It's a giant watch for me today, but one that looks more impressive than it really is.

The watch is by the brand J-Axis which is a brand name for a line of watches made by Sun Flame Co. The J-Axis watches started in 1987 and produce mainly low price watches for men, women and children. Their watches are split into (at least) 6 different lines/classes and I still haven't worked out what the difference is between them.

This model is the J-Axis Exist BG923 and is a large face quartz watch. The case is over 4cm across and has a military style with stencil font and visible bolts. The numbers are yellow on a black background and the hands of the 3 hand dial fit with the yellow and black theme. There are two smaller dials on the face, but those are purely for decoration, the same as the button above the crown (which doesn't even move). The crown is covered by a screw cap with a hard link to the case. This type of crown is usually done to increase the water resistance, but there is no mention of that on the watch itself. The design is completed by a thick black leather strap, which appears to be synthetic leather.

The back of the watch has the J-Axis logo and the model number, as well as the usual "modern timepieces" statement. It also reveals that the watch was assembled in China and has a Japanese quartz movement.

The watch came in different colours, and this model is the BG923-YE. It seems to be a modern design which is still listed on several sales sites, and it appears to have an rrp of ¥3,129.

It's not been so long since I last posted one of this brand, but I thought it matched so well with my t-shirt today that I couldn't resist.

The watch is by the Vagary line of watches by Citizen. The Vagary line has a lot of mystery as the main website you fine is by Citizen's Italian branch, but most of the web pages and sales sites are in Japanese. The watches in the line seem to be more colourful and playful looking than the other lines, but there are sensible looking models too.

This model is based around the 1A36 quartz movement, and is a much more plain watch than the other Vagary's I've posted. It is a 3 hand dial design in a rectangular case. The design is blue, white, and silver, with blue coloured hands (and a star on the seconds hand) and a blue and white leather strap. The numbers on the dial are in a stretched font, but there is no 6 or 12 with those just being marked with the dial pattern.

The full model number is 1A36-S034043, but there is no serial number to indicate the date. If I assume that the 1A36 module is an update of the 90s 1036 module, then I guess that this is a 2000s watch.

Today I've chosen to blog the 2nd 'watch' I have by Aire.

As with the other Aire watch, this is really designed as a dive computer more than a normal wristwatch (although it is much smaller than the Underwater Square I blogged before). Aire seems to be a company or brand linked with diving. The Web links seem to show that Aire is linked to a company called Scubapro (or Scubapro Uwatec Japan to give them their full name) who are a registered diving computer supplier. This model also seems to share an instruction manual with the Scubapro Scuba Cross.

This model is called the B.U.G Jelly and is a round LCD dive computer in a large heavy duty plastic case. The time is normally shown in the centre with day and date above and seconds below. At the top and bottom of the display are LCD bars which cover residual nitrogen (top)  and Om (bottom). In the watch you can set the depth of the dive, time alarms, and a log/plan.

As with the Underwater Square, the instruction manual (found at Scubapro.com) is in Japanese so I can't tell how to set the time, or when the watch was from (although I'd still guess 2000s or possibly 90s).

I mention in some earlier posts that the Spaceman watch came in many variations, and today is another of those.

The Spaceman watch was designed to commemorate the 1969 moon landing, and was released at the Basel fair in 1972. The designer was André Le Marquand who was commissioned by the owner and director of Catena Bulle Switzerland to come up with the design. Many were sold through different companies and in different configurations with around 150,000 being sold.

This model is one under the Spaceman brand rather than one of the other producers. It has an automatic manual movement, and this time it is without the date marker. The dial shows the Spaceman logo and has small text saying Swiss Made T<25. The back has the moulded picture of a Spaceman and explains it is a fibreglass construction. The strap has an unusual shape and has the Spaceman name on the leather at the back.

Japanese watches seem to be full of cute characters, and today's watch is one of those.

