Kamen Rider’s 55th anniversary chronograph is limited to 1,971 pieces

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Fulton built the Kamen Rider anniversary watch around a single number: 1,971. That’s the year the show first aired, and it’s also how many of these chronographs exist. One per year, in a sense, and the run closes when the last one finds a wrist.

The watch is the Kamen Rider 55th Anniversary Special Chronograph, a radio-controlled solar chronograph from Direct Art Gallery (Dag) and the Swiss brand Fulton. It costs $313, reservations are open now through Dag’s shop, and the first watches ship in January 2027.

Price: $313
Where to buy: Dag

Fifty-five years have passed since the first Rider hit Japanese TV in 1971, and the watch is aimed squarely at the people who grew up in front of it. Dag says it plainly enough: this one goes to the adults who kept running with the show through the decades. The design carries that idea in every choice, starting with the two colors on the dial.

Green and red, straight off the first Rider

The dial runs a deep green with red accents, the two colors the release ties to the original Rider. A tachymeter-style bezel rings the dial with the words RIDER METER and a scale running 60 to 400.

The Rider crest sits at 12 o’clock, the Fulton name below it, and the words radio controlled solar chronograph printed small across the dial.

Three subdials sit across the face: a minute counter, a 24-hour dial, and a small-seconds dial at 6 o’clock cut like a turbine fan in red. It’s the liveliest detail on the watch, and anyone who knows the show will catch the reference before the second hand makes a lap. The pushers and crown sit at 2 and 4 o’clock, and the whole case reads chunky and confident, the way a tribute watch should.

Two straps, one tool, no watchmaker needed

The box holds two straps, and they change the watch completely. A heavy stainless bracelet gives it the everyday look, while a green cowhide strap with crimson stitching turns it into the fan piece. Dag includes a simple tool with the watch, so the swap happens at home in minutes, no trip to a watchmaker and no spring-bar fight.

Steel is the sensible default. The leather strap is the one you’ll reach for when someone asks about the watch, which they will, because the green dial with the red subdial doesn’t sit quietly on a wrist.

One watch, two personalities, and the swap takes minutes.

It never asks for a battery or a time check

Inside, a radio-controlled solar movement does the two jobs every quartz owner hates doing. It listens for Japan’s standard time signal from the Otakadoya and Hagane transmitters, and the maker claims an accuracy of one second in 100,000 years from that signal, with the time correcting itself. Sunlight or room light feeds the solar cell, so there’s no battery to swap and no setting to fiddle with after a drawer month.

You never set it, and you never feed it a battery. That’s the whole maintenance schedule.

One thing to know before buying: the radio sync listens for Japan’s signal. The watch keeps time on its own anywhere, but the automatic correction is a Japan-at-home feature. Dag sells through its own shop, and the piece is built for the Japanese market.

The caseback carries your number

Flip it over and the anniversary gets personal. The caseback carries the 55th anniversary logo in the same teal as the dial, and every watch gets its own serial number engraved beside it. The ring around the back is stamped with the facts: stainless steel, chronograph, and water resistance to 10 bar.

Read the logo closely and the joke lands. The anniversary mark prints 55TH GOGO!!, because go is the Japanese word for five, and the pun runs across the caseback, the presentation box, and the campaign art. It’s the kind of detail that separates a design made by fans from one made by a licensing department with a deadline.

Fulton is the quiet name on the dial

Fulton isn’t a licensing shell. The Swiss brand started in Bienne in 1885, its Military model went into service in 1940, and its MEMO TIME alarm clock became a hit in 1954. Dag put the anniversary watch on that history, and it shows in the build: a real chronograph movement, a real steel case, and a design that treats the source with more care than a logo slap.

The box keeps the theme going. A green presentation case carries the 55th anniversary mark, and an original guarantee card comes with each numbered watch. It’s the paperwork a numbered edition should carry, and Dag didn’t skip it. Dag is also giving one away on X, a single winner picked from followers of its @direct_a_g account.

The watch isn’t alone in Dag’s shop, either. Three Kamen Rider voice alarm clocks are already on sale there, little table clocks that shout you awake in character. The chronograph is the grown-up end of the same anniversary push, the one built to be worn to work instead of kept on a shelf.

Price: $313
Where to buy: Dag

If you just want radio-controlled solar, Casio sells the same trick for less money, and it’ll sync in more places. This one isn’t for that buyer. It’s for the fan who knows what 1971 means, who wants the green dial and the serial number and the two straps in the box. At $313, with 1,971 pieces and the run closing when they’re gone, that’s a fair price for a piece of the show you can wear every day.

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