Cazalea, a prolific contributor to WatchProSite, delves into the diverse world of Seiko's World Timer clocks. This article highlights the brand's extensive range of time-telling devices beyond wristwatches, showcasing Seiko's long-standing expertise in horological innovation for various applications. Readers will discover the ingenuity behind these often-overlooked timepieces.
Seiko Clock Division seems to produce more clocks than the Watch company does. Here I will display a dozen or two of the choices of "World Timer".
The first examples use the Top-Down view of the globe to display the time zones, and the revolving time zone hand (or airplane) to indicate time in another region.
These movements are quartz (battery-powered) and fit into a variety of case styles. Seiko has sold these for decades.
Here are some square case examples.
This clock uses the same display (in a sense) but rather than having two levels with one central axis, the levels are split into two round dials, with a tiny third subdial for seconds. The back of the clock shows the ingenious engineering Seiko adopted to power all three displays from one quartz movement - direct drive for the seconds and using pulleys to drive the other two displays.
Here are some clocks using multiple movements. I think this is stretching the world time definition a bit, but it's definitely easier to read and interpret when you are on a stock market trading floor and want to see when the other guys are closing. Or if you want to call your mom but not wake her at 2 am by mistake.
At least there are continent maps on this first example.
The second uses three movements as above, but gives up on the graphical world display. Instead you get a pack of cards with city names to stick on below the clocks.
This large industrial clock is designed to be seen at a distance. It's a serious bit of equipment, in a metal case more than 1/2 meter in width, with DIP switches inside for selecting city code, date and time zone (summer/winter too)
Finally, the winner of the multi-city sweepstakes is the 6-city clock (earlier version had 5). You'd better have a good supply of AA batteries for this one. It's available in a black wooden frame for about $250-300. City names are included in the price.
Moving now to Analog/Digital variations, Seiko has a nice alarm clock which folds and has a travel cover. It's offered in a choice of colors and trim.
For the fully digital traveler in need of a pocket calculator size clock, there are several choices and user interfaces. Gold and charcoal color scheme dates these units whose function has been replaced by our smart phones.
In an effort to be indispensable to financial traders, Seiko produced this clock which doubled as a currency conversion calculator. You enter a sum on the screen, and simply tap on the second country to get the currency conversion. My guess is you have to enter the rates manually as there is no external input that I can see.
Following along in the manually-selected-by-touch user interface comes this clock which SPEAKS the time to you. Thus the display can be tiny.
Here are two more touch interface clocks that DON'T SPEAK to you. The first has buttons for each time zone; the second one (mine) has a pressure-sensitive touch screen.
Do you have more examples of Seiko's World Clock products?
Please share them if you do.
Cazalea