This watch is for the character Rilakkuma who is a brown teddy bear and was voted the 5th most popular character in Japan (as of 2010). The name Rilakkuma means relaxed bear and he is quite a lazy character. His story started in 2003 and is that one day he suddenly appeared in the apartment of an office lady called Kaoru after deciding to live there. The character comes from the company San-X who are a stationary manufacturer who are well known for their cute characters.

This watch looks to be one of the capsule machine (gachapon) toys and so is likely one of a range of watches in a series. The face of the watch features Rilakkuma, his friend Korilakkuma (a mysterious white bear cub - ko means little child in Japanese), as well as another character under a blanket. The strap says Rilakkuma on thee long end, and the other part has a small duck on wheels. There is Japanese text which unfortunately I don't understand, and the small print shows this is copyright 2012 to San-X Co., Ltd.

The watch part is the usual basic 4 digit LCD module, and has only time, date, and seconds display options. There is a second inset button, below the display button, which is for time setting.

Today's watch is a special commemorative watch from Hawaii.

The watch is the Official Helen Hurtig Hole-In-One Golf Watch. I assume this is either to commemorate someone called Helen Hurtig scoring a hole-in-one in a golf game, or it was a range of golf watches called Hole-In-One by Helen Hurtig. I've tried to find out about who this person is, but the only reference seems to be to the watches.

The watch reference in Honolulu in Hawaii and there is a reference to Golf III which may have been a course or event. There is a copyright date of 1993, and the watch has a model number of HH2159. It seems that there were many different designs of this watch produced, and they all seem to be from the early 90s.

The watch is a 3 hand dial design, or more correctly 2 hands and a disc. The minutes hand is shaped like a golf club, with the seconds marker being a golf ball. At the 8 o'clock position there is a picture of a golf hole and flag, and there is a black marker on the glass above so the ball disappears into the hole every minute. The bezel has the dimpled texture of a golf ball, and the design is completed by a black leather strap (with the watch title text on the back of one half).

I decided on a simple but elegant looking watch today from a range I've featured before.

Today's watch is by the French agnès b brand (the all-small letters layout is used in the logo). The agnès b label began in France in 1973 and they opened their first shop two years later in Paris, with there now being over 100 stores worldwide.

The agnès b label watches are from a collaboration with Seiko which has been going since 1989 and continues to this day. Many different designs have been produced, and follow the timeless design ethic of the agnès b label.

This model I based around the Seiko V700 quartz movement, and is of a 2 hand dial design. The special design feature of this model is that the hands are shaped such that the hour hand reads agnès, and there is a b at the end of the minutes hand (such that at 9:15 reading across the dial shows the complete name).

The case is a thin silver design (in base metal) with a tonneau shape, and there is a silver metal strap (with part number E017A8-E). The full model number is V700-5100, and is was made in 1994 or 2004.

Today it's the turn of a special collaboration watch between a surf wear company and a fashion brand.

The watch is one of the Freestyle Shark watches by Freestyle USA. The Freestyle USA brand has been around since the 80s and produces rugged waterproof watches aimed at surfers. Their most known range are the Shark watches which are LCD models with a range of different designs.

This particular model is a collaboration with the Japanese fashion brand Milkfed. Milkfed are known for making simple and cute clothing which is designed by girls for girls. They were started in 1994 by the Hollywood movie producer Sofia Coppola (daughter of Francis Ford Coppola) after she had participated in a fashion show for the brand X-Girl. The brand is Japan only with no (official) stores outside of Japan.

This is a Freestyle Shark Classic model with a rubbery plastic case and strap (which has Shark logo and text moulded on the inside). The display has the time in large digits with seconds in small digits above. The design has dual time settings along with date display, along with dual alarms, stopwatch, and timer modes. The case is 100m water resistant.

The watch has special Milkfed branding, and comes in the same red as represents the Milkfed line. The Milkfed name is shown above the LCD and printed on the strap, and the el-backlight shows the brands heart symbol. The back has the text Milkfed <3 Freestyle Classic (or Milkfed Loves Freestyle Classic), along with a lot of etched hearts. There is also a model number on the back of FS84865-A126-10, and the earliest reference over found for the watch was 2010.

