Introduction
Following the resounding commercial success of the Grand Seiko Chronometer that was released to the Japanese public on December 18th 1960, and continued in production until August 1963, Seiko began work on what was ultimately to become known as the “57GS”.
The 57GS series is known by a number of names, but as we will see, it was marketed simply as the “Grand Seiko Self Dater”, so called because of the introduction of a date complication to an evolution of the original 3180 movement found in the first Grand Seiko. Based on their caseback serial numbers, production of the Grand Seiko Self Dater commenced in August 1963 - the same month that we see the final examples of the first Grand Seiko hailing from. Over the course of the production life span of the 57GS series (the final examples date from early 1968), the watches went through a series of evolutions where changes were made to the case backs (and their reference numbers), movements, dials, caseback medallions, crowns, certificates and almost certainly boxes.
The 57GS is the first Grand Seiko whose design is attributed to Taro Tanaka, and whilst initially launched with only a stainless steel case available, for the 1964 Olympics Grand Seiko introduced a variant in a solid 18K gold case, and later on, the Self Dater was made available with a gold capped case.
One of the challenges for any collector looking to add a watch from the 57GS series to their collection is that due to the relatively long production period and very rapid evolution of nuances in the physical characteristics of the Self Daters, it can be difficult when considering a particular watch to determine whether or not all aspects of the piece are “correct”. Ideally, most collectors are looking to acquire a watch that is in as close condition to how it was originally sold as possible.
Preferably, this means finding an example similar to that shown above. If the watch is truly a “dead stock” piece that has never been on a wrist and comes complete with its original strap and buckle, and a fully intact caseback sticker, all the better.
But remember that we are talking about watches that are of the order of 60 years old now, and even finding watches just accompanied by their original certificates is a huge challenge. In the last decade, the number of examples of references from the 57GS series that have turned up on Yahoo with their original certificates is in single digits.
Even if such a set turns up, the question still remains - is everything about the watch itself original? The Self Dater was clearly made in vastly higher numbers than the first Grand Seiko, and what is also evident is that they are watches of exceptional quality - these were watches that were built to last for even more than just one lifetime. Looked after well and regularly serviced, they will probably go on forever.
And therein lies the problem - because these watches have such longevity, and because over their production lifespan so many details were changed, how, when looking at a particular example of a 57GS watch, can we know that every detail about it is “correct”.
Probably the individual with the most experience and in-depth knowledge in the world on vintage Grand Seiko would be Yoshihiko Honda, who most readers will be familiar with through his website BQ Watch. Honda-san has been dealing in vintage Grand Seiko for a number of decades now, and has written many articles over the years for the Japanese magazine Low Beat, in addition to co-writing and contributing to a number of books.
Whilst many will no doubt check his website1 on a regular basis to see what gems he has available for purchase, I rather suspect most will not have explored his site in more depth and discovered the section2 where he sets out to answer what is probably the most fundamental question when it comes to assessing the originality of a 57GS - which dials can go with which casebacks, and which dials can go with which movements?
Out of respect for Honda-san I will not reproduce here the table where he outlines what is, or might be, an acceptable combination, but instead urge you to spend some time looking at his webpage to take in what he his sharing.
From an examination of many hundreds of listings from Yahoo Japan over the years, as well as examples of watches documented elsewhere, I think I probably have enough now to go one, so let’s take a look at what unravels from all of this!
What I am looking to achieve with this article is to expand on the great work that Honda-san has already done, and attempt to come up with a timeline as to which variants existed over which period of the production lifespan, and also add additional information regarding the other design evolutions.
Whilst we can learn from Honda-san’s vital and extensive research that a 43999 with a 5722A movement can exist, does that mean that anytime we see a 43999 with a 5722A movement inside, we can trust that the watch is correct?
Although this article is mainly intended as a guide to what to look for when purchasing one of these watches (as opposed to an in depth discussion a to the watch’s history), every now and then, I will also be including information from relevant historical publications.
I will structure this series of articles by the reference number of the watch as indicated on the caseback, first covering the steel cased watches, then the 18K gold, then cap gold, then the Toshiba commemorative pieces, and finally some rather fascinating outliers.
Grand Seiko 43999
At the time of the launch of the Self Data, it was still two years before Seiko would commence publishing of their full annual/biannual catalogues, and so we have to hunt through other sources to find contemporary articles on the reference.