It's a small watch again today, and yet another that is meant to be a ladies watch, but I think works ok for a narrow wrist like mine.

The watch is another from the Futurist line produced by Casio (that last featured on the blog only 10 days ago). The line is mainly aimed at women, and produces fresh, young fun watches with a combination of retro and futuristic styles.

This model is the LA-2100B and features an inverse LCD display rotated 90 degrees to the normal. The display is small and rectangular and has 2 lines. The top line has the day and date (or text explaining the mode) in small characters, while the bottom line is a normal 6 digit time display. It has a 3130 module with time, alarm, and stopwatch modes, and an el-backlight. There is no adjust/setting button, with the time setting mode being the last option when you use the mode button.

The case is made of aluminium, and has a matching black steel strap. For power, it uses a CR1216, which is a less common battery size. The full model number is LA-2100B-1AJf, but I've seen it referred to as -1ADR too. It still appears on some Casio websites, but I think it may have been discontinued last year (2012).

Today's watch is a type I've blogged before, but just in a different version.

The watch is a D299 module watch which looks a little like a motorcycle or astronaut helmet, and was released for the Japanese clothing brand Trans Continents. The Trans Continents watches were made by Citizen, and this one comes from 1998.

This particular version was made as a collaboration with the Japanese band Glay, and features their name under the glass below the inverse LCD display. Glay were formed in 1988 in Hakodate in Hokkaidō, Japan, and we're originally a Visual Kei band. They mainly produce pop and rock music, and are very popular, being the 7th highest selling band of all time in Japan (as of 2010).

The watch itself is a 2 line display LCD watch, with the time on the top, and date & day along the bottom. With the design, you only see half of the hour line when you look from directly above, so you need to look up at the watch to use it. The watch has dual alarms, dual time, stopwatch, and timer. The strap is matched to the body, and is of a design where you need to cut it to the right length (so watch out if you are buying second hand!).

The full model number is D299-L19206.

I'm afraid it's a relatively normal watch for today's blog post.

This watch is made by Timex, and is a quartz movement analogue watch. It has a 3 hand dial, with date marker at the 3 o'clock position.

There is an unusual part to the display though - the main numbering around the dial shows 13-24 rather than 1-12 (as this is in smaller writing on an inner ring of text). There is also a rotating bezel with the compass points marked, but I think that is more decorative than of use.

This model is in dark blue and has a woven style leather strap. It says it is water resistant, however no details are given as to how much. Battery wise, it takes a CR2016 cell.

The only number on the back that could be a model number is B8, however there seem to be other different dial watches with this number too (with only 2 hands and no date, so it can't be the module number either). If it follows the code for mechanical watches, it could be the date stamp, and would mean an August 1994 manufacture. The price label that came with it mentions No. 610 though.

The original sale price was 7,800 yen.

The sun is back again today, and I'm blogging a solar watch again.

This watch is made by the Seiko brand Alba. The watch is part as their Solar Dynamic System or SDS line. The line started in the mid 90s, and this model was made in 1994 (and still for sale in 1996), and has a catalogue number of ASEC009. The watch is a 3 hand dial with no other functions. The solar panels are on the face of the watch and very visible (2 panels each with 2 sections).

It uses a V851 module, which was used in a few different designs in the SDS line. This one has an offset case with the strap on the right side of the case, and the shape of the watch had reminds me of the Millennium Falcon. It is 5 bar water resistant, and was made in Japan. When it was originally released, it sold for 6,500 yen.

The full model number is V851-5000, and has a FBC4EE 20 strap.

It's time for a Sunday blog post, and I'm choosing another boxed watch today.

This watch is produced by the GSX company who are a Japanese brand and produce many watches in collaboration with products or films. This one is one of two watches that were part of the Kubrick Collection in collaboration with Medicom Toy Corporation. Kubricks are a set of small collectable block figure toys produced by the Japanese company Medicom and we're first released in 2000. The toys are similar to Lego figures and have specific designs printed onto a standard base shape. Each toy design is a limited edition, and are very popular to collect (and i have to admit that I have a small collection myself).

