Freestyle Shark Countdown Timer

The more I go through my blogging, the more I find out about my collection. It's been built up over so many years that I don't really know how it's really made up. It seems, for example, that I have many more retro LCD watches than I'd thought (which aren't so unusual looking, but still quite interesting).

Today it's the turn of another LCD watch, which I think is from the 1990s. It is a Freestyle Shark watch, with the name Countdown Timer written across the top. The watch is by FreeStyle USA (-many places refer to Shark brand, but I think that is just the line of watches), who have been making watches for around the last 30 years. The back says that this is one of their performance timing machines, and they only make sports watches. The Shark watches are the ones aimed at surfers and are proclaimed to be "the raddest watches in the universe".

The Freestyle Shark watches are still going today, but I think that this is one of the earlier models they released. It is an LCD watch with two lines, showing day and date along the top, and the time below (6 digits). It is an alarm chronograph countdown timer, so has all of those features, along with dual time. Lighting is provided by a small bulb. The strap is fabric with a shark logo and fastens with a plastic clip, so is good for it's surfing intentions.

The text on the back makes it appear that this is a limited edition, as it says 045/106 (maybe 108). Searching for the number gets no hits implying it isn't a model number, so, it appears this is a very limited model!

Hello Kitty Gachapon - Yokohama

The watch today is one that isn't actually mine. I'd given it to my sister-in-law as a present, and I got it back today so I could change the battery - so I thought I'd blog it while it was here!

The watch came directly from Japan where it was one of the prizes in a gachapon machine. I won it when I was on a trip there in 2008, and it was one of a few gachapon watches I got. The gachapon are a machine where you get a random prize in a small plastic ball from a particular series of prizes (some rarer than others). This watch is a Hello Kitty series featuring watches linked with Japanese cities. This one is for Yokohama, and features a picture of Hello Kitty drinking from a giant bowl of soup.

The watch itself, is a basic four digit LCD watch, same as most novelty watches, and it uses an AG4/377 battery. The back was actually glued on, so it looks like the watch wasn't designed to be kept long enough to need a new battery. There are two plastic buttons on the side of the watch - for choosing time, date, and seconds display, and for setting (if you hadn't guessed already).

The back states the copyright being to Sanrio for 1976 (Hello Kitty's birth), and 2008 (the date of the watch). It also says the watch was made in China.

Quintel Robot Watch

Over the years, I've amassed many different watches, and a fair amount of them are robot watches. From these, there are the main known names such as Tokima and Kronoform/Watch-Q, and there are many brands that are variations on the main brands.

Today's watch is one by a company called Quintel. They are a Hong Kong company who were around in the 80s (at least - but some links suggested much earlier instances of their existence).

The watch looks almost identical to the Kronoform watches (which I'll blog somepoint soon), being a rectangular watch which transforms into a robot. The name printed on the front of the watch states Quintel Robot Watch.

The robot head is just rotated round when in watch mode, and to transform it from the watch into the robot, you just fold out the arms and pull down the legs to get the robot. Sliding the hands out of the arms is the last step (assuming you turned around the head at the start. The robot is held onto the strap by two hooks, and squeezing the two buttons at the back releases the watch head. Compared to the Tokima watches, these are more angular, and have hinged legs as well as arms (making them a little more unstable on their feet).

As for the watch part, it is just a standard 4-digit basic LCD display with two buttons. One button switches the display between time, date, and seconds, and the other is for setting the watch. Unfortunately, this one has a damaged module and so won't work anymore :-(

Casio Twincept ABX-23 World Time Data Bank

Another travelling watch today, and one which has had it's sibling blogged before.

It is one of the Twincept watches by Casio, and like it's relatives has a combination of analogue and digital, but with the digital display showing over the front of the analogue, rather than in a separate window (like most Ana-Digi watches). This design is the Twincept display.

The dial is a normal 3-hand dial, operated with the crown. The LCD display sits over the dial, and by default shows time (5-6 digits) , date, and day, as well as a dotted map of the world with the current time zone flashing. The 'forward' button also changes the LCD display and allows it to be switched off, or just show the day and date.

The other modes from the 2358 module are data bank (30 page), world time (27 cities), alarm, and stopwatch. There is also a backlight which illuminates the whole dial (as a series of very small dots).

The model number is ABX-23, and seems to be the ABX-23UD-8E.

Seiko Wired - Dodecagon Dial 5Y66

Happy Valentine's Day to all my readers.

I'm using a smart watch today as I've got a dinner date with my wife tonight.

The one I've chosen is part of the Seiko Wired range of watches that was released in 2000. The range seems to target up-market looking designs that are quite flashy. You can see more of the different Wired watches using the list of tags in the right of the page.

The watch is a heavy steel item, with a thick 12-sided (dodecagon and dodecahedron shaped) glass covering the face. It is a 3-hand dial, with 3 dials on the face, one showing the 24-hr time, and the other two for the date. For the date, it has a standard 31 point dial, but for the day, it has a retrograde dial on which the hand jumps back from Saturday night to Sunday morning.

The design of the watch has lots of shiny and matt faces at angles making it catch the light really well. The shape and polishing inside the jump-hour dial looks like it is a deep hole with the centre raised where the hand is (but the shadow of the hand tells me this is just an illusion).

This particular model was made in 2007, and has a model number of 5Y66-0AG0. It uses a Japanese movement, and was cased in China. It has a design matched steel strap, which has a part number of F2S1-E.Q

Jackpot LED Watch

It's been a while since I did a flashing watch, so I thought I'd remedy that today.

The watch I chose is the Jackpot watch. As with a lot of these types of watch, it is produced by Tokyoflash and SeaHope. More information about SeaHope can be found in my SeaHope overview page.

It has four arrays of LEDs of 3x5 lights, each one showing a character. When you press the time button (top right), the display seems to spin like a fruit machines wheels, before slowing down and showing the time. This is accompanied by beeping which also slows as the animation slows. Double pressing the button jumps straight to the time, and minimises the beeping. Pressing the button after the time has come on switches the display to date.

Pressing the left button 'spins the wheels' too, but this time it acts more like a fruit machine, displaying symbols at the end, followed by a score based on how close to a matching line you get.

Pressing the bottom right button displays a number, which cycles through the numbers 1 to 4 and sets the amount you want to bet on the spin. The total at the end then gives you the accumulated score based on your bet and the results.

Text on the watch isn't very detailed, as it only tells the material of the watch and strap (steel and leather respectively), and tells that is uses a CR2032 battery.

Data Piston-lid watch

Today's watch definitely has a touch of steampunk about it - although without the grimy feel that style often has.

The watch is by Data, whom I can find nothing about. Their logo is shown on the face (at the 12 o'clock position), and on the back, and is an X with a crosshair aimed at the centre.

The watch part is a 3-hand dial, with a crown to the bottom right. The module is a standard Japanese movement.

The interesting part of this watch is the flip-top lid. Normally, you can only see a slice of the dial through a diagonal gap in the lid. When you pull out the latch on the bottom left, the lid springs open and reveals the whole dial. The lid doesn't actually open the whole way, but there are two piston design pieces which connects the watch case to the lid. They are only cosmetic, but make it look like the lid is operated by a piston.
I've had the watch for a while, so it's likely to be from the 2000s (possibly earlier), and the design reminds me of Time Design or Storm watches.