Rare Seiko GS Very Fine Adjusted

[sweephand]

Although vintage Citizens are my thing, I sometimes take a look at interesting Seikos selling on Yahoo Japan. And this week a very interesting piece was sold. One of only about 200 to 300 made I believe, this is one of the VFA Grand Seikos made to do well at the Swiss chronometer competitions around 1969/70. It is a very plain piece, made for high performance rather than cosmetic appeal, with no complications, just telling the time (pictures from the seller's auction):



The back is....minimalist, no medallions on these, just tells you it's a 4580-7000:


The movement looks very nice indeed, with the level of adjustment clearly marked:



The seller has obscured the movement number on this, but I think I read that there were about 260 of these made.

It sold for JPY902,000, about USD7,600

Stephen

[Tyrone Jenkins]

The minimalistic look on that one is actually pretty cool.

[jringo8769]

Well you have the best taste in watches...that is so elegant...and that is crazy money for a watch....thank you for sharing...John

[sdoocms]

Love the simplicity, that's a real nice watch!

[sweephand]

Whoever bought it did get the box to keep it in 





Stephen

[funkster]

That's a new one on me - beautiful! 

[HiBeat]

So let me be the contrarian. I consider that a lousy eay to drop $7.6K on a watch. For $7600 I want a lot more sizzle in my moolizzle

I can understand that it is a high quality hand made movement and is the best Seiko precision of the era. I understand that true rarity increases selling price too. I get all that.

All this comes from me, a guy who just yesterday drove 40 miles out if my way to try on some modern Grand Seikos and I love GSs. I love my King Seiko Certified Chronometer and my earlt GS Quartz.

But this one does nothing for me. It's devoid of the GS logo. It lacks a characteristic case design, in fact it's an atrocious case.

Maybe a museum can show it for its place in history but it is so not for me at 1/10 the price.

[Rod]

I find it interesting that they only used 25jewels, makes the rest seem over jewelled, if that's all you need to achieve FVA

[Groundhog66]

Really nice looking piece, very simple...but damn expensive. No doubt, it'll live it's life in a safe.

[Deleted]

The thing that stands out for me is the regulator bar with it's two offset bars. I'm betting that Seiko figured out how to make the beat error stand still when the regulation was adjusted. I can see how one bar was influential during compression of the hair spring and one during expansion. This all done without having to pinch the hairspring and make it captive.

I've often wondered if watch makers had considered that the effective spring length must be different during compression and expansion.
Looks like those wiley Seiko engineers did think about it and have implemented a rather simple and ingenious solution.

Sure the watch is a plain Jane but that movement is a Marilyn Monroe for sure!

Thanks for sharing this with us Stephen

[cobrajet25]

Great watch...a true "horological hot rod".  It must be rare as I have never seen one before.  This wouldn't be purchased as a watch to wear today, and likely wasn't meant to be worn back in the late 1960s.  It was, and is, a historically significant presentation piece.  I doubt it was sold at a retail level.  It was likely given away by a Seiko VIP to some other VIP.  Wonder what they did to deserve THIS!

Twenty five jewels will be enough to cover nearly every pivot in a manual-winder, but more jewels will be needed for a watch with an autowinding system.

[philsinclair]

Hi. At only $7.5k this watch is an absolute bargain and will quite possibly be worn by the owner. Consider that the average Rolex Submariner costa $8.5 and get worn daily. I worn mine on a building site every day for 2.5 years and knocked it around. It then went back to Rolex for a service at $800 and came back looking like new. Most buyers of a Patek Phillipe Calatrava at $20k wear their watches regularly.

I guess it's all relative, the collector of sub thousand dollar watches does not see the relevance of high end quality watches. I have a friend who wears his Omega Planet Ocean daily and knocks it around terribly.he has dozens of watches each worth more than $50k each and says the Omega is just a cheap tool watch.My Planet Ocean is now back from Omega and is running well (5th time), they won't tell me what is wrong or what they replaced. I asked for a report on the watch but replied the charge would be $600.

Cheers Phil

[cobrajet25]

Jan 29, 2015 21:50:49 GMT -8 philsinclair said:

Hi. At only $7.5k this watch is an absolute bargain and will quite possibly be worn by the owner. Consider that the average Rolex Submariner costa $8.5 and get worn daily. I worn mine on a building site every day for 2.5 years and knocked it around. It then went back to Rolex for a service at $800 and came back looking like new. Most buyers of a Patek Phillipe Calatrava at $20k wear their watches regularly.

I guess it's all relative, the collector of sub thousand dollar watches does not see the relevance of high end quality watches. I have a friend who wears his Omega Planet Ocean daily and knocks it around terribly.he has dozens of watches each worth more than $50k each and says the Omega is just a cheap tool watch.My Planet Ocean is now back from Omega and is running well (5th time), they won't tell me what is wrong or what they replaced. I asked for a report on the watch but replied the charge would be $600.

Cheers Phil

I don't think this one will see wrist time.

A person with lots of cash who wants to buy a "knockaround watch" is going to do as your friend did...keep his $50k watches in the safe and buy a $5k Omega.  They won't spend $7,500 on a plain-jane '60s handwinding Seiko that only a handful of people on the planet will appreciate.

I suspect this watch was bought by someone in Japan who realized how significant it is...perhaps it was even Seiko themselves that bought it.

Look at it this way...how much would one of the Swiss watches competing with this very Seiko at Neuchatel circa 1969 sell for today?  Tens of thousands?  Hundreds of thousands?  I shudder to think how much a '60s Rolex Competition Chronometer sells for!

[philsinclair]

Hi. He does wear all of them in rotation in the evenings but you may be correct about the competition Seiko and I suspect Kohei may be the buyer. As far as the competition Swiss watches go, I believe they were not sold and put into the relevant company museums.

I would have been interested in the Seiko at that price and would have worn it.

Cheers Phil

[sweephand]

Here's a link to the auction, with more pics and the seller's translated description:

xn--kjvp61d69f.aucmartstore.com/seiko/21630

Stephen

[frogman4me]

Its a beautiful and historical watch.  Anyone who appreciates the history will happily pay the premium asking price. 

[sweephand]

Although this thread is getting old now, I thought I'd better add a comment since when I originally posted I had misunderstood something about these rare VFA models. I suppose I read some info too quickly and thought that this watch was one of the competition models, when in fact it wasn't. Although made to those specs only the 'Astronomical Observatory Chronometers' actually took part in the competitions. 

Apologies for this,

Stephen

[HiBeat]

Feb 18, 2015 11:41:46 GMT -8 sweephand said:

Although this thread is getting old now, I thought I'd better add a comment since when I originally posted I had misunderstood something about these rare VFA models. I suppose I read some info too quickly and thought that this watch was one of the competition models, when in fact it wasn't. Although made to those specs only the 'Astronomical Observatory Chronometers' actually took part in the competitions. 

Apologies for this,

Stephen

Exactly.   It's not an Observatory specimen.  Wouldn't everyone on this site find an entirely different way to spend $7,600. on vintage Seikos?

[philsinclair]

Hi" still worth the money. Only 73 observatory competition watches were made. Approx 50 VFA made per year, a look at the specs will confirm this as near quartz accuracy attained by each. I am close to getting a Calatrava at $15k and it's not a accurate as these. Cheers Phil

[HiBeat]

Agreed it's worth the selling price to a museum, maybe a high-roller watch collector, etc.

I just can't find the value to "the rest of us"