One of my favourite vintage Seiko’s is the Silverwave range that ran from 1961 to 1965 predating the 62mas. Not so much a dive watch, more of a snorkeling watch perhaps. There were 6 versions:
Seikomatic Silverwave 50m, Sunburst dial, Silver rotating bezel
Seikomatic Silverwave 50m, Sunburst dial, Black rotating bezel
Seikomatic Silverwave 50m, Silver dial, Silver rotating bezel
Seikomatic Silverwave 50m, Silver dial, Black rotating bezel
Sportsmatic Silverwave 30m, Silver dial, Black rotating bezel
Sportsmatic Silverwave 30m, Black dial, Black rotating bezel
All Silverwaves have the Tsunami caseback, they were the first Seiko with this feature. There were minor variations of dials and rotating bezels, but not enough to be considered another variant.
The first Silverwave I bought appeared on ebay about 5 years ago. It was a Sportsmatic 30m from 1964. It was in lovely condition and running perfectly. I can’t remember how much I paid but I think it was about £300. I then bought a Seikomatic 50m with Sunburst dial from another collector. The Sunburst dial Silverwave must surely be one of the most difficult watches to read the time ever produced, particularly under water I imagine.
Silverwaves are not rare, they turn up regularly on ebay and the Japanese auction sites, but they are not easy to find in good condition. The dials in particular suffer badly from water ingress. In terms of relative rarity… The Sportsmatic 30m Silver dial is probably the most commonly found, followed by the Seikomatic 50m. The most difficult Silverwave to find is surely the Black dial Sportsmatic 30m. I have seen only one of these turn up on ebay in the past 4 or 5 years, just one, and I bought it.
Through a few years of looking and much patience I have finally managed to accumulate all 6 variants in good condition. As more collectors are discovering Silverwaves, prices are going up. I paid nearly £1,000 for an almost perfect Seikomatic 50m.
I have only given a very brief account here. Other people more knowledgeable than me have written excellent reviews of the Silverwave and I recommend their efforts to everyone interested in these first divewatches from Seiko:
https://wornandwound.com/affordable-vintage-seiko-silverwave-ref-6601-7990/
https://www.fratellowatches.com/seiko-silverwave-697990-explained/
The Silverwave name continued into the 1970’s but these are dress watches of very little interest to us.
Here is my Silverwave collection: (sorry some of the pics are not brilliant)
