Cat & Mouse

I’ve seen a few (not many but enough that it isn’t an ultra-rare watch) Juggler watches but had always believed it to be a one-off kind of thing.

Picture me surprised then, when a very familiar-looking watch appeared in a bundle of old dead watches on a local auction site.

Cue some more investigation and I discovered there were actually four games in this series (two different circuitboards, four different LCDs).

I even had the UFO game without realising it was part of this series. As for the football/rugby – I hadn’t seen this in any format, same with the Cat & Mouse.

Until now – even though the watch was dead, the printed graphics on the LCD rung a bell for me and I searched through old ads and manuals to find the below pic.

After reading more about it, I found the Juggler and Cat & Mouse shared the same circuitboard; and the UFO/Football shared an alternative circuitboard.

Years of battery leakage and outgassing (thanks Union Carbide) meant Cat & Mouse was never going to run again, so I did the next best thing – swapped out the Juggler circuit and bingo, we have a working – and ultra-rare – Cat & Mouse game watch.

As expected, the game runs like Juggler but the differences in the LCD means it can be perceived as a different game. You are the cat(s) at the bottom of the screen and you have to catch the pesky mice as they move from one side of the screen to the other.

Game A has mice on two levels to catch; Game B has mice on 3 levels for an added challenge.

Great concept, and very playable game. Main problem being I can only play one watch or the other and don’t really want to have to keep swapping LCDs out so am on the lookout for a working circuitboard so both watches can be playable.