Today's watch is by one of the brands that I seem to be one of a limited number of collectors.

The watch is by the fashion brand Boy London. I've featured quite a few different watches from this company on the blog, but although the brand is well known, I haven't been able to sort out the true history of the watches as their time line doesn't fit. The original Boy London brand was started in the 1970s in London and was popular in the underground club and punk scene. The brand had a pause in the 90s before coming back in the 2000s, but it appears the majority of the watches started in the 90s, probably by a company who bought the rights to the brand name.

This watch is a BOY-10-W, but I can't see why the model number is different (as it is similar to the more numerous BOY-31-W). It is an analogue watch with a Japanese quartz module and 3 hand dial design. The case is a common Boy London design with a plain round bezel with the Boy London name taking up 1/4 of it. The face is mirrored, with the word BOY diagonally across the middle and YO written at the 2 o'clock position. The O in the middle of BOY has a line across the middle so the shape resembles a London Underground station sign. The strap is also a common Boy London design with two colours of leather and a presstud, but this has the text Boy and Fun of wearing pressed into the brown leather part.

The back is the variant with the name and model number plus the statements "This is an original Boy London product" and "Any product not bearing this mark is not genuine".

Today's watch is a design I've featured before, but with some slight variations (and I wanted something bright for the concert I'm going to tonight).

The watch is by a company called Franc, but it is a challenge to find anything about them online (either because there isn't anything, or their name is too common). The brand name is on the back of the watch and has a very distinctive round/curvy font style.

I've blogged a white version of this watch before (June 2014), but this version is in gold with a black trim and a black padded (fake?) leather strap. The white model I blogged had writing on the back as well as the brand name, but this model doesn't have anything else.

The watch is an LED design with a dot matrix display (a 17x5 array). Pressing the time button sets of a random animation before the time displays, and after a short while the display switches off in another animation. Pressing the button again while the time is showing starts another animation followed by the date.

When the watch is from is also a mystery. They seem to be new watches, and similar designs are from the late 2000s and early 2010. However if the brand was selling watches still, I'd have expected to find something in my web searches, so my best guess is late 2000s.

This is the thing I like about Super Lovers watches - this is another from my collection, and yet another completely different design.
The Super Lovers brand are from the Harajuku district of Tokyo, and are one of the popular brands for clothes with a club and punk feel. This is the 18th I've blogged, and there is a lot more brand information spread through the other posts - I'll probably collate that into a brand summary page before too long, so watch this space...

I've nicknamed this watch the 'donut' due to its design. The face is a small white circle with a black Super Lovers logo in the centre. This is home to the hands, with the watch being a 3 hand dial design. The nickname comes from the bezel which is a very large black ring around the face. The whole watch is 4.5cm across, with a 2 cm wide face and so the ring is 1.25 cm thick making it dominate the look of the watch. On the bezel is the Super Lovers name in large white letters. The strap is a white rubbery design, and fits in the black and white theme.

The Super Lovers watches have been around for a while (since 1988), but never come with any indication of date. From the state of the watch, I'd guess it was a newer model, but it might just have been kept well.

Today's watch is an old Citizen watch which I haven't been able to find much about.

This watch is the Citizen Shock Sensor II. I've found quite a few links for the Citizen Shock Sensor (the first one), but I've not found another article about the Shock Sensor II.

The watch is based around the D150 module and is a sports watch with an LCD display. It has a 2 line display with the time at the top line and date and day below. The time has a slightly unusual arrangement with the minutes being the largest, the hours slightly smaller, and the seconds the smallest. For modes, the watch has alarm, timer, and stopwatch modes. The stopwatch also has pace and distance options, so I think the shock sensor may register steps (like a pedometer), or it is just a set pace with step length. The button layout is also different with the stopwatch buttons being at the top of the case, giving a total of 6 buttons.

The first shock sensor was out in the 80s, but based on the serial number, this one is from 1990.

The full model number is D150-313712Y.

Today's watch is a simple one, so probably a short blog post today.

The watch I've been wearing is by the Diesel clothing brand.

This model is the DZ-5195 (which is sometimes written online as DZ5195 or DZ 5195). It is technically a ladies watch, but suitable for anyone with a small wrist. The watch has a 2 hand dial design in a square face. The case is curved at the top and bottom and fits around your wrist (which would be a problem if your wrist is too wide). The case has a design with dots and dimples which also extends from the case onto the face. Below the face is a small Diesel signature in amongst the dots. The rest of the strap is black leather, and if you look closely the dimples extend onto the lower half of the strap.

