Introduction
On December 18th 1960, Seiko presented to the Japanese public a new reference. It was a watch that marked the beginning of a story that - except for a self-inflicted pause for a little over a decade from the late 1970’s through into the 1980’s - has continued through until today.
The significance of the Grand Seiko of 1960 is proudly written on the dial immediately under the watch’s name, and extensively detailed in the certificate that came with the watch - it was the first Japanese watch to be compliant with the Swiss Bureaux Officiels de Contrôle de la Marche des Montres "Superior Chronometer" standard.
That standard would, for the Swiss, eventually evolve into what we now know as the COSC, or “Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres” standard. For Seiko, due to the Swiss objecting to the audaciousness of a Japanese company using the term “Chronometer” to describe their self-tested watches, it would by the mid 1960’s turn into what we now refer to as the “Grand Seiko Standard”.
There was another, stricter, chronometry standard that had been around since the mid 19th Century, reserved for what were referred to as “Observatory Chronometers”, tested at - and the clue is of course in the name - astronomical observatories. The most famous of these observatories was at Neuchatel, pictured in the photo above.
With the announcement in 1959 of the award of the hosting of the 1964 Olympics to Tokyo, Seiko set out to ensure that they would be the official timekeepers for the event1. Whilst the evaluation and testing of the majority of the stopwatches to be used at the Olympics was completely independent from the Swiss observatory competitions, there was a timekeeping device developed for the games that became Seiko’s first entry to the Neuchatel Observatory chronometry competition in 1963 - the Crystal Chronometer2.
And so began an overlapping chapter in the long and illustrious histories of both Seiko and the Swiss Observatory Chronometer competitions, albeit a chapter that - despite its historical significance - would be rather short lived.
Seiko’s first entries to the Neuchatel competition in 1963 were entered into the categories for quartz regulated timepieces, but from 1964 through to 1967, both Suwa-Seikosha and Daini-Seikosha submitted movements to the mechanical wrist watch category3.
The knowledge gained by the participation of both companies in the competitions over this period would ultimately lead to the creation of the legendary Grand Seiko VFA’s4 - watches that were guaranteed to be accurate to 1 minute per month for the first two years of ownership.
But the Grand Seiko VFA’s - the first four of which can be seen proudly presented here on the pages of Seiko’s Special Luxury Watch Catalogue of 19695 - were not Seiko’s ultimate statement on mechanical chronometric performance.
That mantle - a mantle that has not been equaled by the company even to this day - fell on the shoulders of another reference.
The Seiko Astronomical Observatory Chronometer
I have used the word “legendary” to describe the Grand Seiko VFA’s on countless occasions, which leaves me in a bit of a bind. What adjective is there out there that I can use to describe the Astronomical Observatory Chronometer?
Some time ago, Anthony Kable at Plus9Time - whose writings I have already linked to three times just in the introduction - wrote what is probably the most essential account on the reference6 , an article that I would encourage everyone to go off and read before continuing with this one - there’s little point in my simply rewriting what is already there.
Suffice to say, the Seiko Astronomical Observatory Chronometer (henceforth on occasion abbreviated to ‘AOC’) was the only watch ever made by Seiko that was sold to the public having been subjected to the exacting Observatory Chronometer testing regime that the competition movements submitted to Neuchatel chronometry trials underwent. It was launched in the very same “Seiko Special Luxury Catalogue” in which the first four Grand Seiko VFA’s debuted.
As those who have returned to this article having read Anthony’s will now know, from 1968 through to 1970, a total of 283 movements were submitted for testing, in three batches, from which 226 passed the exacting testing criteria to be awarded certification as Observatory Chronometers.
As an aside, to the best of my knowledge, the AOC is the only series production watch manufactured by Seiko (limited editions of course excepted) where it is publicly known exactly how many originally existed.
The initial batch of 103 movements that were submitted in 1968 - of which 73 passed - utilised the Grand Seiko 4520A movement, whilst the remaining movements submitted in 1969 and 1970 utilised the Grand Seiko 4580 VFA movement.
What the fate was of the movements that did not make the grade is unknown. Perhaps those 30 caliber 4520A movements that “failed” made their way into just regular 45GS’s. And if they did, what a treasure hunt that would be to find one, because it’s actually possible - even without knowledge of the movement numbers concerned - to identify the 4520A movements that were submitted to Neuchatel. Logically one might assume that the rejected 4580 movements ultimately found homes in the Grand Seiko 4580-7000 and 4580-7010 VFA’s, or even the Seiko 4580-7020 “Imperial VFA”s. But we just don’t know - Seiko have never commented on the matter.
It is important to recognise that, similarly to the earlier famous Rolex “Kew A Certificate” watches, Seiko’s Astronomical Observatory Chronometers - whilst subjected to the full Observatory Chronometer testing process - were not actually entered into competition. The final Neuchatel competition for which results were announced was in 1967, so this would have been impossible for the AOC’s anyway.
There is however one serially produced movement - and to the best of my knowledge, it is the only one - that was entered into competition and subsequently cased up and sold to the public, and that is Girard-Perregaux’s 32A, of which no fewer than 662 examples were submitted to Neuchatel for the 1967 competition. Just because a movement has been submitted to competition however does not of course imply it passed, and the contemporary marketing of these watches - not to mention the “forum folklore” surrounding them - is, how can I put it kindly, somewhat questionable. But that’s a story for another day.
Let’s take a look at what it actually takes to make the grade as an Observatory Chronometer, and why Seiko’s achievement with the AOC is so remarkable.