The Watch That Reveals Seiko's Hidden History
A Seiko Laurel with a more agreed upon and deliberate backstory
The Precursor
As you might have noticed with the Campanola tour I’ve taken you on in recent weeks, I try to present collections of watches in consecutive newsletters. It creates a smoother narrative flow, rather than expecting readers to recall a specific watch from six weeks ago. With that in mind, I will be following up on last week’s Laurel Alpinists with another spectacular Laurel. Unlike the previous Laurels, which have an unofficial link to the Alpinist collection, today’s Laurel is very intentionally and deliberately connected to a predecessor.
Seiko “Laurel” LJAK600 / 4S28-5010
The most European-looking Seiko you’ve ever seen. Breguet-style indices, elegant blued hands, small seconds subdial, and all wrapped up in a tonneau case with an onion crown? I wouldn’t blame you for double and triple-checking it says Seiko on the dial. It also says Laurel too though - a clue that this watch doesn’t have to take a page from Seiko’s normal playbook.
To understand why this 1995 Seiko looks so different, we need to go back to 1913 - the year K. Hattori & Co., now Seiko, began converting their pocket watches into wristwatches. These early models carried the name Laurel.
Now, as much as I love Seiko’s history, I promise there’s a purpose to this trip down memory lane. In the early 1910s, K. Hattori & Co. began importing Swiss calibres, likely from A. Schild, and fitting them with their own enamel dials and cases. These Swiss-Japanese hybrids bore the Laurel name for a decade, until a devastating earthquake in 1923 destroyed Kintarō Hattori’s Seikosha factory. When the factory was rebuilt a year later, Hattori honoured its workers by changing the name of the watches to Seiko.
Hattori’s 1913 Japanese-made enamel dial is dripping with Swiss influence, because, frankly put, it’s all the world knew at the time. Your choice of watch was Swiss or Swiss. But Hattori hoped to change that, and piece by piece he did. It would take 43 years, but Seiko eventually produced their own in-house movement, and now they’re arguably the most vertically integrated, or “in-house” across all sectors, watch company in the world. They grow their own quartz crystals - what more do you want?
Hopefully the similarities between the 1913 Laurel and the 1995 Laurel are obvious: breguet indices, elegant blued hands, small seconds subdial - while the tonneau case is absent, the onion crown is there. The Swiss motifs, as seen in the 1995 LJAK600, aren’t a casual design choice - it’s a historical reference to Seiko’s origin story as a watch company.
Back to the watch at hand. Despite its historical connections, the LJAK600 stands strong on its own merits. It’s a deep-value piece that is granted an affordable price point due to its relative obscurity. The case is 925 Silver, and the bezel is 18kt Gold. Is precious metal plating really that impressive? No, which is why I’m happy to report the case is solid silver, and the bezel is solid gold. While I couldn't track down the exact process used to make the dial, its texture, with subtle striping, gives it the look of fabric or fine paper.
The hands? They’re heat-blued, and having spent hours filming them in macro for the upcoming video, I can confirm the finish is absolutely flawless.
The movement powering it is the 28,800bph "Hi-Beat," part of Seiko’s iconic 4S family. So with the LJAK600, you’re not forced to choose between form and function - it’s as sharp in performance as it is on the wrist.
The watch is available to buy on our website now.
It is very good condition, considering the age and materials used. No box or papers.
Seiko “Urushi Byakudan-nuri” Lacquer SPB085
Traditional Japanese craftsmanship stacked onto top of traditional Japanese craftsmanship. Released in a limited run of 2,000 pieces in December 2018, the SPB085 shares a lot of DNA with the previously featured SARW013. While I won’t delve into the Urushi lacquer dial again, since I covered that last week, but the intricate details of this “Moon at Dawn” Seiko deserve a closer look. If you’d like to revisit the jet-black Urushi lacquer used in both models, you can find more information below:
The moon holds deep cultural significance in Japan. Take Otsukimi, the "moon viewing" festival, which has been celebrated annually since the 10th century and is still widely celebrated to this day. Seiko crafted the SPB085 to evoke the moon’s beauty just as dawn breaks. In fact, Seiko has hidden three moons across the watch - I could patronisingly ask if you can find them all, but I haven’t showed you caseback yet so the task is impossible:
Like the SARW013, Seiko enlisted Isshu Tamura, Japan’s master of Urushi lacquer, to personally oversee the production of each dial. Every single dial is hand-lacquered and meticulously inspected by Tamura himself.
