r/watchpix

Here is one of the earliest Seikos in my collection: a late-1940s Seiko Extra Flat.

The Extra Flat appeared around 1948, when Seiko was rebuilding its civilian watch production after the war. It was powered by the hand-wound 10B movement from Daini Seikosha’s Kameido factory, with the traditional small-seconds layout that Seiko used before introducing its first centre-seconds watch, the Super, in 1950. (Seiko Watch Corporation⁠)

The history is interesting, but the dial is what really attracted me. The bold sector-style chapter ring, raised gold numerals and markers, small seconds and little applied “Snake S” give it much more personality than I expected from such a compact dress watch. There is plenty of ageing, but I think the patina suits the design rather than detracting from it.

“Extra Flat” is also a wonderfully literal name. The watch is small and slim by modern standards, but the long curved lugs give it surprising presence on the wrist.

Nearly eighty years later, it still looks remarkably stylish—and very different from the Seiko designs most people know today.

I recently picked up this early Citizen Triple Calendar and was honestly surprised by how beautiful it is in person.

This is the Ref. 1505 from 1952, generally regarded as Japan’s first triple-calendar wristwatch. At only around 33mm, Citizen managed to fit the day, month and pointer date into what is still a very elegant little dress watch.

What really got me, though, is the dial. The aged ivory surface, gold applied numerals, blue date track, framed calendar windows and that tiny seconds subdial somehow all work together without feeling overly busy. There’s a lot going on, but it still looks remarkably balanced.

It’s also a nice reminder that Citizen was already experimenting with fairly complicated mechanical watches in the early 1950s, long before the Japanese watch industry became the force we normally associate with the 1960s and 70s.

Definitely one of those watches that I bought because I found it historically interesting, but ended up liking much more simply because of how it looks.

One of my recent vintage Seiko pickups — a Seiko Crown J15003E from around late 1950s.

The dial is what really got me. It has this unusual split-concentric or "record groove" finish, with incredibly fine circular lines that change from silver to almost charcoal depending on the light. Add the long applied markers and dauphine hands and it feels very distinctly late-1950s/early-1960s.

Inside is Seiko's 21-jewel hand-wound Cal. 560. The Crown itself is an important part of Seiko history: introduced in 1959, it became the technical basis for the first Grand Seiko released in 1960.

At 36.5mm with 19mm lugs, it also wears beautifully. Probably one of my favourite examples of early Seiko doing a lot with a very simple design.

This is my GP Ref. 4930 from the Vintage 1996 line, a 1990s reinterpretation of a GP chronograph from around 1960. The case is only 36mm, but the unusual 21mm lug width gives it much more presence.

I particularly like the tall, box-shaped sapphire crystal, which gives the character of vintage plexiglass without the same vulnerability to scratches. Inside is the 63-jewel Calibre 3170—GP’s first chronograph calibre built on its slim in-house 3100 automatic base—with an 18k-gold rotor visible through the sapphire caseback. Compact, elegant and mechanically more interesting than it first appears.

I'm visiting my AD in the next couple of days and thinking of picking up the Tudor Ranger in the dune colour at 39mm. The idea is it would become my daily driver as I've recently cleared out a few watches that I wasn't wearing so much (Christopher Ward, Lorier, Oris etc).

I have a black Aqua Terra so don't want another black dial 3 hand watch hence the dune colour which also matches more with go to clothing colours.

Anyway, I haven't seen or tried it yet. If you've seen/had it, what do you think? Still love it since you bought it? Anything in particular to look out for or be mindful of (e.g. clasp)?