Time for number 5 in this Benetton by Bulova sub-collection.

This watch is part of the range of watches that Bulova made for the Benetton fashion brand. I think I've been drawn to this range because of the many different colourful designs they seem to have made. The range seems to have started in the late 80s or early 90s, and (mostly) follow the same case design but with different patterns on the face and strap. There is more detail on the brands themselves in the previous posts which can be accessed through the tags (down the right side on the non-mobile version of the site).

This particular design I've called "surfers" based on the text on the strap. The word surfers has been written across the two parts of the strap in a square pixel type of font with sur on one side and fers on the other. The dial is in red and yellow with blue numbers, and has a large B in the middle. As the B is in the same orientation as the strap letters, if you follow the letters all the way it actually says surbfers.

As with the other models, it is a 3 hand dial design powered by a Swiss Ronda quartz movement, and I think it is a 90s model.

It's my last day of work before the holidays, so I decided on a watch which is a little over the top.

This watch is called the Non-Stop and is by Mark Eckō (or just Mark Ecko if your keyboard can't handle it). The name of the watch has caused all manner of silly questions online about whether it doesn't stop - the answer is that the brand hasn't invented some kind of infinite power source, so of course it will stop when the battery runs out of power!

Mark Eckō is an American designer, artist, and inventor who runs the billion dollar lifestyle and fashion company Mark Eckō Enterprises. Their best known brand is eckō
UNLTD, a t-shirt and fashion company popular in the hiphop and skater fashion world, and recognised for its rhino logo.

This is the second Mark Ecko watch I've blogged, and it is also pretty noticeable. It is a giant silver slab of metal, and is so large (at 6cm x 3cm, and 1cm thick), it has a bend to make it fit around your wrist. The watch has 2 inverse dot matrix LCD panels, the bottom one showing time, and the top one showing day and date as well as the Eckō name. On the face, it says this is a 16-bit watch, which I assume to be referring to the processor chip, but that is a little over the top as the watch only has alarm, timer, and stopwatch modes. Below the displays is a raised section with the brand name, while the black leather strap has studs with the rhino logo.

The back has the brand name and the logo, and has the usual manufacturing location (China), and material (base metal).

The model number is E95009G1, and the watch is no longer available. I think it came out around 2009/2010, but I haven't found the rrp.

Today's watch is a commemorative watch, but I don't know why the date I was significant.

This watch is a Lawson J League watch which talks about the memorial year of 1998. Lawson is a Japanese convenience store which is the second largest in Japan behind 7-eleven. They started in Ohio, but opened stores in Japan in 1975. In the 2000s, the US arm was bought out and rebranded, leaving only the Japanese Lawson stores.

Lawson are now one of the sponsors of the Japanese football association J League. The J League was the professional football league which started in 1993, so the memorial year of 1998 might be the 5th anniversary.

The watch is a basic 3 hand dial quartz watch. The dial is patterned with the Lawson name and the J League logo. The watch has a plastic strap, and the length of the strap is covered with the logos of all of the football teams in the J-League.

There have been many different types of robot watch made. I've blogged a Gobots watch before, but this is a different style robot than before.

The Gobots watches were sold by the Tonka toy company starting in 1984. The toys were made by Impulse Ltd in Hong Kong, and were in competition with the Takara robot watches from the same era. The Gobots toys were licensed from Bandai, and after Hasbro bought Tonka, they got the toys back again. The Gobots line were present in the US market until it was phased out in 1991.

This robot design is a lot more flexible than the standard square robot watch. The arms have extra hinges, and the legs are both hinged and rotating. As with the other watches in the series, this had a magnetic connector to the strap along with a rotate to lock connection. The design makes it a muck thicker model when folded, and the LCD display is set deep into the body, with the buttons positioned below.

The watch has the standard 4 digit LCD display design, with two button operation. One button sets the time, while the other switches between the day, date, and seconds displays.

Today's watch is by a mystery brand, but I don't think this one is Japanese.