In addition to the glossy black Urushi base, the maroon subdials are created using the Byakudan-nuri technique. This process involves sprinkling powdered gold and silver over the freshly lacquered subdials, followed by multiple layers of red-tinged Urushi applied by hand until Tamura decides the perfect "moon at dawn" hue has been achieved.
To top it off, Tamura adds a shimmering touch using the Maki-e technique. This turns the power reserve indicator into a twinkling crescent moon, and the same method is applied to the crescent-shaped counterweight on the second hand. Unlike traditional gold leaf, Maki-e leaves behind an intentionally uneven layer of powdered gold, creating a textured surface. The result catches and scatters light like a diamond, giving the SPB085 a radiant, almost celestial glow.
The watch is available to buy on our website now.
It is unworn, near-mint condition, and comes with the full box, papers and tags.
Seiko Presage SARC001
The very first watch in Seiko's highly coveted six-hand SARC collection. Launched in 2006, the SARC collection has already produced several classics, and the SARC001 is no exception. Its dial, with its concentric ripples, is often mistaken for guilloché, but it’s actually created through electrophoretic deposition. Seiko experimented with this electroforming technique, involving the hand-shaping of a textured, metal, base layer from which you shape the main dial. Anodes, cathodes and electrical fields are involved. Oh god, it feels like I’m back in School. Let’s skip this section.
Much like the SARW045 above, the SARC001 is powered by a 28,800bph “Hi-Beat” 6R2X calibre. The six-handed movement, offers circular day, date and power serve indication on its fourth, fifth and sixth hands. It’s one of my favourite affordable complications. There’s something very intriguing about a watch that looks like a chronograph but isn’t.
And here’s a small but intriguing detail: the crown. The early SARCs all featured a Seiko crown with an "S," but not the Seiko "S" you're familiar with. This is the original Seiko "S" from the 1950s, as seen on vintage models like the Seiko Super S:
After digging through Seiko’s 2006 catalogues, I can confirm Seiko describes the SARC “S” used as being the 1950s “S”, but they sadly don’t explain why. I suspect it’s likely just a playful nod to their vintage heritage.
The watch is available to buy on our website now.
It is very good condition, on the original full length bracelet. Comes with the full box and papers.
Seiko Brightz SDGM001 “Grand Cocktail” (BEMAC Edition)
This Seiko was never available to buy. Not in the traditional sense, at least. It was commissioned by BEMAC, a Japanese electronics company, to celebrate their 70th anniversary in 2016. During the celebrations, BEMAC gifted these watches to select senior employees as a token of appreciation for their hard work.
The case back is inscribed with: “Uzushio Electric Co. Ltd. 70th. Anniversary July 2016.”
Uzushio? Aren’t they called BEMAC? Yes, to both! Originally known as Uzushio, they began casually using the name BEMAC during their overseas expansion in the early 2000s, finding “Uzushio” too challenging for non-Japanese speakers (oo-zoo-she-oh). They officially changed their company name to BEMAC in 2018. “Uzushio” means Whirlpool in Japanese, which clearly inspired the "electric whirlpool" dial (Seiko’s words not mine!).
Some of you might remember the Seiko BEMAC from a few months back in the newsletter. What I didn’t know at the time is that BEMAC went the extra mile and commissioned their own custom box. It may seem like a minor detail, but it got me pretty excited.
Usually, companies just have their logo etched into the caseback and call it a day, which puts the BEMAC collaboration, due to its unique dial design, in a league of its own. But the fact that I now know they also created bespoke box art has got me looking at BEMAC’s Now Hiring page. It’s easily the most amount of effort and thought I’ve ever seen put into a company watch.
The watch is available to buy on our website now.
It is unworn, near-mint condition, and comes with the full box and papers.
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