Vintage Seiko 5

J***e
22 October 2020

The Seiko 5 series has been an important part of Seiko’s range for decades. The family is considered an ideal entry point into the world of mechanical watches. Some variants, both new and vintage, can be purchased for less than $100, a bargain. The Seiko 5 series has a reputation for fine quality at a good price, the value for money is unmatched. The Seiko 5 series has a reputation for fine quality at a good price, the value for money is unmatched.

A vintage Seiko 5 Sportsmatic from 1963. Source here.

The history of the Seiko 5 Series

The Seiko 5 series was launched in 1964 with some technical innovations. The Japanese watch house designed a diaflex spring that was supposed to be shock-resistant and unbreakable. Furthermore, the Japanese manufacturer also came up with an answer to the Swiss Incabloc system, they called their variant diashock and designed it to be extra shock resistant. They also paid attention to the practical aspects of the watch, in addition to the technological innovations. All Seiko 5 watches produced are water resistant. They also feature a convenient day and date display, and the timepieces are always automatic, so there is no need to wind the watch or change the batteries. Thus, the Seiko 5 series always has the following features:

Diaflex-spring
Diashock-system
Day and date function
Automatic movement
Water resistance

Water resistance Thus, numerous timepieces were created and the design also changed drastically. Nevertheless, all these watches belong to the Seiko 5 family and feature the attributes mentioned above. These attributes make for incredibly durable and practical watches, which is great considering the price.

Furthermore, a great feature of vintage Seiko 5 watches is their modern format. Most of these watches are 36 millimeters or larger, which is large, especially for watches from the 1960s and 1970s. These vintage watches can usually be worn both casually and formally. The combination of price, durability, size and great design makes the Seiko 5 series one of the best entry-level watches in the world of vintage watches. I am personally also a big fan of the Seiko 5 series, my first vintage watch was one and I have had a few since, they have always performed well and are extremely reliable, especially considering that some of them have probably never had a service because they were presumably too cheap to maintain by the previous owners.

How has the vintage Seiko 5 series evolved?

-A vintage automatic Seiko 5 with a classic design from the 1960s.

Due to the long production of the Seiko 5 series, there have been many models released over the years, Seiko has continually tweaked the design to ensure that their models remained relevant. For example, there are models with different designs to ensure that there is a vintage Seiko 5 for everyone.

-A vintage Seiko 5 from the 1970s with a unique case shape.
-In the 1980s, Seiko released beautiful all-round models.

It is almost impossible to list all the Vintage Seiko 5 watches released over the years, there must be hundreds or thousands of them. Feel free to look around our watches section to see some of these models.

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