Mad About Harry
Before SeiyaJapan.com and Higuchi-Inc.com, there was Harry.
If you lived in the West and wanted a Japan-only Seiko in 1964, one way was to travel to Japan. Another was to order from Harry’s Mail-Order Catalog for Christmas Gifts, No. 17, care of NIPPON MAIL-ORDER & CO., Tokyo.
The envelope above came with the catalog. Although it looks almost new, it’s a relic from a different time. Note the choices of personal address in the space for a return address.
Harry’s 52-page catalog was filled with all sorts of goodies from Japan, including Seiko watches. It was sent to customers in the United States, Australia, and England. Prices were listed in US dollars, but it included a conversion chart for Australian and British sterling.
Of interest to Seiko fans is models available and their prices. The watch descriptions are also noteworthy, particularly the Crown-Chronograph’s.
The catalog was sent abroad before the Christmas season, possibly in summer or early fall. A caption on page 9 describing medals for sale commemorating the 1964 Tokyo Olympics indicates it was published before the Oct. 10th start of the games.
If the Olympic medals really are made of “pure gold, sterling silver & copper,” and are “exactly the same size, design, and quality of an Olympic winner’s,” and if the limited edition release by the government really was “unbelievably small,” the medals might be very valuable now. Maybe even worth more than a mint Crown-Chronograph!
The 18th Olympiad put Japan on the map. At the 1960 summer games in Rome, Japan was eighth in the medal count. Japan was third at the Tokyo games four years later. Their women’s volleyball team beat the Soviet Union to win gold, a source of great pride. Americans who remember the 1980 victory over the USSR to take the gold medal in hockey in the winter Olympics can probably understand the feeling.
Image source: Wikipedia
Imagine Seiko fans in the US, Australia, and England, 43 years ago, sending in orders for watches in an era before the Internet, Paypal, and EMS delivery. No doubt some of their wives and girlfriends, the Mrs. and Misses, considered their men mad. Lucky for them there was the US Mail, there was the Royal Post, and there was Harry.
Included below is the monetary conversion chart, and the catalog cover.
February 15th, 2007 at 2:55 am
Hi Bryan,
That must have been a very hard way to get Japanese stuff back then. My dad had some business trips to Japan in the early 80’s and showed me very futuristic pictures he took on his business trips. I was the first kid in the class with a pocket calculator (as big as a credit card, around 1981). How did people find Harry? Now there are blogs, websites and fora sending people to Seiya and Higuchi, but in 1964 (2 years before I was born) telephone wasn’t even common goods where I live.
BTW, Netherlands had at least 1 Gold medal. Anton Geesink (the only 10th dan still alive right now) was the first non Japanese judoka who won, completely surprising the Japanese audience.
Cheers,
Sjors
February 15th, 2007 at 6:27 am
Oh my goodness. I am shocked at the prices for some of those Seikos. Not only how low they are, but also how the Crown Chronograph clearly wasn’t close to being the most expensive in the lineup.
To an extent, buying from Harry must have taken a real leap of faith for some. Even today, you have so many people who are apprehensive about buying and selling to foreign countries. Fun article.
February 15th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Hi Sjors and Pete,
Sjors, your comment about Anton Geesink impressed me. I mentioned the US men’s ice hockey teams’ win, but I know that is an American memory. It’s cool to hear about Dutch pride in its Olympic champions.
Pete, it’s true that ordering from Harry must of taken a leap of faith, but did you notice Harry accepted personal checks as payment. I guess there was more faith in the past.
Did you notice the Crown-Chronograph is described as having “diashock, diaflex, diafit”? The last two are new ones for me. I guess they refer to the bracelet.
Finally, how about that list of people/professions they use to try and sell the World Time!?!!
Thanks for your feedback, guys.
Bryan
February 16th, 2007 at 12:29 am
Hi Bryan,
Thanks for the interesting (and nostalgic) article. Australian currency went decimal in 1966, so Harry would have had to alter his currency conversion chart!
Regarding the Crown-Chronograph (was it really only $29.45?!), I believe the copywriter got it wrong: instead of “a stop watch which can be easily converted to a wrist watch by rotating the bezel”, it’s actually the other way round. Also, it has diashock, diaflex and diafix, not diafit as you thought. Diaflex refers to the ‘unbreakable’ mainspring (there’s no such thing as an unbreakable mainspring in reality — they eventually succumb to either rust or fatigue), and diafix is a cap jewel with an oil reservoir for long-life lubrication.
Cheers,
LesZ
February 16th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Hi Les,
Yes, the copywriter definitely made a mistake with the Crown-Chronograph text. There are other similar errors throughout the catalog. That makes me wonder if the text was written by a non-native English speaker.
Heaps of praise for pointing out the meaning of “diaflex” and “diafix.” Those are new ones for me. I love that sort of thing, those made up terms by Japanese watch manufacturers. Is it too much of a stretch to say you have “expert knowledge” about these vintage Seikos? Well, more expert than myself, anyway.
Regarding nostalgia, if a person wanted to fly from the West to Japan in the early 1960s, he might have traveled on Pan Am. Here’s a scan of a Pan Am brochure from the year 1960 for you. This is back when flying was a big deal for most people, so they wore their best clothing for a flight.
Enjoy!
Bryan
February 16th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Wow, that brochure brings back memories of a flight in a Boeing 707 (not Pan Am) from London to Sydney in December, 1969. Although the 707s flew as fast as (or even faster than) today’s jetliners, their inferior fuel efficiency and smaller tank capacity meant we had to stop at Teheran, Karachi and Singapore to refuel. Funnily enough, I can remember seeing a woman wearing a fur coat on the plane, just like the woman in your brochure! She was fine in the snow at London and Teheran, but was getting a bit overheated in the boiling sunshine at the other stops. Interesting to see each Clipper had “a gay first class lounge”.
Not much has changed in the way of airline service, then.
February 18th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Les, you are one cheeky bastard!