Stamped on the inside of the case back of the watches can be found the case serial number.
Heads up – lots of words, and very few pictures, to follow! Dating a Grand Seiko “First”Īs discussed in the previous article, there are two different serial numbers that we can look to in order to attempt to establish when a particular example of a Grand Seiko “First” was produced. One result of this research is that we are extremely confident that we have now also successfully decoded the logic behind the movement serial numbering, something that has – to the best of our knowledge – never been documented before. Since the publication of that article, we have continued to undertake research to try to establish a better estimate of production numbers, and also try to get a more accurate handle on the relative numbers produced across the three major dial configurations of Printed, Carved, and Raised logo dials. In a previous article that detailed the different variants of the reference that were produced over its production lifespan, we mentioned that it is generally believed no more than 36,000 units were produced of the model. The new calibre “3180” was designed to be accurate to +12/-3 seconds per day, and was the first Japanese watch to receive a rating of excellence from the Bureaux Officiels de Controle de la Marche des Montres. The Grand Seiko “First” was the start of what was to become a fascinating journey of continual development and innovation to create watches worthy of competing with – and indeed, beating – the very best that the Swiss had to offer. If you have one of the missing catalogs and want to make it available here, please contact me.The Grand Seiko “First”, also referred to as the “3180” (its caliber number) “J14070” (model number) or, probably most accurately simply “The Grand Seiko” was introduced to the Japanese market on December 18th 1960.Ĭreated by the Suwa Seikosha company – now Seiko Epson – based in the Nagano prefecture in central Japan, it was born out of a desire to create a watch that was “as precise, durable, easy to wear and as beautiful as possible”. I did not know this until recently so I want to make sure to send a giant “thank you” to him. Many, if not all of the vintage catalogs that I collected likely came from Anthony’s collection. He has many great articles and reference materials about Seiko watches on that site. Please note that additional Seiko resources can be found on the wonderful site which is run by the dedicated Seiko expert, Anthony Kabel. I could not find all the watch catalog years but listed what I have from oldest to newest. All copyrights and content belong to Seiko. These catalog PDFs have been collected from readily public sources and grouped here in one giant library to make finding information on your vintage or older Seiko watch possible. is not affiliated with Seiko in any way.
These PDF documents are a great source of information for doing research on Seiko’s excellent past catalog of timepieces. If you scour the internet long enough, you may get lucky and find PDFs of Seiko’s current and past watch catalogs.