Royn Jump-Hour Style Watch

Throughout my collection, there seem to be a lot of watches which have been done in the style of the old jump-hour watches. Today's watch is one of those, but from a manufacturer who's name I can't work out definitively.

The watch is by a company that I have only a logo for, and so need to determine a name based on their logo. In the centre of the logo, there is a y  in the middle of an oval, which could be an 'o'. This could mean that the name is just Ryn (with the oval being decorative), or the 'o' is in different places, for example Ryon, or Royn. As usual, the company doesn't have any presence that I've found on the web, so that doesn't help. The only other references I've found are the site Retro World who used Ryon, and an eBay auction which used Royn. So, as Ryon sounds like a better name, I'm assuming that is right.

The watch is a quartz rotating disc watch, with a left side display. As with the Deadman GV 5766 watches I've blogged a lot about, the strap is connected at the front of the case, leaving only a small strip of case visible across the middle (with the top and bottom of the case hidden behind the strap). Apart from the display, the face is blank, and with its brushed metal finish it feels nice and minimalist. The back of the watch just has the name/logo and the construction materials (base metal case and stainless steel back).

Due to the lack of information on the brand, and the 60s style for the design, it is hard to work out a date. As there seemed to be a lot of different brands taking the 60s style at the end of the 90s and just into the start of the 00s, my best guess is that it's from around then.

Diesel DZ4028 Chronograph

Today, I'm wearing a chunky watch from the fashion brand Diesel.

This model is one of their chronograph watches, and is called the DZ4028 (or DZ-4028 or DZ 4028 depending on where it is written). The watch has a rounded square case, with very noticeable (and very solid) protrusions from the top and bottom of the case over the ends of the strap. The strap is also a chunky design, being made from thick black leather, and it has a Diesel branded buckle.

The watch has a 3 hand dial, but as with many chronograph watches, the main seconds hand is for the stopwatch function, and the seconds for the time are shown on a separate small dial. There are three small dials on the face with the bottom one covering seconds, and the other two (left and top) covering minutes and hours for the chronograph. There is also a date window at the 3 o'clock position. The face design is very recognisable as Diesel with the combination of black and splashes of colour, and the use of different styles of markers around the dials.

The back covers the usual information (solid stainless steel, 10 bar/330 ft water resistant)  and has the model number. There is also the Diesel name and the man with mohawk logo for the Only The Brave parent company but without the usual Only The Brave text.

For date, I've not found this watch in stock for sale in many places, which suggests it's not a current model. Based on the design, I would therefore reckon that it is either late 2000s or early 2010s.

Bulova Astronaut Day and Date Wheel

A few days ago, I posted a watch I called 'Date Wheel' by Benetton, but not part of their Benetton by Bulova range. Today's watch is a Bulova with date wheel, but nothing to do with Benetton!

I don't have a definitive model name/number for today's watch, so I've decided to call it the Day and Date Wheel based on its features, but there is also the name Astronaut in tiny writing on the dial. The watch is a quartz analogue model with a 3 hand dial design for telling the time. The unusual part is how the watch shows the day and date. The date is done with a wheel behind 7 equally spaced windows, with the middle of the bottom window showing the date. The days are written around the edge of the dial in gold capsule shapes with a small window at each end. The day is shown by the dots behind the windows showing red instead of white, and interestingly, the transition between days is shown with one dot in each.

The watch is made of grey painted /anodized base metal with a grey steel back, and there is a gold cog tooth pattern around the edge of the glass. The strap is a matching grey metal and there is the Bulova tuning fork logo on the clasp.

The watch is made by the US watch company Bulova. They were founded in 1875, starting the first dedicated watch making plant in 1912, and bringing mass production into watchmaking on a scale never seen before. Over the years, they were good at embracing advertising technology, being thought to have had the first official radio and television adverts. In 2007/08, the brand was incorporated into the Citizen watch making family.

This model has no indication of a date in the watch as far as I can tell. If they use the same format for serial numbers as Citizen, that would suggest a manufacture in X7, and based on the design, I'd suggest 1987. There is a second number on the back 8988501 which could be a model number, but the imprinting style suggests it was a number which changed regularly...

Swatch Turn Around PAN205 Pager Watch

Today's watch is a gadget watch of an era which is now over...

The watch is by Swatch from 1994 and was part of a series called The Beep. The special feature of the watch is that it contains a pager. A pager (or beeper) was the device that would be used to transfer messages in a small mobile package before mobile phones became so popular. Even I am so young that I never really used a pager, and the only times I remember it was from TV medical dramas where they used to ask someone to "page the doctor, this is an emergency"! Pager technology started in the 50s and work through short messages being sent from a radio transmitter to the device. By the end of the 90s, pagers hand become niche products, only being used by hospitals and emergency services as they are reliable and need only a low signal strength to work.

