Having fallen down the rabbit hole of Swatch collecting, I thought I'd begin with a vintage "Chessboard" design from 1992 (although some say it's from 1993, the AG 1992 on the dial proves otherwise).
The GM402 also known officially as "Clubs" (because Chess Club, geddit?) is a pretty standard Swatch from the time, albeit with a date complication placing it on a higher level than most of the 1980s offerings. It originally came with an amber-coloured leather strap too, but the one I bought had obviously seen better days.
For £5 from an excellent eBay seller who put a fresh battery in and made the postage "signed for" so I had to go out to the postie in my underpants to collect it, I wasn't overly concerned about the state of the strap or swapping it to a nice new orange rubber one. I wish I'd had the original smoked black plastic buckle instead of the solid black though.
I think the orange strap works well with this design and matches the orange hands nicely.
I cleaned the watch quite thoroughly beforehand with anti-bacterial wipes, but truth be told, it wasn't very dirty anyway. Some congealed dust was around the edge of the crystal, but I wiped that over with PolyWatch, and it came off easily.
The 34mm case is a smoked black plastic which is far more desirable than one of the now yellowed clear plastic (or jellyfish) Swatch watches. All the plastics on old Swatch watches are brittle now, and mine is no exception.
There's wear to the lugs, but due to Swatch having reinforcements in the design, I'm not likely to lose the strap or the pins. I can resin that top left (as you see it, right) lug later, but it's not a problem. Not much I can do about the front wear, however, so I'll just leave it. I could file it to make it even, but there's no point for a £5 watch.
In "as new" collectable condition, this is a £60 watch at best. It's not a rare Swatch by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a nice and more adult one.
The case height is a very slim 8.75mm, and with a lug-to-lug of 39.2mm, this is very much a 34mm "Unisex" model by modern standards. I think it always was unisex really, but it was marketed as being the "gents" size rather than a ladies model. I think the ladies sizes were 28mm at the time, but since I'm not a Swatch expert (or a fan of the brand), I don't know for sure, and don't think this Swatch came in any other size anyway.
The chessboard pattern is made up of very reflective silver squares and far less reflective (possibly even matt with glitter) black ones. Legibility is mostly good, but depending on the angle under electric light, it can sometimes take a moment to see the hands.
The biggest surprise to me was that the orange hands are lumed! Not the best lume or the most lasting, but it has some, and in two colours. I don't know how they did this. I didn't know that Swatch watches even had lume before I accidentally noticed that this one had some either.
Anyway, that's my latest "new" Swatch reviewed. It's a nice retro timepiece with an iconic design which is still going strong today.
Given the number of Swatch reissues over the last year, it probably won't be much longer until they make this again but in 41mm. At 34mm, this one is maybe a bit too small for full-bodied adult men today.