Seiko Unveils a Raft of Limited-Edition Timepieces in Honour of its First Wristwatch, Laurel

In 1881, 21-year-old Kintaro Hattori opened a shop to repair timepieces. Eleven years later, he established his own factory, called Seikosha. In 1913, Seikosha produced Japan’s first wristwatch, ‘Laurel’. And the rest, they say, is history. This year, Seiko is celebrating its 110th anniversary. To mark the occasion, the timepiece maker has released a raft of new watches as part of the Presage, Prospex, Astron, and 5 Sports collections. 

Presage

This collection has three models. The first in the collection is the 40.2 mm stainless steel Presage Craftsmanship Series model. This has a white enamel dial, sporting Arabic hour markers, with a classic ‘12’ in red and blued hands, reminiscent of Laurel. The dial also incorporates a subdial at 6 o’clock for the date and a power reserve indicator at 9 o’clock. Driving the watch is Seiko’s high-performance Caliber 6R27, with the minimum power reserved for 45 hours. This model is limited to only 1,500 pieces.

Then there is the 40.2 mm stainless steel Sharp Edged Series that holds a hemp leaf pattern dial, an angular case, and a date window at 3 o’clock. Honouring the Laurel, the watch has a red mark at 12 o’clock. The timepiece is equipped with Caliber 6R55 and boasts about 72 hours of power reserve. This model is limited to only 2,000 pieces.

The last timepiece in the collection is a 40.8 mm stainless steel Style60’s GMT model, which gets blue hands, including an arrow-tipped hand for the GMT function, on a white dial. The model has a blue central hand with an inner ring with a small red mark at 12 o'clock; both the hour and minute hands are coated with Lumibrite. This model is powered by Caliber 4R34 with 41  hours of power reserve. This model is limited to only 3,500 pieces.

Prospex

This collection has two models. The first is the 42 mm stainless steel Speedtimer Solar Chronograph. The chronograph model features a bright white dial with black subdials at 2 o’clock to start/stop 1/10th of a second counter, at 12 o’clock for the 60-second counter, and at 10 o’clock to reset/split 1/10th of a second counter. The main time-viewing subdial rests at 6 o’clock. The timepiece is powered by Caliber 8A50 Solar Chronograph. This model is limited to only 3,500 pieces.

The next model is the 39.5 mm stainless steel Seiko Prospex Alpinist with GMT function. This features Arabic and trapezoidal hour markers at 3,6,9, and 12 o’clock, and a round date window at 4:30. Honouring the Laurel, the timepiece has a red mark on the compass ring. The GMT hand is denoted on the white arrow hand. Powering the model is the 6R family movement, Calibre 6R54, offering about 72 hours of power reserve. Completed with a stainless steel bracelet, this model is limited to only 3,000 pieces.

Astron

This was the world’s first commercially available quartz timepiece. The 41.2 mm titanium model had a titanium bezel and a white dial with an inner ring, accented with a red mark on ‘60’ at 12 o’clock, as a tribute to Laurel. The watch had a date window at 3 o’clock and a subdial at 8 o’clock that displayed multiple elements, such as GPS signal, charging status, leap second data receipt, and in-flight mode. The new timepiece can connect automatically up to twice a day to the GPS network to maintain its precision of one second every 100,000 years. Powering the watch is the latest Astron GPS Solar movement Caliber 3X62. This model is a limited edition of 800 pieces. 

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5 Sports 

This 39.4 mm stainless steel model comes with a pale white dial that features Arabic hour markers and a red coated 24-hour scale. At 3 o’clock, there is a dual window for day and date. The model also comes with blue hands for hours, minutes and seconds. There is a 24-hour inner ring with red marking. The timepiece is powered by automatic Caliber 4R36, boasting about 41 hours of power reserve. This model is a limited edition of 6,000 pieces.