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.
Much of the information regarding vintage Grand Seiko references that you will find on this site has come from extensive and detailed research into the official publications that Seiko produced during the vintage Grand Seiko period.
Recently, we were very excited to be able to acquire for our archives the earliest official Seiko publication featuring a vintage Grand Seiko to be published in the English language.
The publication is a tri-fold single-sheet brochure that opens out to 6 pages, and the reason for it being in English becomes clear when you read the text printed at the top of the third page –
This brochure was targeted at tourists visiting Tokyo for the 1964 Olympic games, and featured the Grand Seiko 43999 (SD dial variant) as “Ref. 1115” at the top of the second page.
The source where we acquired this brochure from stated that it originated from the Isetan department store in Tokyo. We do not know for certain whether the brochure was exclusive to Isetan, nor indeed whether it is possibly even their own in-house publication rather than from Seiko themselves.
However, what is interesting is that on the last page, there is a blank space to the right of the “Seiko Modern Masters of Time” logo. We have seen this layout many times on other official Seiko published brochures from the period, and it is usually filled by a print or stamp detailing the particulars of a the specific retailer (we have multiple copies of another brochure where we can see different retailer details filled in).
Below we present a gallery of scans of all 6 pages of the brochure.
