One of the key aims of this site is to be a source of information for those who collect vintage Grand Seiko. We don’t just list the watches that we have for sale in the anticipation that customers will add them to their collections – we also list watches that we have never had in stock, along with as much data about those watches as we can glean. The intent is to be a reliable source of information about exactly which references were created by Grand Seiko, and to provide data on those references.
We are confident that currently this site contains the most complete, accurate and detailed information on the historical Grand Seiko references that you will find anywhere.
Index
Please click on the following link for an index to all articles on Seiko catalogues from the vintage Grand Seiko era.
Available references
At the time of publication, we have a number of watches featured in this catalogue available for purchase from this site.
57GS series watches can be viewed here.
The Seiko 1966 no. 1 catalogue
This catalogue – featuring just two Grand Seikos – is the earliest that we have been able to track down. The scan provided originates from a photocopy of the original catalogue – that photocopy is held in the reference library of the Seiko Museum in Tokyo. The museum do not appear to have an original copy of the catalogue itself.
The two watches shown are both from the 57GS series, which was the only series available at this time.
Grand Seiko 5722-9000
Grand Seiko 5722-9000
The first watch featured represents the 18 karat gold cased version of the 57GS series – the 5722-9000. We believe that there were actually no fewer than three different variants of this watch, although none that look like exactly like this.
It is clear that the exact same photograph has been used to portray both watches featured in the catalogue – something that is obvious when you look carefully at the highlights on the watch band – they are identical.
The first version of the 18k cased 57GS followed the dial layout of the 43999 steel cased watch – that means they have the “Chronometer” branding under “SEIKO”, and the Grand Seiko text in gothic font in the bottom half of the dial above the text “Diashock 35 Jewels”. However, the text to the left of the 6 o’clock marker on the first version reads “Made in Japan”, and not just “Japan”, which is what we see here.
The second and third versions of the 18K cased 57GS followed the dial layout of the 5722-9991, with the Chronometer branding removed from the upper half of the dial, and an applied GS logo appearing above plain font “GRAND SEIKO” and “DIASHOCK” on the lower half. The second and third versions differ from one another in that the second has the lion logo medallion on the caseback, whilst the third version has the GS logo medallion.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the only appearance of the 18K 57GS to be found in a Seiko catalogue.
Grand Seiko 5722-9990
Grand Seiko 5722-9990
The second and final reference to be featured in this catalogue is the Grand Seiko 5722-9990.
We can identify that it is this specific reference from the 57GS series by the dial layout – the relative length of the text at the bottom of the dial either side of the 6 o’clock index is how it can be identified. The earlier 43999 reference, whilst having the same Chronometer and gothic Grand Seiko branding dial layout as the 5722-9990 has the text “Made in Japan” to the left of the 6 o’clock index. On this watch, it only states “Japan”.
The remaining watches on the page are not Grand Seikos. The second row shows the Seikomatic Chronometers that would in time evolve into the 62GS series. Note that in this catalogue the descriptions of the watches matches the image provided – the text states that they are Seikomatic Chronometers, and not Grand Seikos. The later 1967 volume 2 catalogue uses the same images of the Seikomatics, but they are described as Grand Seikos. It is not until the 1968 volume 1 catalogue that we see photographs of the Grand Seiko 62GS series.
Gallery
In the gallery below we present a scan of the single page from the Seiko 1966 volume 1 catalogue that features Grand Seiko reference.