The back of the watch has the usual Diesel picture with the profile of a person with a mohawk hairstyle and the Only The Brave name (for the company which Diesel is part of). There is also the normal info on the back such as material (solid stainless steel) and water resistance (3 bar), as well as the CE mark.

Looking at the Amazon site, it says that it first was available in 2011 so I don't think this is old, but it isn't available anymore.

It's a simple watch which I kept in my collection because I liked the look of it.

The watch is a basic LCD watch called Electro. This may be the name of the company or the watch itself, but from a few of the sites selling it, they reference the company making it as being Daiso. The Japanese Daiso company started in 1978 as a household item company, and has expanded into the ¥100 shop market (which is where it seems the watch has been sold).

This model has the model number of M-2401 and is an LCD design. It has a 3 1/2 digit display panel showing the time by default. There is a single main button for switching the display between the time, date, and seconds, as well as a second inset button for changing the time.

The design has a clear blue plastic case, with a white case inside (which gives it an interesting look). The blue part of the case is one piece with the plastic strap and so is also partly clear.

As the watch was sold at ¥100 shops, it is a low cost model, and is relatively new (but may not be sold anymore).

Today's model is from a fashion brand which I'm gaining a bit of a collection of.

The watch is by the Deep watch brand, who I've been collecting for a little while now. There isn't much about them, and the only thing I know from the collection is that they are made in China, and have at least one design which is the same as a Deadman model.

This model is a mechanical model with a hand wind movement. It has a skeleton appearance with the whole face being see through as well as the back. There is no name on the movement inside, but it looks similar to the mechanical movements in the Deadman and J-Axis models. On the back there is no model number, just the Deep name. The face has the numbers printed under the glass giving it a flat appearance. The strap is a black (genuine) leather design.

As with the other Deep watches, I don't know the date, but my guess is early 00s (as they aren't for sale new and the similar Deadman watches were late 90s).

As it's Easter Sunday, it's a tradition to go for a hike before sunrise and watch the sun come up from the top of a hill. For that purpose I decided to wear a watch designed for the hills.

The watch I chose today is by the Seiko brand Alba, and part of their Hyper-Tech (or Hypertech) range. The watch has many names printed on it: Carbon, Twin Sensor, and Alti-Thermo.  I think that Carbon refers to a particular line of Hyper-Tech watches, while the twin sensor and alti-thermo names refer to the fact that this watch has both barometer (altimeter) and thermometer sensors /functions. The design is big and chunky and has a look which is a little reminiscent of the G-Shocks, but with a non-symmetrical shape. There are many screws on the case, and the sensor is visible at the top of the watch. The strap is a rubbery plastic (which suffers from brittleness) with a ridged design and had the part number of PW031.

The LCD is split into two sections for the different features. The top display has a dot matrix array and a small area for digits, and is used for the day and date as well as the altitude graph or elevation change and hundredths of a second in stopwatch mode. The bottom part of the LCD has two lines which give the time (6 digits at the bottom) and height and atmospheric pressure above. At the right side of this section is a set of Arrows pointing up and down to indicate the change in atmospheric pressure and hence predict the weather (going up =sun, and going down =rain). The watch is controlled by 5 buttons for the modes, adjustment, start/stop and light (small bulb based). The mode button unusually pulls out to put the watch in time setting mode.

The watch is powered by a W754 module which has alarm (possibly time, altitude, and temperature), altimeter /barometer, and chronograph (with altitude recording).

This model is the W754-4A00 and came out in 1995. The catalogue number was ADQP001 and an original sales price of ¥14,000.

Today's watch is a little more unusual in design than it first looks, and is by a brand that is new to this blog.

This watch is by Noon, who are a Danish brand based in Copenhagen. Noon Copenhagen was established in 2007 based on their display concept, and they worked with Danish award winning designer Henrik Sørig (who has worked for many companies, including Bang & Olufsen). The company came with the aim of affordable Danish design with a twist, and a motto of "not afraid to be different".

The Noon watches are all based around the Noon patented disc system dial design. At first the watch looks to be a standard 3 hand dial design, but as they promised, there is a twist. The hands are mounted onto discs, with each disc being a different colour either side of the hand. On this model, the watch has red and grey halves which move with the hour hand, while the minutes disc has a clear and a cloudy white (transparent) half. This has the effect of looking like the watch is split into 4 colour sections which change as the time progresses.