The Swatch pagers were released around the early 90s but have no signal anymore, meaning that they are not so collectable because they don't work. They are larger than the normal Swatch watches and have an ana-digi display. They are also recognisable by the 3 wires stretched across the display which is part of the aerial. Time is displayed on the 2 hand dial (where the hands move in jumps rather than continuous motion), while the LCD is reserved for the pager function.

This model is called Turn Around and was part of the Spring Summer 1994 collection. The model number for this design is PAN205.

The back of the watch has lots of information about the Pager functions. It says it is by Hutchison paging, and can be called on 1128003. It also states the Pager runs on a frequency of 279.7125, but doesn't give the units. There are also two small buttons on the back with the message 'press both buttons and pull wristlet out' which is the way to get to the watch battery, so I don't actually know how to switch the Pager on.

United Colors of Benetton - Date Wheel

Today's post is another short one as I don't have a great deal of information about the watch.

This watch is another by the fashion brand United Colors of Benetton. I've blogged two classes of watch from Benetton - the Benetton by Bulova range, and the United Colors of Benetton watches, and this is from the second category. As I've blogged about Benetton many times before, I won't repeat myself here too much, so please do check out my other Benetton posts for more information.

This model is a quartz analogue watch with a 3 hand dial design. I've nicknamed it 'date wheel' as just inside the ring of text for the hours is a ring of 31 small windows for the date. Behind most of the windows is a bright yellow colour background, with only the right date having an orange dot there. The hands are a matching yellow and orange, while the hours dots are a lime green colour. The rest of the face is a pattern of turquoise (maybe aquamarine) and dark blue, and the case (made from base metal) is painted/anodized blue too. To keep up with the blue scheme, the strap is a blue leather, while the buckle is also anodized blue metal.

The watch back is a smooth shiny stainless steel plate with the typical United Colors of Benetton rectangle logo, and also has the material and water resistance info (3atm). There is also a number which I assume is a model number of 940.0048.20 although I find no official record of this number online.

As for the date of the watch, I have no info and must make a guess. The other United Colors of Benetton watches have seemed to be from the 2000s (and definitely appear newer than the 90s based Benetton by Bulova), so I'd guess this is 2000s too.

S'SQURE 48605G

It's been a long while since I posted anything from this brand (-the last one was in 2013), so I thought it was about time!

The watch is by a company called S'SQURE (or sometimes written as SSqure or S-Squre). Looking at the logo in detail actually shows that the real name is S²SQURE, but this is hard to see when it's normally written so small. The company seems to be based in China, and makes all manner of interesting low cost watches with interesting and colourful designs. Over in Tokyo i saw many of these watches in the watch cabinets of toy shops.

This model is a rotating disc watch with a left side display. It has a round case with an oval design in the middle, and a circular window for the time display. Overall, the design of the face is very similar to (and possibly inspired by) one of the Citizen Independent 1481010 models.

The back shows that the watch has a model number of 48605G, and also states that. The movement inside is Japanese (- I have seen it written that the S'SQURE watches mostly use Citizen movements), and the back also states the watch is 1Atm water resistant. Also on the back is the brand name (large enough to see it is really S²SQURE) along with a picture of a stick man swimming.

I know that this brand has been around since at least the mid 2000s, and I think they are still active today, so I guess this is a pretty new model.

Pokémon Opening Pokeball Watch

Today, I'm wearing one of my silly children's watch, and one of my Pokémon watch collection.

This watch has a large round plastic case, and a face which is painted as a Pokeball (which is used to catch Pokémon in the games /TV series), with the centre of the ball being where the 4 digit LCD can be seen. As with the normal novelty watches, the LCD module is very simple, having only time, date, and seconds displays. The Pokeball can 'open' by rotating the bezel, and this changes the picture on the front from the Pokeball to a collection of Pokemon (Pikachu, Bonsly, Marshtomp, Meowth, Septile, and Mime Jr).

The strap is reversible with different pictures on each side, and swapped by pulling the strap out of the body a little which allows it to be rotated. One side is yellow with pictures of Meowth, Pikachu, Minun, Plusle, and Munchlax. The other side is green and has the white outline sketches of lots of Pokemon (too many to name).

Looking the Pokémon on the watch, the newest of them only appeared in Generation IV which dates the watch to around 2005/06, but it has an unusual mix of Gen III and Gen IV characters. The back of the watch gives nothing away about the origin as all it says is 'Patented'.