This watch is a special one done with the Kubricks, and features a rotating Kubrick figure as the second hand. A Kubrick toy also accompanied the watch with a clock based design, and the GSX name on the toy (it's number is PR011). Apart from the Kubrick second hand, the watch is a basic 3 hand dial with a quartz movement. It has a woven fabric strap, and came in two colours. This black version was the most common with 600 being produced. There was also a red strap version, which was limited to 400. The original sale price was 8,190 yen.

The back of the watch has an etched picture of a Kubrick, along with all of the copyright information.

As GSX only produce the watches, the watch is actually made by Best Co. Ltd, which is a Chinese manufacturing company making everything from clothes and footwear to glasses and watches.

I tend to have a liking for high tech looking LCD watches, and the Casio Twincept range fits the bill.

The Casio Twincept watches from the ABX series have a nice arrangement with a normal electronic dial but an LCD display built into the glass. Thus allows them to show a range of data superimposed over the dial. The basic display has a combination of normal and dot matrix digits showing day (using the dots), date, and time (6 digits on the bottom row) . You can then change the mode and switch the LCD to show the other modes which are Data Bank, world time, alarm and stopwatch. In the world time mode, the LCD displays a world map with the selected zone flashing.

Today's model is the ABX-58 and it uses the same 1326 module as the ABX-53 watch that I blogged a while back, but has a different styling. This model has a more angular body (octagonal rather than round), and comes with a fabric and leather strap (which may not be original, but matches well). There is also a number on the bottom of the dial saying 701A2-067.

I seem to be finding that I have quite a few solar watches in my collection, and today it's another one!

This watch is yet another of my massive collection of Citizen Independent 1481010 watches. I have put together a big page dedicated to that watch range, and a link can be found at the top right corner of this webpage.

This model is also one of Citizen's Eco-Drive range which was a collection of watches with solar power. The solar panels are built into the face of this watch, and are designed to be hidden from view. The 1481010 Eco-Drive watches had two different designs - a rectangular dial (like today), and a round version.

The watch uses a 7821 module, and is a 3 hand dial with date at the 3 o'clock position. The second hand also shows when the watch's capacitor is running low on power by a single and double tick (it jumps 2 seconds in one tick).

The design came out in 1999, and this one has a model number of 7821-S72048. The catalogue number was IT21-4481R, and it was sold for 9,800 yen. This model stopped being sold in 2001.

As I'm collecting, I often end up getting several watches from the same series, and if I end up with enough, I end up accidently with the critical mass needed that they become a sub-collection that I start to search for.

This is what happened with the Casio Art Casual line of watches. This line seem to have been Casio's version of the Swatch watch with simple watches but with bright colourful patterns. Not much is out there about the line itself, and unusually, watches in the Art Casual line come under different series (the letters at the start of the model number).

Today's model is a fishy watch with a face design of two fish on a turquoise background, and an orange strap with more fish printed on. As with most of the Art Casual watches, it has a simple 3 hand dial display, but this one has a different case style than the others.
This particular watch has a full face glass which sits on top of the case, and the part with the hands is under a thinner circle of glass. The back of the watch is just an orange plastic disc with the watch details marked in an inset ring, and the crown is really small.
This design has a full model number of LQ-152-3. The strap part number is 206 P3.

Out of all of the modern non-Japanese watch makers, the Diesel brand probably makes the most interesting looking in general.

Today's watch is highly noticeable in gold and white, and features a large dot matrix LCD display. The display is mirrored and shows the time in inverse (gaps for the numbers), but the date and day are normal (dots are activated for the numbers).

This model is the DZ-7072, and has dual time (with a simple toggle between using the select button), alarm, stopwatch, and timer features. There is also an el-backlight. But is also has an unusual feature - a Tips button. Pressing the button reveals a scrolling message where the date normally shows. These messages are rather strange, such as:
"I'm turned on"
"Don't ever leave me"
"Smile at a stranger"
"Youch! Don't press so hard!"
"Radar detects incoming coffee break..."
"Ha! Thought I was sleeping huh?"
"When am I going to get laid?"
I don't know how many messages there, but they are numbered (coming out randomly), and the highest number I've seen is 28 (so I'd guess 30).

