Seiko Daini Automatic Day-Date - Green Sunburst Dial - Circa 1974

In 1974 Seiko still made its watches in two places. Suwa Seikosha worked out of Nagano, in the mountains west of Tokyo. Daini Seikosha worked in Kameido, on the east side of Tokyo itself. Both answered to the Hattori family, which in 1959 set them up as separate companies so that each would have the other to measure against. Suwa made the first Grand Seiko the next year, in 1960, and Daini introduced King Seiko in 1961. From then on they designed their own movements, ran their own lines, and put their own mark on what they built. Daini's mark was a lightning bolt.

The rivalry is often told as a feud, but it was closer to a family arrangement. Suwa had started in 1943 as a joint venture with Daini, and the two shared a name, an owner and a sales network. What they competed over was the watch itself. Both built King Seiko and Grand Seiko at the top of the range and everyday automatics below it, and the factory mark on the dial is how a collector tells which of the two made it.

On this dial the lightning bolt sits beside 17 JEWELS. It appears again on the caseback next to the reference, 7006-7209, and inside the back the case is stamped DAINISEIKOSHA CO.,LTD. The serial, 421225, dates it to February 1974, the first digit giving the year and the second the month. The automatic movement is the 7006A, stamped SEIKO TIME CORP and SEVENTEEN 17 JEWELS UNADJUSTED, the markings Seiko used on movements for its American company. It was built in Tokyo for the United States.

The dial is what draws the eye. The center is a green sunburst, bright in the middle and darkening toward the edge, and it turns as the light moves across it. Around it runs a chapter ring of vivid blue cut with white minute lines. Lumed batons mark the hours, and the day and date sit together at three. Seiko put colors like these on its everyday automatics in the early seventies, when a dial made for daily wear could still be green and blue at once. The steel case is faceted, its sides cut into flat planes rather than curves, and the crystal has a faceted edge to match.

It runs, and its service history is unknown. The crystal has chips along its faceted edge, and the case shows significant wear. It comes on a steel link bracelet.

In 1983 Daini Seikosha took a new name, Seiko Instruments & Electronics. The lightning bolt on the dial comes from the years when the old name was still stamped inside the back.

Terms: Please review all photos carefully as they are a part of the listing. This is a vintage timepiece. Accuracy, power reserve, and water resistance are not guaranteed. Vintage watches may require periodic service. Performance can vary with wear, temperature, and position.

All sales final.