Bond......James Bond. Seiko's G-757

SOLD March 2015.

This watch is a bit special because the display, and the "movement" (the G-757), is colloquially referred to as the "James Bond Octopussy" watch and although it was encased in several different styles they all featured the same functions.....albeit without the special capabilities of the watch used in the movie!

Prior to purchasing this watch I had but two digital items in my collection: one is  the Seiko shown here and the other is a very recent purchase, an inexpensive Casio A178W which has a large numeric display, dual-time and alarm.
I bought the latter because my son is travelling overseas for the next couple of years and, wanting to be able to check the local time at his locations, I wanted something that had a dual-time capability that I could wear frequently. Rather than use either my Seiko Navigator or World Timer items I opted to buy the Casio for the enormous amount of AUS$44!
I don't normally wear digital watches because I have trouble seeing the small LCD figures, but the Casio sports 9mm-high characters.

However - back to the Seiko.
When I saw this G-757 I was attracted by the rarity of the design in such great condition and, as a bonus, the fact that it came in its original box (plus tag) and was complete with all links in its (original) bracelet.

The condition of the nearly 30-year old "Octopussy" is quite remarkable - the dial is pristine, with all LCD segments intact and operating perfectly, including the graphic  analogue display in the top-left quadrant; the light works perfectly; all the buttons operate smoothly and without any undue pressure required; the alarm chime is loud and clear; the glass crystal is scratch-free and the stainless-steel case, back and bracelet are undamaged.

Because of its scarcity and condition the watch was not inexpensive but then if it had been in any state less than as described I would not have been attracted to it.
I look upon it as another worthy example from the Seiko company.

Another 1980's Digital

SOLD

This is my third digital watch (see an earlier post which featured the other two) and is certainly the most pristine of the bunch.
When I bought it (April this year - from Spain) it was working but two functions were intermittent - the light and the alarm.
So I took it to my friendly watchmaker to see if he could do anything for it and he did a fix to the little circuit board which seemed to cure the dual problems but, after a couple of days, the same malfunctions reoccurred.


At that point he hunted through his old stock of spare Seiko parts and, Lo! and Behold! - found an NOS board, including the LCD display! (This watch uses the A133-5000 module).

So now the watch - manufactured in July 1978 - is functioning exactly as intended and is looking superb with its fresh and bright LCD display, unscratched crystal and immaculate case with original bracelet.
It is hard to believe that it is now over 20 years old.

I don't wear it, to be honest - it's too nice to risk damaging.
But it is used: it sits on the desk here in my study at home and acts as a point of reference when I wish to set the correct time on any of my other old manual or automatic watches. The watch is very accurate, gaining less than 30 seconds in a fortnight, which is good enough for me!

Let's not forget the LCD's!

Remember when the magic of digital watches arrived?
Firstly it was the glowing red LED's of such things as the Pulsar range (now very collectible) and then the world was taken by storm with companies such as Casio, Citizen and Seiko producing a vast range of LCD watches - such as the two seen here.

The first watch featured is an example of Seiko's A639 module, from 1981.
This model included regular time-keeping, in 12 or 24-hour mode; day & date; an hourly chime; an alarm and a stop-watch. It also boasted a light - operated by the bottom-right button.


This watch - like most LCD Seiko models - came with a stainless-steel case and bracelet, as pictured here.
The clasp is signed and includes Seiko's "SQ" logo to indicate quartz timing.

12-HOUR or 24-HOUR SETTINGS:
For those of you who have this watch but not the user's manual or guide to the settings, one of the most confusing is how to switch between 12-hour and 24-hour display. Each of the others are pretty straight-forward, but this one had me beat for a while.

This is the sequence:
Go to Time Setting mode, then sequence through seconds, then minutes, then tens of minutes, then hour and when in the hour-setting mode (the hour digit is flashing) press the bottom right-hand button.
Voila! You can switch between 12 or 24-hour display.
_______________________


SOLD (July 2010)

One of my favourite LCD watches is this Citizen digital-analogue (Digi-Ana) hybrid from October 1979.
This watch features dual-time capability - one display in analogue and the other in digital. Two time-zones can be monitored if desired.
In addition there is an hourly chime; an alarm feature; day & date and also a stopwatch.

I was fortunate when buying this watch in that it includes the original Citizen (signed) leather watch-band; a nice change from the regular stainless-steel bracelets.

Both of the watches operate perfectly.
I had to clean around the press-buttons of the Citizen, removing a couple of decades of gunk.
Once this was accomplished, all functions resumed normal service - just as they had done some 20 years previously, when the watch was shipped from the Citizen factory.


A nice detour from the analogues and these are two watches which I wear occasionally but mainly use to keep a pretty accurate check on the time-keeping qualities of some of my non-quartz models.

Everyone should own at least one period Seiko, Casio or Citizen LCD.....just for old-times sake!