This particular model is the 43-003 type and is classed as a "Standard" design on the website. The colour is red and black with  hour numbers around the edge and it has a round silver stainless steel case (5 atm water resistant) and black leather strap, with this colour and case variation designated 43-003L1. The watch has the Noon name and logo printed on the glass on the face, with the name, logo, website and usual info on the back. Inside is a quartz movement which the website quotes as a 2035 module (which I think may be a Miyota module).

This model is still for sale on the website, meaning that it is a current design, and the price is $155.

Today I went for something a bit more colourful with a watch from my old Swatch collection.

This Swatch watch is called Sea Traffic, and has a very colourful appearance. The case is a slightly transparent orange colour with a green, purple, orange, and white face. The numbers on the dial are a mix of standard digits (even numbers) and roman numerals (odd numbers). Towards the outside of the dial is a ring split into 60 alternating orange and white blocks for the minutes /seconds with numbers for the first 10 and then every 5, and the seconds hand is in a matching orange. The strap is a dark purply blue with various patterns such as arrows, dotted lines (like a route on a map), and boat sails.

The Sea Traffic is one of the Originals collection and a Standard Gents design. It was designed in 1993 and released as part of the 1994 Spring Summer collection. The model number is GO101.

Today, I'm back to the Nautica brand of watches with this yellow quartz model.

The Nautica brand started as a menswear brand in 1983, but have expanded into a global brand for lifestyle products. They are know part of the VF Corporation, and have a very sailing based theme with the name coming from the Latin word for ship.

This particular model is a standard 3 hand dial design with a quartz movement. The dial is bright yellow with blue numbers, and minutes numbers for the 5 minutes towards the middle. The design is missing a couple of numbers though - the 6 is not present, but the Nautica Competition name is printed on the glass at this point. The 3 is also missing as that is where the date window is located, and there is a Nautica N logo next to the date as well.

The back is a stainless steel screw-on design giving a 50m water resistance, and the watch has a base metal case. The strap is made of leathery plastic and foam rubber, giving it a nautical feel. Inside the back, the name Callanen International is printed, and so I assume they are the case manufacturer. Callanen International were the producers of Guess watches, but were purchased by Timex in 1991, who gained the Nautica licence in 1994.

The module inside this model is a WX42E from Time Module Inc (who may have been a spin-off from Seiko). They are Hong Kong based, but may have manufacturing in Japan (as the watch back says it is a Japanese movement).

I don't know when this watch is from, but I would expect it to be later than the mid 90s and it is not a current model, so I'd guess 2000s.

It now seems quite often that I've searched for a watch online and managed to find nothing about it, and today's watch is one of those.

The name on the back of the watch says Monkey+h but I've not found this name on the web so far (although it may just be that searching for a name with punctuation is quite hard).

The watch design is an ana-digi with a 3 hand analogue dial and LCD display on the watch face. The face is the unusual watch feature on this model and is made up of a rounded dot matrix seconds display at the bottom of the dial, and a set of small fixed numbers over the rest of the face. The display is animated and different versions can be displayed using the buttons on the side of the watch. If the 'falling numbers' animation is used, it looks like the ones of small numbers on the face are falling down the screen and it reminds me of the falling text from the Matrix movie. The display is also pretty much the same as a design of Big Tic display used by Fossil.

The face is in the middle of a large case and surrounded by a ring of minutes numbers, a ring of shiny silver and that is surrounded by a white plastic edge trim (which also looks around where the crown sticks out). The strap is thick and rubbery, and seems shaped to match the watch case.

Inside is a 2 part module. The first electronics you come across are for the LCD display, with the battery visible in a hole through the plastic cover. Unscrewing the cover reveals the LCD circuit board, and there is a hole in the board where you can access the AG4 battery for the analogue display. which has its quartz module hidden under the LCD circuits.

As for age and price, I don't have any fixed clues. I think may be a low price brand/model because of its similarities with a major brand, and the lack of online presence suggests to me that it is at least a few years old (so I guess 2000s).

Today is my second Diesel watch this month, but definitely a different size.

The Diesel brand are a clothing and accessories company best known for their denim products. It started in 1978, and is now part of a holding company called 'Only the Brave' which features on the watches back along with the logo, a picture of a face in profile who has a mohair hairstyle.
Diesel seem to have been one of the first big design companies to bring back watches as a form of jewellery (or were at least one of the first I noticed) which happened late in the 00s. Their designs tend to be very noticeable, often with oversized dimensions (in the men's watches especially).

