Vintage Grand Seiko models not appearing in catalogues - 61GS
Preamble
For the benefit of those subscribers who have signed up recently, over the last half year or so, I have been publishing weekly newsletters featuring scans of vintage Grand Seikos that appeared in the Seiko catalogues of the 1960’s and 1970’s, culminating in a newsletter focusing on the Grand Seiko references for women.
The intention behind this series is to cover in detail every single vintage Grand Seiko, with - where possible - corroborating contemporaneous evidence for the legitimacy of the reference.
Having now covered all the official Seiko JDM catalogues of the period, there is one more major task to fulfill, and that is to document the legitimate references that never appeared in a catalogue.
These references can be broadly grouped into three different categories –
Vintage Grand Seikos that did not appear in the regular catalogues (annual, biannual, supplemental, or Special Luxury), but were featured in other official publications such as Seiko News and Seiko Sales. Examples would include both variants of the 43999.
Vintage Grand Seikos that appear neither in the regular catalogues nor other official publications (to the best of my knowledge following research to-date), but clearly were available for sale to the public based on extensive examination watches in collections and that have come to market over the past decade, and also following consultation with other experts. Examples would include the platinum cased “Firsts”.
Vintage Grand Seikos that were commissioned by third party companies, and would not have been available for sale to the general public. Examples would include the Toshiba 25 year service anniversary models.
Each of the seven men’s vintage Grand Seiko series features references that fall into at least one of these categories. Because there is a lot to cover, I will be splitting this study over the course of several newsletters, structuring the newsletters by series, and then by the above three categories.
In the previous newsletters in this series I covered the “Firsts”, 57GS, 44GS and 62GS. Here, we take a look at the 61GS references that never appeared in the catalogues.
You can view the previously published newsletters in this series - which is now complete and covers all the vintage Grand Seiko watches appearing in catalogues - here.
Grand Seiko “61” series references missing from the catalogues
There are over a dozen references from the 61GS series that do not appear in any of the Seiko catalogues.
Seven of these references are featured in the December 1972 issue of Seiko Sales. In total there are three similar references with the time and date 6145 movement, and four with the day-date 6146-movement. Scans from the December 1972 issue of Seiko Sales showing these seven models are pictured below.
6146-8050 with white, blue, brown and green dials in Seiko Sales December 1972
6145-8050 with white, blue and green dials in Seiko Sales December 1972
Note that these references are pictured with faceted crystals and on bracelets, which is how I believe all examples would have been originally sold. It is very rare to come across these references in good condition these days with both faceted crystals and their original bracelets.
Grand Seiko 6146-8030 - steel
Grand Seiko 6146-8040
The above watches are two of the most mysterious of all of the vintage Grand Seiko references.
They are shown on what are believed to be their correct bracelets. Whilst extraordinarily rare, I have seen a couple of examples of each reference with these bracelets, and a top Japanese collector concurs that the bracelets are original to the watches.
It’s not that they don’t appear in any of the catalogues or monthly newsletters that makes them peculiar – as evidenced in this series of newsletters, there are other examples of seemingly undocumented references – it’s that when they do appear on the market (which is very rarely indeed), they hardly ever seem to surface in Japan.
It is because of the fact that in almost all the cases that I have witnessed either of these two references becoming available it is from sources outside Japan, that at the time of writing the original article on TGSG website (March 2019), I suspected quite possibly these were export models.
In late 2019, I was put in touch with a London based collector by Paul of @vintageseiko fame, and this collector had a remarkable watch in his possession - a 6146-8040 complete with original papers showing its sale in Singapore in 1972. To the best of my knowledge, this remains the only documented example of a Grand Seiko being sold outside Japan in the vintage era.
Grand Seiko 6146-8030 -18K gold
One of the joys of collecting vintage Grand Seiko is that just when you think you’ve seen it all, something extraordinary can turn up.
I suspect that almost everyone reading this newsletter will be familiar with the following reference, the 6145-8030.
Aside from what are arguably the icons of the vintage era (the Firsts, the 44GS and the VFA’s), the 6145-8030, with its remarkable solid 18K gold hand-hammered case and kirazuri textured dial, is probably right up there amongst the most desirable of all vintage Grand Seiko references.
