Zeon MoonGraph (1989) versus Casio Wrist Instruments watches

[cybr]

Hi,
as You may already know I am trying to present here some not very common watches (without any concerns related to their past or actual market value ) , but with their quite documented timeline/(hi)story":

And now I will try to present another recent acquisition:
The multi display (Multi Graph???) LCD Zeon Moon Graph Watch, made cca 1989:


As I have told You in other post regarding the Madison's FM Radio watches, Zeon is a UK based retailer quite active in the 80's to "borrow" watch designs and releasing "high-tech" watches the UK market (pls see the early 90's Zeon copy of the rare Madison WT/FM Radio/Calculator watch on the below post):
viewtopic.php?f=67&t=8378

But I think that the "design" of Zeon Moon Graph watch may have quite an interesting story behind it:
1. It was made in the late 80s (probably cca 1989) and was sold mostly for the UK market as one may read in the URL below:
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/v ... -310701832
2. The watch has some interesting approaches:
i) It has a dual time/DUAL DATE (!)/Chrono/TIMER capabilities. Thus, what I want to underline is that it may DISPLAY NOT ONLY dual time, but also DIFFERENT Dates for that dual times (e.g. if You are an British citizen having a holiday in Hawaii, your London time/date may be e.g. 8:00 AM/February 17, while in Honolulu is UTC-10, 10:00 PM/February 16 and the watch can display both dates not only both times!)
ii) It includes also Stopwatch, Timer and Alarm/Chime functions and an interesting Sun/Moon display for the T2

3. When I first saw it, with its 5 display areas (the main one grey, other 3 being green and the Sun/Moon display - blue) I was started to think at my favorite Casios "GRAPH" series from TGW, DGW, PGW, CGW, GMW (Moon Graph!) lines, most of them launched and labeled as "Wrist Instruments" also in 1989, as one may see in the Casio 1989 Catalogue on Adam's excelent website:
Casio Wrist Instruments -part 1
http://www.digital-watch.com/casio89gal ... full/2190/
Casio Wrist Instruments -part 2
http://www.digital-watch.com/casio89gal ... full/2191/

As one may see on the above catalogues, Casio have launched in 1989 a lot of very interesting (multiple displays area = Multi Graph?) watches such as the following series TGW (T=triple, GW=Graphic Watch), DGW (D=Data/Digi), CGW (C=Cosmos), GMW(GM=Graphic Moon), FT100W (FT=Fish Time, not Forester as FT of the the late series from 1992) etc etc , reunited only in the 1989 catalogue as the "Wrist Instruments" for various amateurs/professionals (various sports referees, amateur astronomers, fishermen etc). All of this watches had a price of about 49.95 USD in 1989 for the resin case/bracelet variant, while the Stainless Steel (SS) case had a price of about 79.95 -89.95 USD (depending probably if the bracelet was resin or SS also).

Thus, an educated guess may be that in 1989 Zeon (as a big Casio rival on the UK market!) have tried to "imitate" Casio and to put on the market a watch "having apparently most/all the functions" of the new 1989 Casios MultiGraph series - labeled ZEON MOON GRAPH (a similar name with 1989 Casio "Moon Graph" GMW watch!!! , even if it has only a daily SUN/MOON display not all the Moon Phases! ) - with Multi Graph displays (like Casio TGW/DGW series) and even 2 "Marlin" fishes on it (pls see the Marlin fish on Casio Fish EN Time/FT100w watch in the above 1989 catalogue).
But Zeon tried to "pack" it in a Stainless Steel (SS) case + Goldplated Bezel instead a resin case (only the most expensive Casio Wrist Instruments watches had a SS case) and with a nice brown leather bracelet.

Now, Zeon Moon Graph is a not very common watch (one may rarely find it on Ebay and mostly on the UK one) - so we may presume that it was not sold in large quantities back in 1989.

I will greatly appreciate any other information/photos related to such early LCD Moon-Graph watches from various other brands than Casio or Zeon. Thanks in advance!
Regards,

[cybr]

What it is even more interesting is that the Zeon UK have become today an important player in watch industry, being not only the UK's largest importer and distributor of timepieces, but also the owner of some quite important Brands, including the highly appreciated Pierre Nobs brand VENTURA, famous for its High-Tech watches (since 2009)!!!
Please read more below:
http://www.europastar.com/news/10040410 ... aunch.html
http://www.zeonltd.co.uk/world-renowned-own-brand

[Kasper]

super interesting read again...thanks man

[cybr]

You're always welcome

[mannyneira]

I'm conscious I'm replying to a rather old post, but I thought I'd share what little I knew about this watch, because this was the only page which turned up when I searched for it.

I bought mine new, from a shop in a town in the south of England. I'm afraid I can't remember the year, but 1989 sounds about right. Sadly, I no longer have it. I've moved many times since then, sometimes between countries, and doubtless it got lost along the way.

But I can add a detail concerning the MoonGraph's background.

For decades, a curious little magazine called the "Innovations Catalogue" was published and distributed free in Britain. It was finally closed in 2003, but was well known during the 1980s.

It sold gadgets. The only connecting theme was that they were "new inventions", or at least sufficiently sci-fi in appearance to look as if they were. It was an odd mix. The Guardian newspaper printed a brief obituary on the magazine's demise, describing it as "a surreal compendium of potato-powered clocks, underwater telescopes and pillows which combine aromatherapy with anti-snoring aids".

I don't remember these, but there were definitely some slightly odd things on sale. New products that now might feature on "Dragon's Den" (or, in the US, "Shark Tank").

"Innovations" was distributed with newspapers, paid-for "lifestyle" magazines, and even sent out with credit card statements, this last being a stroke of brilliance verging on evil. "Oh, you've a little unused credit this month. Let's fix that."

The catalogue was the butt of many jokes. "This month, a wind-powered unasked-for-magazine-shredder, which will ease those pointless product ad blues, while electronically beeping themes from 70s detective series!" But it was actually fun to read. Some items made you laugh, others proved oddly interesting. They managed to create an entire publication containing nothing but advertising that people read - or at least, flicked through - for pleasure. That's clever.

You'll have worked out by now that the MoonGraph featured in "Innovations", and I'm guessing owed its flutter of British popularity to the magazine. Zeon took my money through them, at least.

But didn't I buy mine in a shop? I did - and this is an odd end-note.

I went in to the shop because I hadn't seen it before, and it turned out that it had just opened. It had "Innovations" over the door, a pile of catalogues on the way in, and sold only the items they advertised. It was there I saw the MoonGraph. Techy, pretty, with a comfy padded leather strap, and smiling at me. It wasn't expensive, and it would have been heartless to abandon it.

I would pop in from time to time to see what else was new, though I don't remember any further purchases. And then, after a very short time, the shop disappeared.

The oddness is that, while the Innovations Catalogue definitely achieved pre-Internet cultural meme status, and has been written about rather a lot, I see no mention of Innovations shops. Did they briefly dip their toe into retail at a couple of test sites, and not get they results they hoped for?

In any event, the MoonGraph's slightly exotic dial and quirky feature list seem to have made it just sufficiently out of the ordinary to catch the attention of Innovations, and the rest was extremely minor history.

I hope you enjoyed the story. Now I'm off to have a quick look on eBay...

[cybr]

Hi mannyneira,
Thanks for the interesting story!
Regards,