Strictly speaking, the 30th anniversary of PlayStation was last year. But since it left the confines of Japan nearly a whole year later, other brands are doing tie-ins for the occasion this year instead. Reebok is one of them, with three special edition sneakers. Adding to the list is watchmaker Anicorn, with the PlayStation Limited Edition Mechanical Watch, and the seemingly less limited Play Symbol watches.
PlayStation Limited Edition Mechanical Watch
Starting with the first one, it’s definitely the more interesting one of them. That being said, your mileage will certainly vary in terms of visual appeal. Most of the watch comes in the iconic PlayStation grey. The 42.8 x 48 x 11.8 mm housing is made of 316L stainless steel. The mechanical component of the watch though is a Miyota 9039 mechanical movement. You can sort of get a peek of it in action thanks to the clear exhibition caseback, with a distracting dot matrix “30” printed on top.
There are no numbers on this PlayStation Limited Edition Mechanical Watch. In place of the 12, 3, 6 and 9 numbers, it instead has the console series’ face button symbols. The tips of the hour and minute hands bear the shapes of the old Select and Start buttons, with the second hand being the four symbols stringed together. On top of all of these is a piece of Sapphire glass. The crown also has “POWER” on it. All of this is wrapped in a 5ATM water resistance rating. And holding them onto your wrist are grey FKM rubber straps with the PlayStation symbols densely packed all over it.
As part of the package, of which there will only be 300 by the way, you’ll also get an NFC Memory Capsule. It’s made to look like the PS1 memory card, but despite Anicorn’s official description it’s unclear what this actually does. It does come with a serialised number printed at the bottom showing which of the 300 sets you own.
PlayStation Anicorn — Play Symbol
Less limited are the Play Symbol watches, which comes in Light and Dark mode, like a phone or PC display. That being said, the latter is by far the prettier of the two, as the floating PlayStation symbols here are coloured. On the other hand, the former simply has them in plain metallic, matching the case.
On that note, the case here has a familiar 316L stainless steel, measuring 39mm in diameter and a 10mm thickness. The caseback here is solid, but inside is the Miyota 2035 Quartz movement. It still features the 5ATM water resistance rating, for what it’s worth. The straps though are a bit of a letdown, as these are 18mm genuine leather. While this means it’s actual leather and not the vegan variety, it’s usually not of the best quality.
Both PlayStation Limited Edition Mechanical Watch and the Play Symbol watches will be open for pre-order starting 19 December, based on the countdown timer on the Anicorn site. The former has a price tag of US$780 (~RM3,187), while the latter is instead tagged at US$250 (~RM1,021). Anicorn does say that it provides free worldwide shipping, for what it’s worth
(Source: Anicorn [1], [2], [3], [4])
