The “shroud” concept Seiko introduced with the 600m 6159 diver back in 1975 has become a signature characteristic of Seiko deep-sea dive watches. The 6159 was released after exhaustive research by Seiko and today is recognized as a historically important watch by any knowledgeable watch collector. The unique shrouded design was conceived by Seiko designer Tarou Tanaka, who was inspired by the idea of a protective covering for his state-of-the-art watch after thinking about the protection that shells provided to shellfish.

Initially, Seiko only put shrouds on its high-end offerings. Today, however, we see vestiges of the concept in the lower-priced “Monster” and “Sawtooth” models. In fact, the shroud theme has become so popular that other watch manufactuers have released their own dive watches incorporating this distinctive design element. In addition to Seiko, I’ve seen watches from both Citizen and Casio using variations on the shroud design.

Casio MD-703 Diver

Citizen 1300M Diver (photo by Ty Maitland)

Out of all the non Seiko shrouded watches I have seen, the most impressive is the Ricoh 700m divers. In the 1970s, Ricoh released a very high-quality shrouded diver to compete directly against Seiko and their top-of-the-line 6159 and 7549 divers. Not only was the Ricoh a worthy competitor, but with their 700m rating, they even beat Seiko in the depth ratings war by 100 meters!

For those of you who have handled the older Seiko 600m watches, this Ricoh will feel like an old friend. At 49mm wide and 20mm tall, the Ricoh is almost identical in size to the Seikos it emulates. Holding it, with your eyes closed, or glancing at it from a distance, you would swear it was a Seiko. The over-sized hands, blackened titanium nitrate shroud, golden markings on the bezel, over-engineered crown, and the heavy doses of dial lume, all demonstrate that Ricoh was serious in competing head-to-head against Seiko in the high-end dive watch market. The only things that differentiate the Ricoh from, say, a 7549, are slightly different hands, a larger crown, and a cool dive flag printed on the dial. In addition to these slight differences, there is the orange dial. While this watch was also available with a black dial, the orange is probably what really set this watch apart from the Seikos, back when it was released. It only enhances its collectibility today, as Seiko has never made a traditional orange-dialed high-end dive watch.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the Ricoh is the possibility that it was in fact Ricoh, not Seiko, that produced the first 600m-plus rated quartz shrouded diver. In 1978, as quartz technology had taken a stronghold in the industry, Seiko discontinued the 600m 6159 diver, and replaced it with the quartz driven 600m 7549, which until the recent introduction of the 1000m SBBN001 was quite possibly one of the longest running designs in Seiko watch history. Over a period of almost 30 years, we saw the 7549 receive movement and materials upgrades, but the visual design remained essentially unchanged for all that time. With the exception of the Omega Speedmaster, or the Rolex Submariners, I can’t think of any other watches that have lasted so long.

Upon receiving the Ricoh, I have become intrigued with its history and production date. If this watch pre-dates the 7549, I would have to rewrite a bit of my understood history of dive watches. I always assumed that Seiko was way ahead of its competitors in the mid- to late-1970s and that the 600m 7549 was the first-high end diver rated to extreme depths. This may not be true. Unfortunately, researching Japan-only Ricoh watches from the 1970s is difficult, to say the least. Googling turns up nothing, and emails to Ricoh go unanswered, but I have developed some thoughts as to the production date of this watch. First, the watch has the battery change dates stamped on the case back. The first date indicated is 1980, so it is probably safe to assume that the watch could have been produced as early as 1978. Earlier is doubtful, as watch batteries generally did not last long back in this period.

Looking at the serial number confuses matters further. Like Seiko, there is a six-digit serial number, in this case 589001. If we interpret this number as we do Seiko and Citizen numbering systems, we get a production date of 1975! Could this be possible? I doubt it, as this theory does not support the battery change years indicated on the case back. However, upon further reflection, I think it is safe to guess that perhaps Ricoh uses the second digit as a year indicator and the first as a month, giving us a production date of May 1978. If this is true, there is a chance that Ricoh beat Seiko in the introduction of the first high-end quartz shrouded diver. Only a detailed inventory of 7549 600M production dates could give us a definitive answer.

And yet, there are still many questions this watch raises in my collector’s mind. Why did Ricoh abandon dive watch development after releasing such a significant watch, and how and why did they replicate the Seiko designs so closely? Holding this watch, you wonder if some spies from Ricoh stole design blueprints from Seiko factories.

Whether or not this was the first quartz shrouded diver may never be known. Regardless, this Ricoh is most definitely a worthy addition to any serious dive watch collection. Additionally, other Ricohs I have seen lead me to believe that there are other treasures hidden behind the Ricoh name, available to those who are not scared to venture searching beyond the beaten Seiko path.

EPILOGUE

Mea Culpa! I’d like to thank mot_universe who clarified some information to me regarding the shroud designer (corrected in the text) and the Ricoh serial number. It appears that 589001 is not a serial number at all as this exact number is shown to appear on another pic of this watch on the web. At this point, the logical guess is that the 589001 printed on the case back is a model number.