The UNDONE Astro Boy watch is a limited edition dedicated to the famous Japanese comic and cartoon, created by UNDONE co-founder Michael Young. Michael grew up in Hong Kong watching Astro Boy and considers him one of his favorite childhood characters. Mr. Young is not alone. Since its debut in the early 1950s, Astro Boy has been broadcast worldwide (although it officially arrived in the US much later), and many consider it the spiritual birth of the anime genre (which was also called "Japanimation" when I was growing up). The watch itself pushes the boundaries of what UNDONE can offer at an affordable price, representing an interesting evolution of the "inspired-by" product that UNDONE has actively developed since its inception just a few years ago.
Like Mr. Young, I grew up on Japanese culture and children's entertainment, though I didn't grow up in Japan. Many Japanese games, cartoons, toys, comics, and more were an integral part of my childhood in Los Angeles, helping me later find common ground with other people equally passionate about, arguably, some of the greatest toys and characters for children created in our time. Hong Kong is a place where people who grew up there had even closer ties to Japanese goods and culture. Astro Boy was officially syndicated in Hong Kong, as were many other Japanese entertainments on which Young likely grew up. This helps explain why, despite UNDONE being a brand founded in Hong Kong, many of its more specialized products are inspired by things from Japanese culture (both new and old).
In terms of design, the UNDONE Astro Boy watch, in my opinion, is very cool. UNDONE didn't just stick an image of Astro Boy on an existing product but truly worked on creating something new and interesting. It is also the first time (as far as I know) that forged carbon is used in an UNDONE watch. It is featured in the form of a bidirectional rotating external bezel. The watch even has an internal rotating bezel that can be used not only to track time but also to indicate time in a second time zone. The external bezel is moved by hand, while the inner bezel ring is rotated using the crown located at the "10 o'clock" position on the case.
The watch is inspired by Astro Boy's power: x-ray vision. In the story created by Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy is an android created by a scientist who lost his biological son. In many ways, "Astro Boy" touched on issues that society only began to consider decades later, including the limitations of artificial intelligence, what it means to be human, relationships with machines that can have emotions, and the post-war culture's struggle with human sentimentality and the prospects/problems of ever-growing industrialization concerning humans. Astro Boy is a robot boy with real feelings, and in some ways, it's a thematic continuation of "Pinocchio" but in a more modern era and with somewhat different themes. What made Astro Boy interesting from an anime perspective is that it laid the foundation for the future of Japanese animation, very interested in machines, futurism, the responsibility of great power, and overcoming seemingly monolithic enemies.
Astro's x-ray vision inspired the creation of a semi-skeletonized dial along with artistic motifs of Astro Boy with a partially x-ray face. This concept fits perfectly into the modern trend of skeletonization in wristwatches. This means that, although the dial and mechanism visible through the case back correspond to the x-ray theme, today they would be just as appropriate on a watch without an x-ray theme. Nonetheless, the view of the electronic mechanism inside the UNDONE watch seems especially fitting given that this piece is dedicated to Astro Boy.
Apart from the stealthy black color of the watch, they are accented with green and red to match Astro's colors (who wears only underwear and boots). The case of the watch is mostly made of steel and measures 42.5 mm wide with a black DLC coating. As I mentioned, the bezel is made of forged carbon, and the overall case thickness is 12.1 mm, water resistance is 50 meters, and there is a sapphire crystal over the dial.
Inside the watch is a (quite fitting) Seiko Instruments VK63 quartz movement made in Japan, featuring a mechanical (as opposed to electrical) motorized 60-minute chronograph retrograde. The dial also has a date, synchronized 24-hour hand indicator (AM/PM), very legible hands, and applied hour markers. The luminescent appearance of the Astro Boy dial is truly fantastic, although you need good lighting to see all the small lumed details (a few minutes of sunlight is sufficient).
What makes the UNDONE Astro Boy watch so interesting to me is how important its creation was to Michael Young. It's one thing to take a licensed entertainment property and make it into souvenir watches. This happens all the time in the modern world of wristwatches. It's another thing entirely to weave that entertainment property into a design that passes as a serious wristwatch and can be worn by other adults who may not have the same interest in the product's theme. At the same time, everyone who has a close relationship with Astro Boy can fondly experience nostalgic feelings every time they look at their wrist. This is where the true value lies, and the efforts Young made to make this a high-quality experience are evident in the final result.
The UNDONE Astro Boy watch comes on a matching black fabric strap. In fact, this is the least thematic part of the watch, so it can be replaced with any other interesting strap. I've seen photos from UNDONE where the Astro Boy watch was presented with a white rubber strap with printing, which I think could also look very good with this piece.
I really like the combination of modern design and materials with a classic tool watch frame, and it helps make the Astro Boy watch as comfortable to wear as it is visually captivating. The price for the UNDONE Astro Boy watch is $449 USD.