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.
“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 »
One aspect of watch history that is both misunderstood and misrepresented is Seiko’s internal competition from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Uncle Seiko, aka Larry Bouligny, was motivated to start making replacement rubber straps after having difficulties finding good quality replacements for the vintage Seiko dive watches he was restoring at the time.
Alarm Watches Seiko introduced their ‘Bell-Matic’ range in 1966 but the history of the mechanical alarm watch begins more than 20 years earlier. Vulcain had been working since the early 1940s to perfect a movement that could chime an alarm loud enough to be heard, but not so violently that it interfered with the delicate… Read more »
In our previous installment on Seiko watches from the 1960s, we saw how the serial number of each Seiko watch can be used to indicate the month and year of its manufacture. The first digit denotes the year of the decade in which the watch was made and the second digit denotes the month of manufacture:… Read more »
We love a chase don’t we? Watch enthusiasts I mean. The thrill of opening the next box or clicking the next link to see if it might be hiding something different. Something special. Something only we have discovered. Tales of $25 Rolex watches bought at the local thrift shop or found at the bottom of… Read more »