In Which I Inadvertently Celebrate Seiko’s 100th Year as a Brand

This is a 1920s Seiko trench watch. Or more accurately, this is my newly acquired 1920s Seiko watch.

From my very nominal research, the name Seiko first made an appearance on a wrist watch dial in 1924. Before then, the wrist timepieces Seikosha produced carried the name Laurel from 1913 to 1923. In 1923, the great Kanto earthquake devastated Japan, destroying Seikosha’s factory. Seikosha founder Kintaro Hattori rebuilt and one year later the first Seiko wrist watch came out.

January of this year, 2024, saw the introduction of the Kintaro Hattori Limited Edition (limited to 1000 pieces), otherwise known as SPB441, which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Seiko brand.

This 35mm “giant,” under the Presage lineup, is a faithful recreation of the original watch that first carried the Seiko brand all the waaaay back in 1924. I’ve checked the pricing of this model, still available at select Seiko boutique shops even in Manila. If you want it you’re going to have to fork out north of 2000 USD.

Obviously my 1920s Seiko trench watch is not the same model as the one above. I don’t know what year exactly my watch came out. I’d like to think it’s 1924 but I’m not sure. It’s in the same era anyway. Instead of paying 2000 USD for a tribute, I paid 200 USD for my Seiko. And I’ll claim it’s from 1924 unless I can find out for sure that it’s not.

Now, ahem, I did not intentionally look for a 1924 Seiko watch in 2024 to celebrate Seiko’s 100th year of being on a dial of a watch. I’m not that clever. BUT, oh well, sometimes the gods smile down at me.

Seiko is a brand that I absolutely do not like and I have said as much here and elsewhere. But I am enamored with this vintage piece. Not really a fan of the strap that went with it but it was custom made by my vintage gal. I will need to get another strap custom made if I want to replace it since its 8mm closed lugs will be impossible to shop for. For the time being, I’m happy wearing it with the accompanying strap.

I took a photo of it with my one and only pocket watch from 1916 since it has the biggest dial I own at 45mm. Wanted to contrast the biggest with the smallest.

The watch itself is a manual wind, small (or in this case micro) seconds — a 26mm cutie.

Even though I don’t like the brand as a personal preference, I can’t help but acknowledge the heritage. Seiko disrupted the entire watch industry with its quartz revolution in 1969. How many watch brands did they close down? It was a massacre. Not content with resting on their laurels (hah!), and changing the watch landscape once with quartz, the brand decided to show the Swiss, the Germans, and everyone else again what innovation looks in 1998 with the introduction of the Spring Drive.

So, yeah, I find myself owning a 100 year old vintage antique watch, from a brand that I’m not fond of. I can’t see myself letting this one go though, just because of the serendipitous circumstances of its purchase.

And to Seiko: Happy 100th anniversary. Keep shaking them trees and watch the rotten leaves fall where they may.