James Cameron's Aliens takes place in the year 2179, but the watch Xenomorph-slaying heroine Ellen Ripley wears in it is surprisingly retro: the Seiko Giugiaro 7A28-7000. Designed by Italian car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro in the early 1980s, the chunky timepiece is rare enough that a working model can go for as much as a $1,000 on eBay. Now Seiko is re-releasing its retro-futuristic timepiece, just in time for Aliens' 30th anniversary next year.
The Seiko Giugiaro 7A28-7000 is an odd-looking timepiece. Featuring a blocky panel and some chunky buttons on the right-side of the dial, it was the world's first watch to use an analog quartz chronograph movement, which is a fancy way of saying it's also a stopwatch that has analog hands, even though it's digital. It doesn't particularly look futuristic, but it perfectly suits Aliens military industrial sci-fi aesthetic, which is presumably why the Aliens costumer decided to strap it to Ripley's wrist.
The new Seiko X Giugiaro Spirit Smart isn't totally identical to the 7A28-7000: it's missing a crown or extra button on the left side. But it still looks like the kind of watch you'd wear during a cargo loader duel with a Xenomorph queen, and they're a lot less expensive than the originals. If you can find one. Available in limited quantities of 3,000 pieces each, the gray SCED035 and black SCED037 watches will set you back about $260 and $292, respectively.
[via A Blog To Watch, Gizmodo]