SEGA x Anicorn Watch Turns Back Time to the 16-Bit Era

If you’re of a certain age, the name Genesis will either reignite memories of a chart topping English rock band or a 90s-era, cutting edge video game console that took the world by storm with its pairing of 16-bit graphics with a plentitude of attitude. It’s the latter memories designer watchmaker Anicorn taps into with the release of the SEGA x Anicorn Mega Drive/Genesis Watch.

Launched and marketed in 1988 as the Mega Drive in Japan, the Sega Genesis console arrived in the US a year after as the yang to Nintendo’s yin. It was the moment video gaming was crossing into the mainstream, blanketing youth with commercials promising arcade quality graphics at home, with the competition between the two powerhouse 16-bit consoles – the SNES and Genesis – going on across the 1990s to leave their indelible mark upon kids the world over (a memory that lives on today with the popularity of 2D retro sprite based games still flourishing).

A dark departure from the more friendly toy-like console designs in the late 80s, the Sega Genesis would arrive the same year as the first Batman film – it was as if Sega had captured the Dark Knight’s glowering anti-hero spirit and distilled into console form. The console’s state of the art processing power was engineered to conjure the cutting-edge pixel art aesthetics and typographic motifs inspired by performance sports cars that the Sega Genesis would go onto be remembered for.

If you count yourself as one of those kids who grew up playing the Sega Genesis, even a cursory glance is sure to reignite memories of the console’s signature black and red industrial design. Watchmaker Anicorn has done an impressive job of reproducing the Sega Genesis’ signature round top and logo – just miniaturized – and adapted it into a watch that is every bit of a fanboy flex as it is a timepiece.

Each of the three timepieces directly draws details from the SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis console’s retro design with nostalgic accuracy, including the inclusion of period accurate typography.

The mechanical innards of the watch are visible, the view further embellished with the inclusion of the console’s logo printed across the exhibition caseback.

Noting such beloved nostalgia deserves an extra bit of celebration, Anicorn has gone the extra mile to package the watches inside a “console” box, each containing a metal numbered plate adorned with an individual number and a tailored booklet of the legendary console.



Getting your wrists wrapped around an ANICORN x SEGA – Genesis or Mega Drive Limited Edition watch will set you back $800, with all three editions priced the same. Now just make one for us PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 nerds…

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.