Vintage Seiko & Citizen Catalog Browsing
What does a GMT+9 writer do in the middle of summer when he’s too busy playing golf and tennis to write a legitimate watch article? Well, he takes the easy way out and just posts some cool catalog shots from days gone by. For these shots, I grabbed a Citizen catalog from 1980 and a Seiko catalog from 1976.
Let’s start with Citizen. First up is a Cryston Mega which could be called a successor to Citizen’s ‘The Citizen’ A660 Caliber watches of today. This Crystron was priced at 80,000 yen and was I think the most expensive watch in the catalog.
Citizen Catalog from 1980
Next up is a page with some cool CQ divers. The prices on these quartz sport watches were 35,000 yen.
Let’s not forget the ladies. I like the dials on these women’s 28,000 yen sport watches.
I haven’t forgotten you LCD fans. Here’s a Citizen calculator watch with some technical instructions. This one sold for 35,000 yen.
Let’s move on to Seiko shall we? First off is a page of LM’s. Prices for these ranged from 21,000 - 24,000 yen. In this 1976 catalog, quartz are featured for most of the pages. The mechanical watches are pushed towards the back.
Seiko Catalog from 1976
I think GMT+9 has a Bellmatic collector among our readership. Here’s a picture picked out just for him! These Bellmatics were priced at 21,000 yen for the silver models and 26,500 for the gold.
These early quartz watches had LEDs on the dial that I believe blinked off the seconds as time passed by. If you look closely, you’ll also see that the quartz VFA at the top left is priced at a whopping 150,000 yen.
This next pic should be popular. Seiko gave each of its divers a full page shot. The 6159 was priced at 89,000 yen and the 6105 was much less at 20,000 yen.
Time to end this article with a shot of two rare chronographs. These watches contain the flyback 7018 caliber. Prices were 25,000 for the watch on the left and 23,000 for the watch on the right.
July 20th, 2007 at 3:21 am
Thanks petew for these pictures from the past.
That 1980 calculator watch must have been quiet a novum and technical wonder back in those days. At that time normal calculators as we know them today were not common. I was in middle school around then. My dad had a claculator (Hewlett Packard). You had to calculate like a computer, with input A, input B and than choose the mathmatic action. In 1981 he brought a Casio calculator for me from Japan, when he was visiting the ICQCC. It had the size of a creditcard and was about 4mm thick… No one had seen such calculator in my class.
Cheers,
Sjors
July 20th, 2007 at 5:57 am
Hi Sjors. I remember when they started to put calculator functions on watches. At the time, we all thought it was the most amazing thing in the world. Just think of what we would have said back then if we knew about the Apple I-Phone!
Thanks for reading.
July 20th, 2007 at 7:56 am
Hi Pete,
It was interesting to look over the two catalogs. Lots of gems to be mined. Thanks for posting.
By the way, your photographic style reminded me a little of the Harry Potter book that was completely photographed and uploaded to a torrent Web site on Tuesday. I’m sure you read about that. If not, more information here.
Regards,
Bryan
July 20th, 2007 at 9:56 am
Hi Bryan,
I just hope that Seiko and Citizen don’t come after me like the Harry Potter publishers are going after these people that are pre releasing the Harry Potter book!
Thanks for reading.
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:06 am
Speaking of Seiko catalogs, where does Seiko print the model numbers on their watches? I’m a beginning collector, and am finding it hard to figure out the model numbers of the Seiko watches I’ve bought, especially if they’re vintage and don’t have a case and manual.
Are there online resources for matching Seikos to their model numbers?
Thanks,
Overload
July 24th, 2007 at 4:26 am
Hi Overload,
Seiko uses three sets of numbers to identify their watches. First there is the model number, then there is the dial code and there is also a caseback code.
As collectors, we generally use the caseback codes to identify watches. The caseback codes are printed in a string of four characters, which represent the movement, then four more numbers which represent the case style. Here is a link to a site that has these codes printed for quite a few Seikos. Maybe over a thousand. It’s a good place to look at vintage Seikos. Hopefully this helps and thanks for reading.
http://www.ittc.ku.edu/~jgauch/watch/index.html
July 25th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Hi Pete: Great info, especially nice to see the 7018 pics (I still want one!). FYI, the 6105 would have cost US$68 in 1976. No wonder people were buying them instead of Rolex subs!
July 27th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Here’s my Seiko Collection:
Front Row: 5M63-0870; 5M43-0B70 Grey Ghost; SBDW007 LandMaster; 5M43-0F09; SBCW007 ScubaMaster; 5M43-0B89 Limted Edition
Back row: Automatic Blue Monster, Automatic SKX-009, 5M43-0C30
As you can see some are Caseback codes, some are actual model numbers.
July 27th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Hmmm. link didn’t work. How about:
or
http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/7923/seikoxj3.jpg
August 5th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Hello Overload,
I was trying to get some information on my 5M43-OB89 Limited edition, and not having much luck when Thomas from a Seiko site suggested I check out your collection and see what you have to say about it. Well, I see you have one on the bottom right corner of your nice collection. Years ago the watch was given to my dad by his cousin who owns a jewelry store - he said it was new and never did work. My dad was a horologist,and passed away in October last year at age 81. I now have the watch and yea, it looks pretty new . . . and yea, it doesn’t work - from what I’ve read it sounds like the capacitor is bad - it will run ok as long as you keep the induction mechanism ridiculously active. Anyway, I thought it was some kind of a Seiko promotional watch or something because the Seiko and Kinetic on the dial is so huge it struck me as an advertisement. This one is s/n 5518.
So is this a collectors item? Do you know how old it would be? Value? What should I expect to pay to get it fixed (if I can get it fixed)? Limited to 7000 is what it says on the back movement window. I’d sure like to learn something about this good looking watch.
Thank you,
Oscar
August 6th, 2007 at 4:58 am
Hi Oscar,
That particular watch probably isn’t too collectible. 7000 is a very large edition number and for the most part, the only collectible Kinetic watches are some of the divers and the 9T82 Chronographs. If I had to guess, I’d say the value was mayber $50.00 - $100.00. You can try going to ebay and looking at completed auctions to see if any similar watches like yours have sold. Keep checking over the next few months to see if one shows up so you can get a feel for what it sells for.
As far as fixing it, it’s not too difficult and is only slightly more involved than changing a battery. An honest watchmaker should be able to do it for $20.00 - 30.00 maybe much less.
Thanks for reading the blog.
August 6th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
do you have access to any Citizen catalogues from the early 90s,I am trying to locate a citizen eco-drive promaster with a natulite face and a proper chime alarm on it,Ive only ever seen one,mine,but it was that nice there must be others about,its driving me crazy.
tia
Thanks.
August 7th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Hi Tia,
I don’t have any from the early 1990’s. You said it was an eco drive, but I’m pretty sure Citizen didn’t market Eco Drive watches until mid or late 1990’s. Do you have a model number?
Thanks,
Pete