Casio Horoscope Watch HOR-100W

Today's watch is one that looks to the future - literally!

This model is the Horoscope (or horo scope as written on the face) watch by Casio which came out in 1992.

It gets it's name because of the unique function - it tells your horoscope! Around the display is split into 12 segments each one covering one of the signs of the zodiac. The edge of the display is also split into 12 with each segment having up to three stars showing. Each of these stars represents one of the celestial bodies (sun, moon, and planets) that the horoscope uses and they each correspond to one of the symbols across the centre of the display (they flash in turn to show which is which). Using this, you can see things you'd often see in a horoscope such as  'the sun is in Leo'  or 'Pluto is in Capricorn'.

For it to get a position, as part of the time setting process you have to input where you are in coordinates (degrees latitude and longitude) as well as the time. Any change in this sets the watch calculating with all of the stars flashing until it settles on a result. This calculation tak around 80 sec, and no other mode can be selected during this time.

From the time mode, the top right button gives you a yes/no answer (like a magic 8-ball), while the bottom right one cycles through showing the date or the horoscope results. A second press on the bottom right button displays the colour and number of the day, and the two lucky star signs.

To use the horoscope, you press one of the right hand buttons during the date mode and it calculates before showing a set of 5 bars with your results on love, money, health, work, and relationships. The prediction is based on input data based on birthday and location of birth for one of up to 4 saved people. For each of those people, you can cycle through the position of each of the celestial bodies on the date of birth too, as well as check for any date between 1900 and 2099. The watch also has a rotating bezel which is used for the lucky direction of the day option (which I have no idea what that really means).

All this is powered with a 1014 module which has an alarm function as well as all of these horoscope items. The watch display is split into two sections. The time is shown at the bottom (with 6 digits), and there is a dot matrix array near the top that covers the day and date (and the score bars for the horoscope).

This variation has a model number of HOR-100W-2 and was originally sold for 7,500 yen (which I think is very cheap for how complicated the watch is). The manual can be found at the Digital Watch Library (which is in the Useful Watch Links to the left of my page).

Ologi Oval LCD watch - with Werewolf Alarm

Today's watch has caused more annoyance and sleep loss than the rest of my collection put together!

As I buy used watches from all different time zones, sometimes an alarm is left on accidently at a weird time. This is hard to find when you have a large number in one place, but I can normally find it by a process of elimination.

Except one time...
In the middle of the night about 5-6 years ago, I was woken by a watch alarm going off. I wasn't quick enough that first night to find it, but narrowed down where it was. The second night, again I wasn't quick enough, but checked all of the watches in that area, and none had alarms on. The night after was silent, so I forgot about it.

A while later, the same thing happened. A few nights of alarms and none with an alarm running, then silence.

The third time this happened, I was closer to the watch when it went off, and located that this watch was the culprit. What I saw was the display flashing with the words "full moon" and a picture of 3 wolves! And it can't be switched off!!!

The watch is by Ologi, which is a sub-brand of fashion and sports watch suppliers GSI that was started in March 2000. The Ologi line was released to offer affordable and innovative fashion watches. The name came from the ending of both technology and horology.

This model has a dot matrix LCD display with quite a high resolution, and normally shows 3 lines (time, date and month, day).

It has a lot of modes: alarm, stopwatch, timer, memo, anniversaries, world time, and decision making (and werewolf warning). The decision making mode is the most unusual as when you press enter (the front button), the display shows a hand rubbing a lamp, followed by an answer (such as "yes", "fat chance", "don't bother", "check it later", or "no clue").

On the back there is a number which may be the model number 59-010

One problem is the date, it only has the option to go between 2000 and 2010, so to have the right day shown, I've had to set it to 2007.

So if you are worried in the middle of the night about werewolves from the last decade, this is a watch for you!