But late last year, a gentleman contacted me asking if I would be interested in making an offer on a watch.
Apologies for the poor quality image, but this is the only one I have, shared with me by the son of the original owner.
Yes - that is an 18K gold 6146-8030.
The story behind this watch is fascinating. The original owner was an official Seiko distributor in Europe, and he and his business parter were invited to Expo ‘70 in Osaka by Seiko. Whilst there, both gentlemen purchased an example of this watch - the day-date version of the 6145-8030.
The watch remains in the family, and it is fascinating to have an account its origin - a reference I wasn’t even aware of the existence of prior to December 2021.
The current owner is fairly certain that the bracelet shown in the above picture is original to the watch. However, the bracelet itself is not by Seiko. Whether Seiko originally sold the watch on the bracelet, or the bracelet was acquired separately to the watch on the trip to the World Expo is unknown, as sadly the original box and papers have been lost.
Without a doubt, this reference qualifies as a true grail for any vintage Grand Seiko collector, and I hope that one day I will be able to acquire an example!
6146-8009 Cap Gold
Another remarkable reference that only came to my attention after the original version of this article was published is the 6146-8009.
A photo of the inside caseback is shown above, and yes - that says “Daini Seikosha”.
A 61GS originating from Daini is of course remarkable. I actually have one of these - somewhere - but rather annoyingly have mislaid it, and don’t have any other photos available. It should be noted that whilst the inside caseback and (if I recall correctly) rotor are marked Daini, the dial retains its Suwa logo.
Based on the -8009 suffix to the reference number, and the fact that the cap gold caseback is marked “Base Metal”, and not “Cap Gold”, I believe this reference was intended for export to the US, although to-date have not found any export catalogue where it is mentioned.
/Post publication edit
Aha! I have found the -8009. Here are photos showing the caseback and movement -
6185-8000 and 6185-8010, and 6185-8020 VFA’s with VFA printed on the dial
Introduced in the 1969 Special Luxury Catalogue, and also featured in the 1970 volume 2 catalogue, were the 6185-8000, 6185-8010, and 6185-8020 VFA’s.
What is fascinating about the quartet of VFA’s introduced in this publication is that none of them actually have “VFA” printed on the dial.
But examples of the three from Suwa can be found with an additional line of print above the applied Suwa logo.
Here’s the additional print as seen on the dial of a 6185-8010.
Why these dials exist is a bit of a conundrum. One theory suggests that they are service dials, possibly even offered to customers as an option at a later date once the later VFA references started to have the initials on their dials. What is clear, is that based on the examples seen, there is no logic with regards the dials appearing on watches with later production dates.
Note that the VFA print on these dials is in a noticeably larger font than that found on the regular references that followed this original quartet.
The split between VFA/non-VFA dials on the 6185-8000 and 6185-8010 based on references seen in collections and the market is approximately 50:50, with just two known examples of the 6185-8020 dial (albeit both found in 6185-8021 cases).
Grand Seiko 6146-8010 Idemitsu Commemorative
Unlike with the 57GS series Toshiba commemoratives discussed in an earlier newsletter, the reference commemorating the Idemitsu Foundation’s 60th Anniversary was not given a unique movement-case reference number.
Similarly to those Toshiba watches however, the engraving on the case back didn’t leave any space for the model number, and so that – along with the case serial number – was stamped on the inside of the case back.
I have seen examples of the Idemitu commemoratives with both regular, and faceted crystals. The example that I once owned had a regular crystal, but due to the overall mint condition of the watch, I do find it exceedingly unlikely that it originally came with a faceted crystal that somehow got damaged and was then replaced, however it is impossible to state categorically that this is the case.
Apologies for the rather sporadic publishing of these latest newsletters - there are now over 700 people subscribing to this newsletter, and frankly you do deserve better. Unfortunately there are a few “life” issues taking priority at the moment. I hope things will settle back down in August - I have a lot more planned for these newsletters once the overview of all the vintage references has been completed.
Speaking of which, next up will be a focus on the 45GS references that don’t appear in catalogues, and will be another newsletter where some fascinating - dare I say it, sensational - things have come to light since the original article was published on TGSG website a few years ago.