Giant wave of new watches as Seiko celebrates 140 years – ”Always one step ahead of the rest”
This year it is 140 years since the 21-year-old Kintaro Hattori founded Seiko. A company he spent the rest of his life developing into Japan's largest watch manufacturer, under the motto ”Always one step ahead of the others.” During the ongoing Grand Seiko/Seiko Online Summit 2021 event, the company has released over 50 new models. Eqotime's Ola Jacobsen guides you through the most interesting new releases.
Text: Ola Jacobsen
Photo: Seiko Watch Corp.
This year it is 140 years since the 21-year-old Kintaro Hattori founded Seiko. A company that he devoted the rest of his life to developing into Japan's biggest watch manufacturer, under the motto ”Always one step ahead of the rest.” During the ongoing event Grand Seiko/Seiko Online Summit 2021 the company has released over 50 new models. Eqotime's Ola Jacobsen guides you among the most interesting news.
Even though Seiko has flooded the world with watches, a striking number of models have for long periods only been available for the domestic Japanese market. Despite – or thanks to that – it is most often precisely these models that are have been extra popular in collector circles.
Alpinist
The Alpinist is one such example, which has only in later years been sold outside Japan. And now the turn to be reissued in a largely faithful version has come to this very little tidbit.
The Seiko Laurel Alpinist came in its first version in 1959. The mountain and adventure watch came on a so-called bund, a sturdy leather strap that insulates the watch from direct contact with the skin.
The new edition Seiko Prospex The 1959 Alpinist Re-creation, SJE085, is driven by one of Seiko's thinnest automatic movements, calibre 6L35, and the watch is 11.1 millimetres thick and 36.6 millimetres in diameter.
For some reason Seiko has chosen to add a date complication at 16.30. The original had no date and even though everyone knows that is the very ugliest place for a date, it somehow works. Even if I personally would have preferred the watch without a date.
The new edition comes just like the original from 1959 on a bund, is limited to 1 959 examples, and costs 3 000 euro.
The almost faithful reissue is accompanied by three modern interpretations of the same watch: Seiko Prospex The 1959 Alpinist Modern Re-interpretation SPB241, SPB243 and SPB245. These are somewhat bigger, 38 millimetres in diameter and 12.9 millimetres thick and are driven by calibre 6R35 with 70 hours of power reserve.
Four equally different
To show the breadth of Seiko's range the manufacturer releases four watches from different brands with in the same manner. It is the GPS Astron, a diver's watch from Prospex, an automatic GMT piece from Presage and a diver from Seiko 5 Sports. All in limited edition (if you can call 11 000 examples of Seiko 5 Sports limited?) with white dials, blue hands and a glass ring. Price from 300 to 2 300 euro.
Prospex
During the just finished Grand Seiko/Seiko Online Summit 2021 Seiko explained that they will focus on the brand Prospex within the Seiko family. This because it is the most appreciated among the customers. Unfortunately that is not quite matched by new and exciting Prospex releases. On the contrary there is a lot of news within the other families. While Prospex largely has to make do with new versions of existing models. Maybe the talk about the investment in Prospex should be read as Seiko having more models on the way for launch later in the year.
Some watches that were released within the Prospex family spin on further from the success with new editions of the classic 6105-8010 case, also called the Willard. The two new watches come in a blue and a black version, of which the blue one is a tribute to the Japanese adventurer Naomi Uemura. He would have turned 80 this year if he had not disappeared during an ascent of Denali in Alaska in 1984.
The watches' dials have a new structure that is meant to bring to mind mountain terrain. A watch I much look forward to seeing in reality. The SLA049 and SLA051 are very reminiscent of the SLA033, but have been given a new and fairly incomprehensible placement for the date window … at 16.30. Both the original and last year's ”modern interpretations” SPB151 and SPB153 have the date at three o'clock.
Seiko Prospex The Naomi Uemura 80th Anniversary Limited Edition, SLA049 is released in 1 200 examples and costs 3 200 euro. The black one, SLA051, is part of the regular collection and costs 3 000 euro.
