In my last King Seiko Guide I described how the the King Seiko brand was conceived by the Daini Seikosha factory in 1961 as a luxury watch brand to rival Suwa Seikosha’s Grand Seiko line established in 1960. We also saw how the unnumbered movement from that first King Seiko model would go on to become… Read more »
Just admit it: you, like me, give more than two shits about what people think of your watch collection, and the reason is clear: our collections represent us. Every little detail that we’ve allowed past the velvet rope into our personal horological disco is out on the floor for others to judge. We really wouldn’t give two shits about that judgement if we didn’t understand that what’s being judged is not watches but our most intimate expression of our mostly solipsistic and, thus, often lonely subjectivity inner lives. You, dear reader of horological essays, like me who writes them, give two shits about how people judge you if not your watches, I’m sure of it.
Here at Beyond The Dial, we give each other a fair amount of shit for our respective favorite watches. Allen goes on and on about his 1972 Rolex Datejust 1603 as if this fairly common watch were special to anyone but himself, and David has become something of a Seiko Pogue pusher-man here in the… Read more »
King Seiko was a luxury brand of Seiko from 1961 to 1975. It was positioned directly below Grand Seiko in terms of pricing, quality and accuracy. While the brand was initially created as Daini Seikosha’s alternative to Suwa Seikosha’s Grand Seiko brand, by 1969, both factories were creating watches for both ranges and King Seiko was firmly established as Seiko’s second, purely-domestic, luxury line.
Seiko x Nano Universe SZSJ005 and SZSJ006 Hands-on Review
All activity on my personal watch collection has come to a grinding halt since I bought my two Cartier Tanks toward the end of 2020. Having invested in a stereo system and guitar stuff, both of which have been important for me during COVID isolation, my watch funds have been a bit tapped. But the… Read more »
“Whoa… What is that beauty?” asked Allen as I entered the woody, half-lit inner sanctum of BTD HQ; be-masked and reeking of hand sanitizer. The sanitizer stench was soon overpowered by the heady aroma of cigar smoke and reclaimed barn wood. I was wearing my 1962 Seiko Crown Special and Allen’s comment confirmed what I… Read more »
I started 2020 with eight mostly sporty watches. I finish with only four mostly dressy watches. A year ago I could not have imagined what a transformation my collection would have gone through, and I don’t mean ending up with half as many. In fact, after purchasing another dozen or so watches in 2020, of… Read more »
One aspect of watch history that is both misunderstood and misrepresented is Seiko’s internal competition from the 1950s to the 1970s.
If I had to sum up my collecting year I would say I have focused even more on vintage watches in 2020 while bifurcating the collection into a Seiko-only historical collection and a general everyday wear collection. In terms of the vintage Seiko pieces, I went older and smaller in 2020.