I checked our Swatch watches over the weekend to see if the batteries had run out on any of the three quartz watches. Three of these were divers' watches with 200m water resistance ratings and perhaps are the watches of choice when we go out and expect to be swimming or snorkeling. And then I saw one watch that I have tried to preserve because it is becoming quite a rare one in its current condition. The watch is a Swatch with an auto quartz movement. Auto quartz is the Swiss version of the Kinetic produced by Seiko and they have stopped producing the movement for almost 2 decades now.
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| This watch caught my attention when I was diving into the Swatch watches on sale at a popular duty free shop in Akihabara in Tokyo. I immediately picked this one (the only one in the pile) among others that I ended up purchasing in 2008. The brand new watches were still practically being sold cheap at under 2,000 yen before taxes. |
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| The transparent back allows a nice view of the movement. |
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| This one shows the watch contained 15 jewels. |
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| This watch came out in 1998 but I got it brand new back in 2008 at a Tokyo shop. Now it is almost 2 decades old and still functioning quite well considering its capacitor's old though not used often. Water resistance is 3bar (30m), which is typically okay for activities such as washing hands. |
Swatch released only 10 models using the auto quartz movement and along with this model, I recall purchasing 2 others that I gave as gifts. One is with my brother (
Glimp) and the other (I forgot what it looked like) is with a good friend. I've seen them wearing their Swatches from time to time so I know the watches still work but just not the watches of choice for everyday use. More about watches in future posts.
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