This model is the DZ-1132 (which is also written online as DZ1132 or DZ 1132, but the number on the back has the '-'). It is a large dimension analogue watch with a 3 hand dial design. The watch has a rounded rectangular case with an old style TV shaped face. The dial has two levels, with the left side by the 9 being deeper into the watch than the rest, with the word Diesel on the slope between the two levels. The 9 is also very large and raised from the face, with the only other numbers being around the middle of the dial and covering the hours from 12 to 23. The strap is brown leather and matches the brown face, and online there seemed to be more links to replacement straps than the watch itself. The back details the usual solid stainless steel material (but the watch is still very lightweight) and 5 bar water resistance.

This model seems to be from 2011, but I don't know the rrp.

It seems like the big watch companies have worked for many different fashion brands over the years, making lines of watches for their sale. Today's watch is another of those.

This watch is by the Japanese clothing brand Person's. The Person's name/clothing was first seen in 1977, when the name and logo was first used by Takaya Iwasaki, before becoming a brand in 1979. The brand produces clothes (as well as shoes, hats, watches, bedding, glasses, and cosmetics) which mix eastern and western dress culture, and are "people orientated". The Japanese Person's brand and logo was also used by an American company I'm the 80s, but these items are not related to the Japanese company (and there was a legal trademark dispute about this).

The watch appears to be a Seiko collaboration based on the model number V535-6A50. Inside it shows that the V535 module (which uses a 927 battery) and the case was made by the Seiko linked Shiojiri company. I blogged another Person's watch in November 2014, but there, it doesn't seem to have been a Seiko style, so it may be that there was not an exclusive link between Person's and Seiko (at least for the whole time they've sold watches).

The watch itself is a 3 hand dial design which also has a 4th rotating item - a disc which follows the hour hand rotation. The face features a stylized sketch of the Eiffel Tower and the Person's logo. The rotating disc is visible on the top half of the dial, behind the tower, and has pictures of an aeroplane and stars (so they look to fly past the tower). The case design reminds me a little of the Boy London watches, with a round case with the Person's name moulded into the bezel.

From the serial number, it appears the watch could have been made in 1989, 1999, or 2009, and I would think that the 1999 or 2009 dates are the most likely.

I blogged a relatively unknown fashion brand called Eccentric Classic a little while ago, and after searching for them online, I've started to build a little collection. After looking at some of their designs, I also found many similarities to some of the other unknown Japanese fashion brands, so now have links between Deadman, Deep, and Module with a design, Module and Eccentric Classic with another (which I've not blogged about yet), and now from Eccentric Classic back to Deadman...

This Eccentric Classic model is a skeleton design analogue watch. It has a hand wind mechanical movement which can be seen through the holes in the watch face and through the glass watch back. The movement has a sweep hand operation, with a frequency of over 14,400 bph (or >4 per sec). The dial on this watch is split into two with a pale gold coloured face and the open part where the movement shows. The edge of the face is shaped in a an irregular line with a squared path, so reminds me of the blocky designs from pixel art. The numbers on the dial are hour markers in Roman numerals, and for the skeleton parts, the hour numbers are printed on the glass instead. The strap is a brown padded leather design.

This watch states that it is an Eccentric Classic by Medi Store. What I've found about Medi Store is that it is a shop in Japan which sells all manner of goods which normally relate to body piercing, and I've seen posts suggesting that the watches were on sale there. In my previous post I found a link between Eccentric Classic and a manufacturer called RSSP, but little else. This suggests to me that the Eccentric Classic line may have been commissioned by Medi Store, and manufactured by RSSP for them (but I can't find a site linking all 3, so it may be that the name changed hands, or Medi Store and RSSP got the watches from another 3rd party).

When I saw this design, I was immediately reminded of the Deadman Mechanical Special Edition watch I posted in October last year. The case shape is the same, the movement looks almost identical through the back, and they both have a 1/2 Skeleton face with the lower left part of the movement exposed. The Eccentric Classic watches seem to be newer based on the sites referencing them, but I don't know the real reason for the link.

Based on the timing of the different Web links, I think that these watches are relatively new (compared to the late 90s timing of Deadman). One blog featured this particular model, and had a date of 2012, so I have no reason to doubt that date for the watch's release.

I've been collecting these Boy London watches for a while now, but the brand is a confusing as ever. Every time I think I've spotted a trend in design and model number, I find a watch which doesn't fit.

Any regular readers will have noticed that I've blogged a few watches with the model number of BOY-31-W, and within that number there is a range of mainly similar, but slightly different designs. Today's model is also a BOY-31-W, but completely different than the others...

