Puma Southern Cross Backwards Watch

Sometimes when you're not expecting something from a watch it takes a while to notice it. I'd originally thought this was a plain analogue watch until I got it moving...

The watch is another by the sports brand Puma. Puma are from Germany and are one of the largest sports and leisurewear companies. Puma was started as the Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik in the 1920s by the Dassler brothers. Over the years their relationship deteriorated until in 1948 they split the company into two, forming Puma and Adidas.

This watch is marked Puma and Southern Cross. I thought I'd remembered that Southern Cross was a range of shoes/trainers, but I can't find any Puma Southern Cross online.

At first glance, the watch looks like a standard analogue dial watch. It has a 3 hand dial with a white face and simple round case. The numbers are a little unusual as they lean a long way to the right, but generally it looks like a normal watch. The unusual part is that the watch is an anticlockwise watch with the hands running 'backwards' around the dial.

The back just has the Puma name and the serial number for the watch. On the back is a sticker from Orient, and inside there is an Orient quartz movement.

From the style, state, and feel of the watch I'd guess it is an 80s or 90s model, but with no other references, it's going to have to be a guess.

Module - Wide Date Window Watch

Today's watch is another from my small but growing collection of Module watches.

The Module watches are produced by a company called Poll Position Ltd Co. They are a watch sales company who distribute Lip watches as well as selling the Module. There isn't much online about the brand or company, but there is a username of Poll Position on a Japanese auction site which sells these watches too.

This watch is a 3 hand dial design with a Japanese quartz movement. There is also a date window which is do wide it goes round the bottom 1/4 of the dial. The case is a rounded square shape with a round face in the centre. The strap is connected with two fixed bars with the black leather strap wrapped round and fastened with studs (with extra studs for design).

The watch was bought new and is still available now, so it looks like a recent release.

Casiotron S-18

I'm back to the vintage digital watches for today's model.

This watch is the Casiotron S-18 from Casio. The Casiotron range were the first main line of Casio LCD watches which were released in the 1970s. The S-18 was released in 1976 which seems to be one of the popular years for new Casiotron watches.

The design has a more squared look than many of the models around this time. The face is a rectangle with the corners cut off in a stainless steel case. It has a 3 1/2 digit LCD display in the face (just lower than the centre), with squares showing the numbers 0-6 above. The number squares are used to show the seconds (5 seconds solid and 5 seconds flashing before the next box appears), and also the day during the date display. As well as time and date, this model has a stopwatch with 'time memory' or a lap time. Inside is a QW19 (or just 19) module which may have only appeared in the S-18.

J-Axis Lamue Large Oval Watch

It's a big watch for me today, but one that is technically a ladies watch.

This watch is part of a range called Lamue, made by the Japanese brand J-Axis. The J-Axis watches are produced by Sun Flame Co Ltd, and have been made since 1987. They have been released in 6 different series, but the lines like Lamue seem to be spread across the series, so I haven't completely worked out how it's all arranged.

This model is an analogue quartz watch with a large oval case. It is a 3 hand dial design with short fat hands in the middle of the dial. The design is very sparkly, with a sparkly coating on the hands, and jewels in each of the hour numbers/markers (-it has numbers for the even hours and just jewels for the odd numbers apart from 3 and 9 where there is a line of jewels). The case is very large compared to the module, and the back plate looks tiny in comparison - it is 4.5cm by 5.5cm with a 2cm back.

The watch doesn't appear much online, so I assume it isn't sold anymore. My guess therefore is that this is a 2000s model.

Motel vs United Arrows Astrodigit LCD Chronograph

Today's watch is an unusual model from  Japanese fashion brand which has been heavily inspired by a 70s watch.

The watch is by the Tokyo based fashion brand United Arrows (or UA), in collaboration with Motel (which I assume is either a store, a designer, or a brand but can't find anything on). I got to know about United Arrows through my 1481010 collection as they had a collaboration model with Citizen at that time which seems to have been linked with the 1481010s.

This model is called the Astrodigit LCD Chronograph. The name is a little strange, as the watch has no stopwatch function which is what we normally understand with the name chronograph, but technically a chronograph is a device for graphically measures increments of time, so it just fits into that definition (but so does every watch). The back of the watch says this is the "Dege-watch Project First Model", and I've spelled it exactly as shown on the watch. I haven't found what that project was about as the exact phrase gets no web hits. Overall, there is just a time (5 1/2 digits) and date display, and there is also an el-backlight feature.

Reading online, there was some controversy on a Japanese forum and blog when this first came out (around 2006) due to its similarly to the Zodiac Astrodigit LCD from the 70s. The UA version does look similar at a glance, but is a little different in that this has an angular case rather than the rounded case of the Zodiac. Apart from these two sites, there are no other obvious web hits.

From the translation of a blog, it appears that this watch might have had a full recall by United Arrows due to a problem with the strap (the blogger had gone to a UA store to look at it compared to the Zodiac but was told by the shop assistant that they had been recalled). There is no information suggesting the watch was re-released, so if this is true, this may be an incredibly rare watch!

Deadman GV4095 Dial and Disc

Today is my first Deadman watch of the year, and one of the most unusual designs I've found.

The Deadman range are one of my personal favourites, as they made an interesting range of designs but I don't know too much about them (yet). The watches were around in the late 90s, and featured in the watch magazines of that time, but apart from that, there is nothing published about them (apart from on my blog). The watches were low cost fashion watches with prices around ¥3-4000, compared to the ¥12-20,000 of the similarly aged 1481010 watches.

This model has a different way of telling the time compared to anything I've come across in my years of collecting. I've blogged many watches with dials or discs, but this is the first with both, in parallel. The watch shows the time in two ways at the same time. There is an inner circle where there are windows to read the rotating disc (hours at the top on an inner ring, and minutes at the bottom on the outer ring). Around the outside of this circle you can see the ends of the two hands which show exactly the same time (as the hands are part of the discs) with a pointer for hours and line for minutes. There is also a seconds marker which is a small dot which also goes around the outside.

The watch has a round face in a metal case, with a metal strap and usual Deadman clasp. The markings on the back state this is the GV4095.

Casio Ana-Digi AW-61

It seems like a while since I last wore one of my Casio ana-digi watches, so here is one.

This watch is the AW-61 and is a complex looking mixture of analogue dial and LCD. Previously, I'd suggested that the AW-XX numbering was marked a series of Ana-Digi models, and today's watch still fits with that theory.

The AW-61 has a bit more separation of the analogue and digital than my previously blogged AW series watches, with the LCD below the dial rather than being in the bottom of the face. The analogue part is a two hand dial design with its own crown for setting. The LCD section is a small rectangular LCD panel with two lines (which is not so normal in an ana-digi design). By default, the LCD shows day and date along the top, with time (6 digits) along the bottom, and is also used for the other modes. Inside is a 1750 module which gives the watch alarm and stopwatch modes. The analogue and digital displays have their own batteries, with the analogue using a SR521SW and the digital taking a CR1616. The watch is quite robust with 100m water resistance, and there is an el-backlight which covers both the dial and LCD.

The AW-61 came in many colour variations, as well as a choice of plastic, metal, or leather materials, and the model numbers go from -1xx to -7xx (but I've not found what this one is) . I don't know when the AW-61 is from, but it isn't sold anymore and my guess would be 90s (although the Casio watches are very difficult to date from looks alone).