I’ve been looking at a few vintage quartz watches over the last few months, this Seiko 3923-5010 V.F.A. being one example, and a real eye-catcher. (Click pictures to enlarge) Several watch manufacturers had been developing quartz calibres throughout the 1960’s, but it was Seiko that were the first to market with the Astron 35SQ in December 1969. Despite costing ¥450,000, the same price as a small family car, they still found buyers (100 in the first month) and the model signalled the start of the quartz revolution. Since 1959, Seiko had been split into two wholly owned subsiduaries, Suwa Seik ..read more

This time it’s a watch that has been on my radar for a while now, an Aquastar Atoll. Though I’ve serviced/restored a good number of them over the years, a model missing from my own Aquastar collection was a decent Atoll automatic. (Click pictures to enlarge) The Atoll was first introduced around 1970 and might be considered a ‘Benthos-lite’. If you’ve never had the pleasure of handling one, the first-generation Benthos 500 is a real bruiser of a watch, 47mm (including the crown) and 16mm thick, there’s no mistaking that it’s a professional tool watch. Being 42mm in diameter (including crown ..read more

It only seems like five minutes since the last one, but it’s Christmas time again! Best wishes for the festive season, and a happy and successful 2023 to you all. Rich. The post Seasons Greetings… appeared first on The Watch Spot ..read more

It’s been a couple of years since I wrote about a vintage Tissot on the blog, so let’s have a look at this T12 Navigator. (Click pictures to enlarge) The T12 range was produced from the 1950’s until the 1970’s and were aimed at the more active segment of the market. I’ve written about another watch from the T12 range before, the Sonorous alarm watch in which I gave more details on the background of the range, so rather than repeat myself, I’ll direct any interested parties to that post here. The watch in this post and others from the same range were produced in the late 1960 and early 1970’s ..read more

It’s been over a decade since I wrote about a Movado HS360 on the blog, so let’s have a look at this handsome Kingmatic model. (Click pictures to enlarge) The HS360 line was produced during the Mondia-Zenith-Movado partnership and represented Movado’s high-beat offerings to the market. The late 1960’s and early 70’s were the golden years of high-beat calibre production when a small number of manufacturers, 12 to be precise, were pushing the envelope in an attempt to increase accuracy by doubling the beat rate from 18,000 bph (beats per hour), which had been the industry standard for the first ..read more

I was contacted by a fellow watch enthusiast to see if I could do anything to save this Olma Sea-Cup, and I’ll admit that my first thought was… “Oooof! Nope.” (Click pictures to enlarge) In the movement pictures things certainly didn’t improve, with the whole case being full of rust residue and the screw heads for some parts now being unrecognisable. Yikes! The success or failure of these kind of restoration projects hangs mainly on the amount of damage done to the dial and hands. Moisture takes no prisoners with regards to the lacquer, lume and paint on a dial, or the thin plating on the ha ..read more

Yep, it’s another Seiko Bell-Matic, this time a model that I’ve known about for a long time but never had on the bench, a blue dial 4006-7002. (Click pictures to enlarge) Seiko are renowned for the execution of their blue dials, both modern and vintage. Their dress watch and chronograph back catalogue contain some stunning examples, and the Bell-Matic range is no stranger to a blue dial as all nine models in the 17 jewel, 6-series range (4006-60xx) have a blue variant. Here are a few examples… In the 7-series (4006-70xx) watches however, it’s much slimmer pickings as there are only two model ..read more

It’s been a few years since I’ve written about an Enicar on the blog, so let’s have a closer look at this Sherpa Super-Jet 33. It’s a fine looking watch, I’m sure you’ll agree. (Click pictures to enlarge) The Sherpa name is synonymous with Enicar who first registered the brand in 1956. Using prominent mountain climbers, adventurers and sportsmen to promote the brand, Enicar used the Sherpa name for many years, releasing more than a hundred different models in total. With the now widely recognised Sherpa-Dive, Jet, Guide and Graph sub-brands, the range covered a lot of bases and proved very po ..read more

The festive season is almost upon us, so I’d like to wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. There’s no doubt about it, it’s been another challenging year, but let’s push on and stay positive…. whilst remaining ‘negative’ eh! Rich. The post Seasons Greetings… appeared first on The Watch Spot ..read more

Another watch from the Aquastar stable, this time it’s the Grand-Air… (Click pictures to enlarge) It’s safe to say that when compared to the Regate, Benthos and Deepstar, the Grand-Air is one of the more affordable models and a great route into the vintage Aquastar brand. The subject of this post is actually the second generation model, the first being one of Aquastar’s earliest watches sharing the majority its styling with the early Regate, 63 and Aquastarlet models. This brochure from 1962 shows all the models together. The first generation model was available with either a champagne or g ..read more