This watch is a 3 hand dial design analogue watch with a Japanese quartz movement. The face is all silver and so is the case, with the hands being black. As there is no colour, the design is made by the combinations of shiny and brushed surfaces, and raised or lowered sections, and it mixes between the face and bezel. The pattern on the face splits the dial area into 2 parts with a squiggly line for a boundary, and one of the sides has a diamond shaped net pattern. The Boy London name is on the front with Boy raised out of the bezel and part covering the glass, while London is etched into the face, and there is the Eagle logo also on the bezel. The hour numbers also are shared between the face and bezel in different styles (numbers and text but with no number 12) with 3,5,7, and 9 on the dial.

The watch back is the version with the brand name and model number, and a statement about how only the original products have the message.

The strap follows the normal Boy London leather strap design with the 2 colour leather, studs, and the name and logo pressed into the leather. The buckle is different than normal and just has the Boy London name engraved into it.

I've blogged a lot of the Boy London watches so far, so I won't repeat myself about the brand origin here (and I plan to pull together an overview page soon).

The look of this model suggests a newer design, but working out the date is hard. I think it looks like it should be a 2000s model, but it could be late 90s like many of the others.

There's been quite a few Swatch watches on this blog, but this model is a different type that I'd been after for a while.

All of the Swatch watches I had to begin with had been the usual quartz movement design, but early on I discovered that they had also made a range of automatic mechanical watches.

The Swatch Automatic watches were only released for a short period of time, from 1991 to 1997, before they were replaced by the Autoquartz technology. Over that time, it appears that they released 78 different models. The Swatch Automatic seems to have originally been released for around $85 which was extremely low for a mechanical watch, and one article I've read suggested the manufacturing cost was only $22. The automatic uses an ETA Eterna 2842 caliber with 23 jewels. According to an article which reviewed the module (link), it has a reasonable accuracy at 19 seconds per day, but due to the manufacturing process it is not the most smooth running watch. The movement is also a hi-beat sweep hand design with a 21,600 bph frequency.

This design is called the Red Ahead and has a model number of SAK101. It was designed in 1991, and released as part of the 1992 Fall Winter collection. It has an open face design where you can see the movement, but not a skeleton as there has been no cutting away of the movements case to allow you to see the insides. The case design is typical Swatch and looks like the Swatch Originals models. It has a blue, silver and gold design in a clear plastic case (which has discoloured to yellow, but matches well), and comes with a red leather strap.

My last post was a Swatch watch, but today's post is about  a Spotch watch.

This watch is a complete mystery model. I bought it because of its interesting look, but have never heard of the name Spotch before. Trying to find out about the name Spotch has been rather unsuccessful, with lots of search results just being from spelling mistakes (especially from splotch). The only Japanese link which could be something to do with it is a Japanese site where Spotch seems to be some sort of radio show for sports supporters.

The watch is an analogue model with a 3 hand dial design. The dial is an unusual shape like a wide ice cream cone (pointed bottom and curved top). On the face of the dial is a pattern of curved lines like radio waves/wifi being 'broadcast' from the centre, and the seconds hand is wavy. Below the dial is the name Spotch as well as two symbols which look like a computer mouse and a printer (although this is a guess). The back of the watch holds no hints about the watch's origin either (just that the back is stainless steel). The strap also has the Spotch name on it, and is a fabric design with a double fastening (inner velcro fastener and outer plastic clip) which is often seen on sports watches.

Because of the lack of information, I don't know when this was released, but it looks relatively new, so I'd guess 2000s.

It's a quick post for me today.

The watch I've chosen is by a brand I've blogged a few times called Android USA. The brand was started in 1991, and from the range of watches I've come across, they have made all manner of different styles of watches.

This watch is not so easy to use one handed, as the time is basically hidden behind a metal plate. Below the plate is a little switch which when pulled down allows the lid to flip open. Behind the lid, there are actually two analogue dials. These are both 3 hand dial designs, and have separate quartz movements and a crown on each side of the metal case.

The back of the watch has the Android USA logo, and a statement that it is Android design, and "Property of OKO" but I don't know why.

There isn't much info about this model, so I don't know when it's from. It looks like it would fit with the style of metal watches that came out in the 90s.

I've been travelling today so I decided to wear a watch which can handle multiple time zones.

This watch is by United Colors of Benetton, and also has a link to a watch I've blogged before. In November last year, I blogged a wide strap watch with a replaceable head (rather than strap), and this model is another of those. The watch has a wide rectangular head, but this time with two separate 3 hand dials, each with their own quartz movement. As with the other model, this watch has the crown unusually at the 12 o'clock positions. The back of this watch also has a registered design number, and this watch is 7451111055 (which starts with the same 7451).

The original sale price for this model was €99, but I'm not sure when it was released.