Alba is a Seiko sub-brand, and this lovely old thing has a couple of elements in common with the impressive D229 – the digital crown, and the slightly creepy ding-dong alarm from its front-firing speaker, along with a slim screwback stainless steel case. This is a much simpler module, and employs a quite elegant control setup. Rotating the crown forwards cycles from time, to day/date, month/date, alarm, and stopwatch. pulling out the crown puts it in setting mode, which is a little tedious on one hand, but kind of fun because it’s so weird. It doesn’t look like there’s room for 24h time, but pressing the light button while setting the time indeed toggles 24h. entering setting mode in day/date allows adjustment of the day, while date adjustment is in the following month/date mode. Exiting the setting mode in alarm toggles it on or off, except after adjusting it, when it will remain on. The stopwatch is very basic (although it does activate a cute little running man icon), with the light button covering start, stop, and reset, so restarting it isn’t a thing, and there’s no lap/split function. After a while, the 1/10s display becomes seconds, to make room for hours. Turning the crown backwards returns to the time from any mode, which is a nice touch, and any mode will return to the time after a minute or two of inactivity, except for the stopwatch if it’s running. Despite its simplicity, the firmware in this watch is brimming with delightful little refinements.