Seiko Sportsmatic Automatic - Dark Grey Crosshair Dial - Circa 1967

Through the 1960s, Seiko's everyday automatic was the Sportsmatic. Seiko built a great many of them between 1962 and 1968, and most left the factory with a white, silver or champagne dial. A dark grey dial like the one here turns up less often.

The grey is a sunburst, brushed in fine rays from the center, so it runs from charcoal to a lighter steel as the light moves across it. A thin printed cross divides it into quarters. The hour markers are applied batons, faceted and polished, and outside each one a dot of lume sits on the minute track. The date is framed in polished steel at three. Above the center is the applied SEIKO with Sportsmatic in script beneath it, and below, DIASHOCK 17 JEWELS, Seiko's name for the shock protection on the balance.

The hands tie it to a very different Seiko. In 1965 Seiko made its first diver's watch, the 62MAS, developed for the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition. It had broad lumed baton hands and a seconds hand with a small lumed box near the tip. The Sportsmatic's hands follow the same pattern: polished batons with a strip of lume down the middle, and a thin seconds hand carrying its own lumed box. Collectors call these Sportsmatics the Baby 62MAS.

The snap back carries the Seiko Sportsmatic script, the reference 7625-8230 and the serial 7N06609. Seiko serials of the period give the year in the first digit and the month in the second, with N standing for November, which dates it to November 1967. The reference also names the movement, the automatic caliber 7625 with date, signed SEIKO and 17 on the rotor. Inside the back, beside the stamped 7625-8230 JAPAN, earlier watchmakers scratched a column of repair marks by hand.

It is in good condition. The dial is clean, and the lume on the hands has aged to cream. The case shows light wear, with fine scratches across the bezel and lugs, and the domed crystal has a few surface marks. It runs, and its service history is unknown. It comes on a grey suede rally strap.

Within a year the Sportsmatic name was gone, and Seiko's everyday automatic carried on as the Seiko 5. The seconds hand still carries the box it shares with the Antarctic diver.

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.