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After firing the first shot in what Seiko calls the Quartz Revolution (but most others call the Quartz Crisis), it disrupted the entire industry rather quickly. That’s where I left off with my last post. In this one, I want to pick things back up with Seiko. This time I’ll focus on the pre-quartz days of Seiko, a time when the company also made some really great mechanical watches, too. It created Japan’s first chronograph wristwatch for instance, as well as its first dive watch. It’s prowess as a producer of mechanical wristwatches (pre-quartz) are captured in the vintage Seiko ads I’ll share in this post.
Where We Last Left Off…
In my last post, Before Quartz: Hamilton, Lip, And The First Electric Watch, I covered Seiko’s Quartz Astron 35SQ, which triggered the “Quartz Revolution”. The Quartz Astron went on sale December 25, 1969. Roughly a decade later, quartz was in, and almost everything else was on its way out.
Seiko is perhaps best known for its excellent (and affordable) quartz watches, but it also owns a very iconic heritage related to mechanical watchmaking as well. Like today, it also focused on producing tough, yet affordable, watches for the masses.
Pre-Quartz Vintage Seiko Ads: A Focus On Value, An Emphasis On Automation
It seems that Seiko always strove to offer above-average value to consumers. You can see it in the pre-quartz era ads below. Language in the ads such as “the automation-made watch” that “runs like the dickens” at only a fraction of the price of a watch made the “old-fashioned way” can be applied to modern, entry-level mechanical Seiko’s, too – at least in my opinion.
Automation in the late 1960s, as today, had its advantages. You could get a great watch at a much better price. Machines don’t take coffee breaks or get paid overtime, after all. I have a feeling that wouldn’t be the main highlight of a modern advertisement, however.
While Seiko does appear to be moving upmarket, I do also think it still offers value in relation to many of its Swiss counterparts. To be fair, a lot of its higher-end watches, even ones that cost a thousand bucks or more, still offer good value I think. I’d say that’s especially true for the models that are receiving Grand Seiko technology and features (like Spring Drive movements and Zaratsu polishing).
My Favorite Vintage Seiko Ads
My favorite pre-quartz era watches from Seiko are its tool watches. Especially its divers. Even today, you can purchase a mechanical Seiko dive watch that’s tough and dependable, without breaking the bank. I know, I own both an SKX009 and a Samurai model.
My favorite vintage ads from the brand, however, are definitely the ones for its World Time models.
Originally released in 1964 for the Tokyo Olympics, it was relatively expensive at the time. Of course the company was behind Rolex and Glycine when it came to producing travel-time watches produced specifically for aviation purposes, which was still relatively new at the time. World time watches themselves were technically invented in the 1930s, however, but this was long before commercial airlines.
Conclusion
I greatly admire Seiko as a brand. The company known for quartz also has a rich heritage as a mechanical watchmaker. It introduced Japan’s first chronograph wristwatch, and possibly even introduced the world’s first automatic chronograph – depending on who you ask. Yes, possibly even before the Caliber 11 or Zenith’s El Primero made it to market, according to Hodinkee.
Its Laurel model was the first wristwatch in Japan, and Seiko produced Japan’s first dive watch in 1965. The 6139 Speedtimer, Seiko’s first automatic chronograph, may have hit the Japanese market as early as May 1969. Then on December 25, 1969 the whole game changed with the release of the first quartz watch – the Seiko Astron.
Not only are the vintage Seiko ads displayed in this post really cool, they’re also a window into Seiko’s “pre-quartz” past. Even all the way up until the release of the Astron, Seiko was putting out mechanical world timers and automatic chronographs – not to mention tough mechanical dive watches.
Not many watchmakers have such an iconic heritage, and even fewer are still fully-integrated manufactures. Seiko also offers watches all along the price spectrum – from entry-level to the higher-end. There’s no other brand that I can think of that’s directly comparable to Seiko as a brand. I think for these reasons, Seiko remains in a league of its own.
Know more about Seiko and want to add to the discussion? Please post a comment below!