The design is set so that the watch case merges with the strap through a white leather panel featuring a metal shield design. As with many watches, the strap can suffer from brittleness, but at least the leather holds things together.

The back shows an etched picture of a person with a Mohawk hairstyle, with the phrase "Diesel - only the brave".

I don't know when it came out, but it is a discontinued model.

You may have guessed from some of my posts that I like quite a few Anime series, and have many watches that are promotional items from those series.

Today's watch is a promotional watch for the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion (or Shin Seiki Evangerion). It is an LED watch in the style of the computer displays from the series, with a 4 digit large block LED display. At the top of the watch, it shows as being for the organization NERV. In the series, NERV is a group controlled by the United Nations that was formed to combat the threat from the Angels, and they were responsible for creating the Evangelion units (Evas). The other text on the front is in Japanese, so I'm not sure what it is about, so if any readers can translate, that'd be great!

The watch has 4 buttons, with one getting the time to show, and another setting it in adjust mode (which only works when the display is on). The other two only make the display show 88:88, and I haven't worked out the purpose of those yet.

The back doesn't show much apart from it being copyright of Sega and made in China. A little research says this came out in 2011 as a prize (probably from a UFO machine), and is one of at least 3 designs.

Watch number 501 is a modern and rugged looking watch from a manufacturer I've not featured before.

The watch is by a company called Columbia who are an American sportswear company founded in the 1930s as a hat company. They mainly focus on outdoor gear and have a lot of high performance clothing.

This watch is called the Basecamp (model number CT010), and was released around 2011. It is still for sale, and can be found in 3 choices of colour for around $75.

The design is chunky, with a large round case and textured buttons (and bezel). The strap is also quite robust, and the watch is 50m water resistant.

It has a large LCD display, which makes the most of the large face, fitting in 3 lines of digits, including a very large middle line for the time. The middle line is also made up of LCD segments such that it displays text for the mode you are selecting. The top and bottom lines are much smaller and show day and date. The watch has dual time modes, and multiple alarms, and a timer. There is also a chronograph (up to 100 hr) with lap display, and the ability to save data for runs and recall it with the data mode. The manual also mentions that there is a hydration alarm, which I guess is timer based.

The watch today doesn't have any hands, or a disc, and it isn't LCD or LED! It's also pretty bad for trying to get an accurate time reading on.

It was produced by the Erich Lacher Watch Company or Laco from Germany and designed by Roy Schäfer. The Laco company was founded in 1925, and specialise in high quality, high tech watches. Roy Schäfer was born in 1967, and with the Abacus, set out to design a watch with the principal of "Reduce to the max". With that, he produced the Abacus series 1 in 1999 and the series 2 shortly after.

The watch is very simple, there are no hands or normal display, just a ring with circles and dashes, and a ball bearing. Behind the face is a magnet attached to the movement, and so when the ball bearing attaches itself to the magnet, you can see the time. It is the equivalent of just having an hour hand, but the size of the ball and the small circles means that you can tell the time with enough accuracy for most purpose (same as the Chromachron I blogged a while ago). If the ball covers a circle, it is on the hour, if it just touches the edge of the circle, it is quarter past (or to), and halfway between is half past (which you probably had already worked out).

The watch design is also simple looking, but with nice touches. The crown is inset so you can't see it from above, the calf leather strap connects into the watch body, and the back is shaped and engraved, connecting with small inset screws. It actually uses a sapphire crystal for the glass, and is overall 3atm water resistant. It was originally sold for $245 (at least series 1 was, so I'm assuming that this was similar).

Today I'm on a mix of models, with this one fitting into two lines of watches at the same time.

It was made in 2000 by the Seiko owned brand Alba. It is part of their Wired line of watches, as well as the ViViDiGi line. I've featured watches from both lines before, but not normally at the same time.

