Comments on: Vintage Seiko & Citizen Catalog Browsing

by: petew

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 00:49:14 +0000

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

by: plantpot

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 02:38:07 +0000

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.

by: petew

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 12:58:41 +0000

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.

by: Oscar

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 02:58:34 +0000

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

by: Overload

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 07:04:30 +0000

Hmmm. link didn’t work. How about:

http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/7923/seikoxj3.jpg

by: Overload

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 07:03:07 +0000

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.

by: paul

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:24:29 +0000

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!

by: petew

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:26:36 +0000

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

by: Overload

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:06:18 +0000

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

by: petew

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 17:56:05 +0000

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.

by: bryanandersen

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:56:32 +0000

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

by: petew

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:57:22 +0000

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.

by: Sjors

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 11:21:48 +0000

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