The watch from a brand called O'Neeon, with the name being shown as a registered trademark. I've seen two watches by them, but I've not found anything online. The watches I've seen have both been novelty watches with different hands designs. I've found one set of references for O'Neeon online, but this was for a manufacturer of wetsuits and drysuits. For this company, I've seen a trademark registered in Sweden in 2006 which registers the owner as Europris AS which is a convenience store chain from Norway. It may be that it is the same company as produces the, but it is a strange combination of products. The strap on this watch, however, is a fabric coated neoprene style, so it may be there is a link...

This model is a 3 hand dial design which has novelty hands. The watch has an hour hand which is shaped like a comb, while the minutes hand is a small hand mirror. The seconds hand is a little different, just having a heart on the end. The back of the watch doesn't give any extra information about the watch apart from that the back is made from stainless steel.

I have no idea what price these watches were sold for, but I'd guess this is a 2000s model (if this from the wetsuit maker).

There are some watches that are a nightmare to search for because the name means so many other things. Today's watch is one of those, as a search for Storm watch heaven leads mainly to a lot of weather sites about watching the heavens to spot storms.

This watch is by the London brand Storm, which is one of my bigger sub-collections, and a brand which I've blogged lots of information from before.

This model is called Heaven and is one of the ladies watches from the Storm brand. I don't know if it is an uncommon design, but I haven't found another online. The watch is a wide rectangular design with a two hand dial. The face has a oily design glass with just the numbers 9 and 3, and nothing else.

The strap is made up of square plates, 2 wide, which are linked with small metal loops. The back section has rectangular links which are all fastened together with the same type of clip as the fastener, meaning that it is easy to remove sections to adjust the length.

Because of the lack of online information, I don't know exactly when it is from. It is a little like the style of the Academiplex from 2003, so my best guess would be that this is from a similar time.

It's time for a family Christmas meal today, so I chose something smart looking with Christmas lights!

This watch is also one which I got from an unusual source - I bought it from an auction TV channel in 2003. I hadn't seen the start of the auction, but caught how the watch looked and rang in a bid, and got it for around £60.

The Solsuno is an LED watch, but with a difference. It uses 138 LEDs to show the time, but no more than 3 LEDs are really required at any one time. It has individual LEDs for every second, minute, and hour, a marker for am/pm, and 5 for other indications (such as alarm). The LEDs are set in rings so they are where the hours, minutes, and seconds would be on a normal dial watch. The time is shown by pressing the top button which sets the seconds LEDs going until the correct second is shown, and the hour and minute then appears too. There is also a flashing mode where the time shows in a quick flash every second - this is the mode I normally use so I don't need to press the button every time I need the time.

The Solsuno watches came out in 2000, with the idea coming from Greenwich (the home of GMT). They were originally distributed by Zeon (who may have been the original manufacturer). Zeon watches are a British company who are one of the largest distributors of novelty watches, and have been featured on my blog many times before. The Solsuno watches are not done by Zeon anymore, so only the early ones were. Many different variations have been released over the years so the watches are quite common. A lot of discussion online has said that people think the watch is too large, even for medium sized wrists, but I have a small wrist and I think it looks fine!

Most of the Zeon models have a ZT or ZR model number, however this has the number NIL4972, but still says Zeon Tech on the back.

It's party day again today so I chose another smart looking model.

This watch is another of the J-Axis range watches that I've been blogging for a while now. This model is one of the surprises, as the J-Axis watches aren't a high price brand, but this model is a high quality feeling mechanical watch.

It is a model DG733, with this colour (green) being the DG733-GR. It is a 3 hand dial design powered by a hand-wind mechanical movement. The design is a partial skeleton with a large round window on the dial covering the centre towards the 9 o'clock position. The back is also clear so you get a good view of the mechanism from behind, and can see straight through the watch where the balance wheel is. The dial is green with hour markers for all except the 3 o'clock where there is a big number. The glass is shaped with the flat face having 12 edges angling back into the body. The design is completed with a thick padded brown leather strap.