It is another watch with the high complexity LCD display that appeared on a few watches at the time and has highly curved digits comprising of a large number of individually shaped segments (28 for showing a 9 in the hours digits). To get all of the numbers in a curved format, the parts that make up the digits are occasionally offset making the digits appear in slightly different places depending on the number. Time is shown across two lines of two digits with hours at the top and minutes below. This type of LCD design was seen on the W710 and W720 watches I blogged before (and looks very like the W710), but this watch uses a W510 module and has buttons instead of a crown for adjustments/functions. The manufacture date of 2000 also means this watch predates the others by a couple of years.

The watch doesn't have too many modes, just displaying time or alarm, and there is an el-backlight. It uses with 4 buttons for mode, light, forward, and back (for adjustments).

The full model number is W510-4A00. It uses a CR1620 battery, and A manual for this module can be found on the Australian Pulsar watch site. Thestrap is marked with the Wired name and has a part number of F1K2JZ.C

I'm afraid I can't do a long post today - i don't know enough about the watch!

I wore it because I was travelling and the two dials let me have two time zones.

The watch us made by Tu-ka (possibly Tuoka), but I can't find anything about them online.

It has a dual dial with two quartz movements, and two separate crowns. The dial markings also glow in the dark for easy reading. Design-wise the watch has a really thick glass (maybe more than 5mm) on a round case, and a narrow leather strap. The back says it has a Japanese movement, and was assembled in China.

Today's watch would have been a big thing for business when it original came out, but as with most of these watches, have been superceded by smartphones.

The watch is the Personal Planner watch by Casio and had a model number of IA-1120. It is an Ana-digi model with a 3 hand dial as the main time display. The digital part is covered by a semicircular LCD display with 2 lines, and 5 windows which show markers required for the planning functions. The LCD display has a lot of detail possible, with at least 14 characters being shown along the top line. The bottom line is much smaller, only having 4 digits, and normally showing the current date.

In normal mode, the LCD display shows numbers corresponding to the day letter printed around the display giving a quick view of the date for any particular day of the week (and this can be cycled forward and back to see other weeks). Cycling through the data also allows you to see if there are any events set in the planner for that day. For this planning, you can record events on the watch (i think with reminders, and a start & end time), and can assign categories to the entry (telephone number, sports, meeting, event, anniversary, appointment, travel, and private).

The 782 module that the watch uses covers the planning features, and also has stopwatch and dual time modes.

It seems to have come out in the early 90s (around 93-94), and was available in both silver and gold models. It appears to be a follow-up to the IA-1100, but gets far less hits online (-I found only 2 good links) , so may be much less common.

The watch has a Casio S-385N strap, and has the number 901A1-Y01 printed in very small text at the bottom of the face.

Today's watch is my second DJ Honda watch, and I thought it was appropriate as I'm going to a dance music event tonight.

DJ Honda (aka Katsuhiro Honda) is a Japanese hip hop DJ, producer, and clothing company owner. As part of his clothing line which started in the 1990s, he released various watches with his 'h' logo (both printed on the front and engraved on the back, and for this watch, on the clasp).

This watch is an LED watch in the original style with very narrow lines making up the digits. There are two main buttons which are used to show either the time (top), or date (bottom), and there is an inset button for setting (-hold in until the time doesn't disappear when you release the button, and then each of the buttons sets one on the sets of digits).

It is a very chunky design in gold colour, so is pretty noticeable.

The model number is DJ003

I changed my mind at the last minute on today's watch, as the other one I'd chosen needed a bit more work.

Instead I chose one of the Eco-Drive models from the Citizen Independent 1481010 line (which you can find out lots about on my overview page).

It uses a 7821 module which is a 3 hand dial model (including date at the 3 o'clock position) with the solar panel hidden in the watch face. This is one of the round versions, and there were other 1481010s with the same module in a rectangular shape (as you can see on previous blog entries).

The design came out in 1999, but this one was made in 2000. The full model number is 7821-S72072, and it original sold for 9,800yen.