Seiko Tokyo Olympic Promotional Materials

[akable]

Being the official timekeeper for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 allowed Seiko to produce a number of promotional materials highlighting their role with the games.

I have recently picked up a couple of different items recently. The first was an advert designed for international markets showing a 89ST and surprisingly a 57GS.



A copy of the advert can be downloaded from here - Seiko International Olympic Advert

I also picked up a poster showing an 89ST stopwatch surrounded by various nations flags. 



Unfortunately my poster was folded multiple times and had various damage to it. I scanned a copy of the poster and corrected much of the damage. A copy of the corrected poster can be downloaded from here - Seiko 1964 Olympic Promotional Poster

[bertnet]

Many thanks Anthony for share it over this era 👍🥂 🙇‍♂️

[earthphase]

Im hoping we get a whole new treasure trove of stuff from Seiko for the upcoming games.

[akable]

I would be extremely surprised if Seiko releases anything related to the Olympics. As Omega is the official timekeeping sponsor of the games they have exclusive rights to use the games to publicise watches, clocks and timekeeping.

The IOC is very strict with this and is quite aggressive in pursuing any violations. I work for a company where our products are used extensively but there is another company in a similar sector that is an official sponsor. We at most are able to say verbally that our products are to be used at a large sporting event that will occur in 2020, but can make no official reference to the Olympics.

Seiko could release some special 56th Anniversary models but they would be walking a very fine line that likely would not be something that they would consider doing.

[bombora]

I was surprised that Seiko would not be the official timekeeper for the 2020 games in Japan.
Omega must be paying large for the rights.

[huangcjz]

Nov 21, 2019 4:24:01 GMT -8 bombora said:

I was surprised that Seiko would not be the official timekeeper for the 2020 games in Japan.
Omega must be paying large for the rights.

Yes, I was a bit surprised too, since I think SEIKO were also the timers for the Winter Olympics the last time they were in Japan in Nagano in 1998 (last Summer Games SEIKO had the contract for was Barcelona 1992), but it turns out that OMEGA has a long-term contract from 2009 until 2020, which they later extended to 2032, to make it 100 years since OMEGA started timing the games in 1932. Since Tokyo was chosen as the host in 2013, Seiko couldn’t do anything about it by the time they knew that it’d be hosted in Japan again. Swatch Group used TISSOT instead of OMEGA as the brand for one of the games in the past, though I forget which, I think in the 1990s or early 2000s. Swatch Group/its predecessors with OMEGA etc. have been the official timekeepers for most of the modern games in history. A Chinese company did time the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, but won’t for the next Winter Olympics which will be in Beijing in 2022.