A few months ago, in one of my impulsive buying-at-auction moments, I picked up this little watch for what I thought was an OK price (not a bargain, but not bad - all of about £240 incl commission). It's sometimes described (normally by eBayers) as a "Seiko Speedmaster"...
A brief history lesson
The 7a28 movement within was the world's first analogue quartz chronograph, released in 1980; this particular watch hails from December 1982. Production of the 7a28 watch family carried on until 1991 or 1992, with perhaps the pinnacle being the RAF Gen 1 chronographs from 1989 on: they periodically pop up for sale on OF, at the going rate of about £1,000, which is small change in Omega Speedmasterland but big money for a quartz Seiko ...
The Japanese Seiko catalogue from 1983 - V2 p38 - shows a selection of bizarre looking things designed by Giugiaro (and featured on the wrist of Sigourney Weaver's character in 1986's Aliens - in fact, the SAY068 shown below is known as the "Ripley", and a modern recreation was released in 2015)...
Seiko sold these watches as "Speedmasters" (that's the translation of the text headline to the left of the SAY058). Not sure if Omega even noticed at the time, or maybe they didn't care.
Some JDM examples even had the name on the clasp - it was aimed at young motorbike riders, apparently...
… while non-JDM ones typically have additional MIN and 1/10s markings on the dial, and simply Seiko SQ on the bracelet clasp. Many earlier JDM mechanical Seikos were co-branded as Speed-Timer, usually on the dial, though none of the 7a28s seem to have it written up front.
Another 7a28 watch was also worn by Roger Moore in A View to a Kill, and for the fans of the truly obscure, was featured in They Might Be Giants' video for "Older".
Back to the present
I thought my auction buy was a dud - put a battery in it but though the chrono seems to work (except that the minutes register at 9 o'clock was stuck), the main timekeeping didn't. Oh well, so I chucked it in the drawer resolvign to get it Seiko maestro @Sir Alan at some point to get it running. At which point it'll be deeply in the red of cost vs value...
But a pleasant surprise today was I noticed that after fiddling with it for a few seconds, it was working - the running seconds hand at the 6 o'clock register was merrily ticking round. So I gave it a clean and stuck it on my wrist...
Case size is 41mm excl pushers & crown, so it's notably larger than many of its 7a28 and 7a38 cousins (the 7a38 being a later model that added day & date readout to the 3 o'clock subdial).
Here it is in comparison with a 145.022-71, a 7a38-7190 from 1986 and an issued 7a28-7120 aka RAF Gen 1, from Gulf-war-era Jan 1990.
If you're interested in reading more about the 7a28 family, check out the really excellent Collectors Guide on The Springbar.