The 8T23 is a true oddball in the Seiko movement lineup. Like the 6C12 in the Seiko Thermic, it was only produced in a short limited production span and then shelved. What is a 8T23 you ask? The 8T23 is the predecessor to what we now know as kinetic movements today.

One of the early concerns with the development of kinetic technology revolved around creating a rotor driven movement that was able to generate enough power to recharge a cell. In testing their ideas, Seiko utilized hand wound movement designs to prove that their ideas were sound. After getting satisfactory results using crown driven prototypes, Seiko worked on refining the designs using rotors as the primary energy generation source. In 1986, under the short lived “Impact” series, Seiko released one of these hand wound kinetic watches. The movement was released in a limited edition of 1000 watches available with two dials; plain (as reviewed) or two digit Arabic-style indicators.

The 8T23 8020 watch itself is small by today’s standards. It measures 35mm wide by 10mm thick. On the wrist, it is not unlike the popular Seiko military 4S15. The plain dial and hands impart the look of a classic pilot’s watch. Although pictured on a red strap, the watch was delivered on plain grey leather band. Packaging for the 8T23 was surprisingly simple considering the ground breaking movement contained within. A generic Seiko cardboard box along with detailed instructions on how to start and keep the watch operating.

8T23 Pictured on Original Strap

This watch has a big crown. Even by today’s standards, the crown is large, and back in 1986, a time when the trend was towards smaller and thinner cases, the look of this thing was probably out of this world. As big as this crown is, once you realize how vital it is to the watches, operation, you’ll wish it were larger.

To get the watch fully charged from a dead stop, it is necessary to continuously wind the movement for a good five minutes. If you don’t already have a callous on your thumb from winding your watches, you will after getting the 8T23 charged up. The reward for all that work is that upon full charge, the LED at the 6:00 position will blink on for a second. I must admit that I almost feel ridiculous winding this thing. After a couple of minutes of turning, you become fixated on that tiny LED, just waiting for it’s signal telling you to stop. The sense of relief and happiness you get after all that winding is both embarrassing and comical.

Once wound, Seiko recommends that you wind the watch daily for 30 to 60 seconds to maintain operation. The winding feel is pretty stiff, certainly more so than what you feel with a standard mechanical. Fully wound,the watch has a power reserve of about 70 hours. Accuracy on mine is pretty normal for a quartz. The longest I’ve had it going without stopping is two weeks after which it had gained 4 seconds.

I think it is obvious why Seiko never released another hand wind quartz watch. Keeping this watch wound requires effort on the part of the owner and getting it charged up from dead is a significant endeavor for most. For the serious collector however, the 8T23 is a desirable watch considering its lineage and is worth searching for.

In the final installment of this series on Kinetics, I’ll focus on some more widely available kinetic divers that I think are under appreciated by the Seiko collecting community.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Seiko. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.