The J-Axis watches are produced by the Japanese company Sun Flame Co and first came out in 1987. They release watches in 6 series, and this is one of the D Series. This also has the iXa designation which has been on a few different watches, but I don't know what it really means.

This model is still available from the Sun Flame website, and even though it is a mechanical skeleton watch, it is only ¥3,990!

Today's watch is a commemorative model, but for something a little different.

This watch is from 2013 and was issued to mark the first production from a new gas field in the UK called Jasmine. The Jasmine field was discovered in 2006 and was given approval for development in 2010 by the UK government. Jasmine has about 100 million barrels of oil equivalent and was the largest field to start production in the UK since the Buzzard field in 2007. First production from the field was on the 20th November 2013.

The watch itself is a 3 hand dial design watch in a divers watch style. It has a chunky metal case with a rotating bezel, and the project logo is printed on the face. Inside is a quartz movement, but there are no markings on the watch indicating a manufacturer or model.

It was produced by Polyconcept, who are the world's largest supplier of promotional products. The company began in the 1970s and now operates in over 100 countries worldwide.

It was another watch to match with my t-shirt again today, and it is one of a series I've blogged before.

This is one of the Casio Film Watch Pela models, and the one with the lowest number (but not the first). The Film Watch models are the range of thin and super light watches Casio started in the mid-1980s.

This model is the FS-00 and is a 5mm thick rectangular LCD watch. The particular version is from the Sorbet range and is the FS-00-4A and called Chilly Lilac (although it has a more pink colour). The Sorbet range was 10 different models in pastel colours, but the models also had shorter straps than the regular models.

The FS-00 is a data bank model in the Pela range and uses the 2190 quartz module. The display is set at a 30 degree angle, which is comprised of 3 rows of dot matrix arrays. The standard display has date at the top, time (6 digits) across the middle, and day at the bottom. There is an alternative display mode where it shows animations of animals too. The animals (dog, camel, gorilla, bird, cat, and squirrel) are shown for 10 seconds each and have 2 frames in the animation. It also has world time and stopwatch, as well as the 30 slot data bank, and there is an el-backlight.

I don't know when these models were released, but I think they are 90s watches.

Today, I decided to blog a manga/anime watch today which is still in its box.

This watch is from the series GeGeGe no Kitarō which started as a manga (Japanese comic) series in 1960 by Shigeru Mizuki (but with an original name Hakaba no Kitarō). It tells the story of a type of spirit monster called a yōkai and their adventures based on original Japanese folktales. The main character is Kitarō who is a yōkai boy born in a cemetery who fights for peace between humans and yōkai. Many different anime have been produced (one every decade since 1968), along with a couple of live action films and a computer game.

This watch comes from 2008, so could be tied into the anime series which ran from 2007 to 2009, an 11 part anime from 2008, or the 2008 live action movie.

It is a 3 hand dial design watch with the character Nurikabe on the face. Nurikabe is a large grey well-shaped yōkai, who protects Kitarō and his friends using his massive size.

The watch box is written almost entirely in Japanese, so it's hard to work out much information from there. The two names that can be read are Max Co., Ltd and Plex. The Max Co., Ltd company seems to be a Japanese manufacturer of precision parts, while Plex makes toys and TV Hero products and is linked to Bandai Namco. The other information I can see is that the watch was made in China and it uses an SR48 battery.

It is another promotional watch for me again today, but this time it's for burgers.

The watch features an image of Ronald McDonald, who is widely recognised as the mascot of McDonald's fast food chain. Ronald McDonald was first seen on TV spots in 1963 as the Hamburger-Happy Clown. Since then, his adventures have been seen in the adverts (including the battles with the Hamburgler which I remember from my youth).

This watch is a 3 hand dial design, where two of the hands are Ronald McDonald's arms with his body painted on the face. The back has a model number of A99-9698 which is not a known number to me, but may suggest a model/module A99. It says this has a Japanese quartz movement, but must have been for a different market as he is called Donald McDonald in Japan.

There is no information regarding the date on the watch, but the look of the watch is very 80s.