RE: "The dials look
legit original but "Spacial" has been added."
Well, not really. What I usually saw (but not always) in vintage [Ricoh] was 2 separate words "WATER PROOF"
not a dial, but hang-tag here.
separate words used on case-backs as well.
Sometimes they copied/emulated the early '60s Seiko WP watches with the rating between the words in a different color:
and similar with "shockproof" as 2 words.
and the minor text was usually in a finer, lighter "font" (than your auction examples appear to have).
There are however some models where it was done as 1 word, "WATERPROOF" as your example shows... like this one does too:
My opinion on the "SPACIAL": after years of dialing with Asian English, I'd guess it was just a re-dial with a "typo" from someone who does tend to pronounce "special" like the English word "spatial" ... I've seen a lot of that over the years in Asia and dealing w/ Asians in the US.
In other words, I think it is another case like my Seiko UNIQUE (mid -> late '50s) with a rather obvious, incorrect re-dial apparently done years ago:
likely done as a poor attempt at capitalizing on the Citizen Center Second model of the 1950s... and with an Asian take on the spelling of "center". There is also an example of a Citizen that has the same spelling ("S" for "C" in Center) on it!! Maybe there were a bunch of re-dialers 'in the old days' that mixed up their "S" and "C" in 'center'
BUT: Before we dismiss this as entirely incorrect, we must remember that the Japanese used some rather "quirky" English in the early Post-WWII period. For example, the "
Storaight P
lecision Chronometer" I reported on a forum @
www.network54.com/Forum/621198/thread/1249592087/Anyone+for+a+Plecision+chronometer---+-%29Note the "l" in place of the correct "r" for P
recision ... and "Storaight" ?? is that for "straight" or something with the word for "8" in it?? Something like a brand name - "Store 8" for example
In that link about the Storaight, note the response by martback, "Probably legit I found another one on the Japanese auctions. Seiko also sold movements to other manufacturers so Storaight does not have to be affiliated with Seiko. As a curiosity, when searching for storaight on Google, most pages that comes up are Japanese so it seems to be an accepted Jap-lish word rather than a mis-spelling."
So, there are similar "oddities" out there on dials!! Makes them all very spacial
