40th

Casio Frogman "Takashi Murakami" G-Shock Watch, Well Over $3,500

Over the summer Casio announced a limited edition version of their G-Shock Frogman watch in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Tokyo FM. Casio is known to make limited edition watches all the time, many of them are highly sought after collectibles. Casio chose famous Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami to design the watch. Built on the Casio GWF-100TM watch, Murakami chose a pinkish-red for the case and strap material. The back of the watch has a signature Murakami flower design, while the watch comes on a pillow designed by him. Here is the official product page.

The base G-Shock Frogman watch is probably the most expensive G-Shock that Casio makes costing over $1,000. It is a highly sophisticated model in terms of extra durability with a metal inner case and lots of functions. This limited edition of 300 pieces that came out a few months ago arrived with a retail price of 300,000 Yen - which is just over $3,600 right now. In fact, I saw at least two pieces of this watch on eBay at the time of writing that where going for a whopping $12,500. Limited edition watches always go for more than the watches they are based on, but not that many of them retain collector's value after they are sold. Some models do in fact remain highly sought after collectibles. This model is lucky to combine love for G-Shock watches, the Tokyo FM radio station, and Takashi Murakami's work (he is also the host of a show on the network I believe).

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch reviews site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: 40th, casio, frogman, g-shock, gwf-100tm-4, murakami, takashi, watch

Omega Speedmaster Professional Moon Watch 40th Anniversary Limited Edition: Now In Platinum

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

The quintessential function-first, tool watch has finally gotten a healthy dose of gaudiness. It was only a matter of time before Omega decided that it needed to price a version of the Omega Speedmaster Professional Moon Watch out of its core consumer's spending threshold. Available starting at Omega's new flagship 5th Avenue store in New York City - 69 pieces of the new 40th Anniversary Limited Edition Apollo 11 Moon Watch, in platinum, will tempt collectors. The watch case, bracelet, and hands are done in platinum. An 18k gold engraved plate on the caseback, and as the seconds subsidiary dial, are emblematic of the successful 1969 moon landing mission. The gold plate on the dial pictures an eagle landing on the moon, to celebrate the historical statement made famous by event stating, "the eagle has landed."

Even after 40 years, the watch remains very true to the original. Size of the case is 42mm wide, while the crystal is made out of an acrylic compound called Hesalite. Why not sapphire? Because the plastic is shatter-proof (even though it can scratch), and a shattered sapphire crystal in a space shuttle would be a disaster. The movement is a still manually wound Omega Caliber 1861 movement. Again, this has to do with the fact that an automatic movement would be worthless in a gravity-free environment.

The platinum version is in addition to a stainless steel version of the 40th Anniversay watch, which will also be in a limited edition, but of 7,969 pieces instead of the 69 pieces for the platinum version. From afar, the only thing telling the watches apart from is the color of the engraved plate on the dial - which is gold for the platinum watch, and sterling silver on the steel version. I would guess that price for the platinum version is $100,000 plus. Still a good looking watch, but did they take it too far? We will only know after seeing what Omega comes up with for the important 50th anniversary in another 10 years.

Ariel Adams publishes the watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: 40, 40th, anniversary, moon, moonwatch, omega, platinum, professional, speedmaster, watch