood anime from the famous Studio Ghibli, and one of their most loved movies. The story features the adventures of two young girls who, after moving house, meet various creatures around their house and garden, including soot sprites and Totoro, King of the forest. The movie was released in 1988 and is one that helped bring Japanese anime to a global audience, with Totoro being viewed as one of the greatest animated characters. I'm a fan of the movie, so it's nice to get a watch that matches.

The Alba brand seems to be a major south Totoro watches, with many different designs featuring in their My Neighbour Totoro collection. This model is a 3 hand dial design which is powered by a Seiko V501 movement. It is a ladies/children's size watch with a gold case and blue strap. The watch has a Japanese movement, but was cased in China, and the strap has a series of Japanese characters I can't read on the back.

The face is a light gold with a shiny gold picture in the middle, but was also available in silver. The picture depicts one of the small Totoro sitting on a leaf and holding some acorns.

The full model number is V501-0BB0, and the catalogue number is ACBS738 (or similar, as that number has the same case but a brown strap). The Alba Totoro watches have been around since at least the 90s, but from the serial number (and the Chinese construction), I would guess this is from 2003 and I found it in the 2003 catalogue too. Online, I've seen this for sale originally for ¥6,300, and that was the rrp including tax.

Alba Trailmaster V501

It's raining hard this morning, so I wanted a watch that was used to the outdoors.

This watch is by the Seiko brand Alba, and is part of their Trailmaster range. The Trailmaster watches seem to be designed for light outdoor pursuits, being rugged, but not overly so.

This model is based around the V501 module, previously seen in a couple of Alba Neatnik watches. It is a basic 3 hand design with a Japanese quartz module (possibly Seiko Epson), and cased in China. The hands and numbers are high visibility and very easy to read, so ideal for the outdoors, and the Trailmaster name is printed around the edge of the case. The case is hard resin with a thick plastic glass, and is made to be 10 bar water resistant. The strap is fabric so hard to break, yet comfortable and quick drying. This is the black version, but they made versions of this design in navy blue, white, and dark green too.

Looking at the serial number, and the dates of the other V501 watches points towards this being from 1998, and that was confirmed when I found it in the catalogue. The full model number is V501-0BH0, the catalogue number was APBH031, and the original sale price was ¥3500.

Alba Neatnik Round V501

It's a second Alba in a row for today's post, and one that's quite a different style.
The watch is from the Alba Neatnik range that was released in 1999 (Alba's 20th anniversary year). A Neatnik is defined as someone who is habitually neat and tidy, and the adverts for the range asked the question "are you neat?".

The early watched from Neatnik range are easily identifiable by small dials, plastic clip or rubber straps, and aluminium cases. The cases are usually stamped with the phrase Aluminium h.a.o.c. which stands for hard anodic oxidation coatings, and refers to the process used to prepare the Aluminium.

This model has a round case and a V501 module. The dial is in the middle of the face, and is a two hand dial - but minutes and seconds! The hours are shown using a smaller circular window at the 5 o'clock position with a rotating disc behind. As this window is so small, between the hour numbers there is a half hour marker which actually shows the hour as as e.g. 4½.

This model has the rubber strap which is a one piece design passing behind the case of the watch. Reading the info on the back is therefore harder, but it shows a full model number of V501-5F60 and details it was made in early 1999. The watch doesn't appear until the later half of 1999 in the catalogue and had a catalogue number of AMXS005. The original sale price was 12,000 yen.

The Neatnik range seem to have been less common than other watches of the time, as you don't see them for sale very often compared to others such as the Seiko AKA, Citizen 1481010, or Alba Spoon.

Seiko Alba nn V501

Yesterday's and today's watches have a slight similarly - they both have hands that point to different dials depending on what time it is.
This watch is from the Seiko Alba label, and may be called the nn (as it is the only writing on the dial). It could also be part of the Neatnik range (nn=neatnik?) which fits in with some of the watches design features. Based on the serial number, it was made in 1999, but it doesn't appear in the Alba 1999 vol 1 catalogue.
To tell the time, you need to look at both the colour and position of the hands. Both the hour and minute hand go across the whole width of the dial, and have half red and half yellow. The markings on each dial have two sets of numbers that match the hands colours (red being 12 to 6 and 0 to 30, and yellow being 6 to 12 and 30 to 60). In the pictures, the time shows as 9:40, but the hand position makes it seem like 3:10.
This is a very unusual Alba, which I have only seen once, and can't find anything about on the internet.
The full model number is V501-5F10.