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micampe
·After reading Fratello Watches King Seiko TBT a while ago my curiosity was triggered and I decided to learn a bit more about Seiko’s history and about their higher end pieces.
As many of you already know, King Seiko was a separate sub brand inside Seiko that was competing internally with Grand Seiko. They were produced at the same time and at similar levels of finishing and precision (it’s unclear from what I read but I believe King Seiko was always a notch down).
I liked the “Grammar of Design”, the set of rules that Taro Tanaka created in the 60s when Seiko decided to move up from their mechanically sound but utilitarian watches to better compete with the European companies. The step up in design was also accompanied by a step up in the mechanical department, with the intention of participating to the Swiss chronometer competitions.
I like the KS45-7000 for several reasons: it's manual wind, no date, it beats at 36,000 bph, the case is a clear implementation of the Grammar of Design recipe, and the 4500 movement was the base used for the very best Grand Seikos that ended up crushing the Swiss competition, even getting the Neuchatel Observatory certification, and getting the Swiss to change the rules to exclude Seiko, which is just awesome.
So I started my search and I quickly noticed that they were pretty inexpensive, which is always good news. I found one that looked dirty but untouched, except for the marks of a life well lived and light patination of the dial.
(Seller’s pictures before)
I decided to pick it up and try to do the cleanup myself. Nothing mechanical of course, just case and crystal. So I bought polishing cloths for the case and cerium oxide for the crystal.
When it arrived I took it apart and washed and gently polished the case, bezel, and back. I didn't remove all the hairline scratches, they are mostly still there, but now it shines more like a katana style case is supposed to. I might do another pass later, we’ll see.
Obviously, as the brighter among you probably already predicted, after three days of cerium oxide and elbow grease with absolutely zero progress on the crystal, I found a NOS one on the bay and just purchased that (not arrived yet). Much easier.
In conclusion I’m relly impressed with the quality of this watch. First of all the case is very heavy: I don’t know what steel they used but the head is as heavy as my SM300 166.024. The movement is very nice but the thing that really gives the feeling of quality is operating the crown: this has the most precise action of all the othe watches I have. Its shape and size, winding it or pulling it out to set it is just exact, I don’t know how else to describe it: there is no play, no hesitation, just precision. The only small disappointment were the hands that from pictures I expected to be faceted but are instead flat. The quality/price ratio is truly through the roof here.
Lastly, I really need to step up my pictures, these suck.
As many of you already know, King Seiko was a separate sub brand inside Seiko that was competing internally with Grand Seiko. They were produced at the same time and at similar levels of finishing and precision (it’s unclear from what I read but I believe King Seiko was always a notch down).
I liked the “Grammar of Design”, the set of rules that Taro Tanaka created in the 60s when Seiko decided to move up from their mechanically sound but utilitarian watches to better compete with the European companies. The step up in design was also accompanied by a step up in the mechanical department, with the intention of participating to the Swiss chronometer competitions.
I like the KS45-7000 for several reasons: it's manual wind, no date, it beats at 36,000 bph, the case is a clear implementation of the Grammar of Design recipe, and the 4500 movement was the base used for the very best Grand Seikos that ended up crushing the Swiss competition, even getting the Neuchatel Observatory certification, and getting the Swiss to change the rules to exclude Seiko, which is just awesome.
So I started my search and I quickly noticed that they were pretty inexpensive, which is always good news. I found one that looked dirty but untouched, except for the marks of a life well lived and light patination of the dial.
(Seller’s pictures before)
I decided to pick it up and try to do the cleanup myself. Nothing mechanical of course, just case and crystal. So I bought polishing cloths for the case and cerium oxide for the crystal.
When it arrived I took it apart and washed and gently polished the case, bezel, and back. I didn't remove all the hairline scratches, they are mostly still there, but now it shines more like a katana style case is supposed to. I might do another pass later, we’ll see.
Obviously, as the brighter among you probably already predicted, after three days of cerium oxide and elbow grease with absolutely zero progress on the crystal, I found a NOS one on the bay and just purchased that (not arrived yet). Much easier.
In conclusion I’m relly impressed with the quality of this watch. First of all the case is very heavy: I don’t know what steel they used but the head is as heavy as my SM300 166.024. The movement is very nice but the thing that really gives the feeling of quality is operating the crown: this has the most precise action of all the othe watches I have. Its shape and size, winding it or pulling it out to set it is just exact, I don’t know how else to describe it: there is no play, no hesitation, just precision. The only small disappointment were the hands that from pictures I expected to be faceted but are instead flat. The quality/price ratio is truly through the roof here.
Lastly, I really need to step up my pictures, these suck.
