Vintage King Seiko Sharing Thread

After a recent trip to Japan and seeing hundreds of different watches, I became enamored with 1960s/1970s King and Grand Seikos and ended up grabbing one for myself.

I don’t see any threads on vintage King Seikos so I thought I would start a companion thread to the vintage Grand Seiko thread by sharing my latest acquisition and starting the King Seiko conversation.

I found an early 1970 King Seiko 5625-7040, which contains a "hi-beat" automatic movement (only 28,800vph), with date complication and hacking. The 5625 movement was chronometer certified, complete with serial number engraved on the movement itself - prior to the Swiss excluding Japanese movements. The "chronometer officially certified" on the dial is a nice touch.

What really appealed to me about this -7040 case design was how closely I think it adheres to the Tanaka "grammar of design" principles. This example still retains a lot of the original brushed and high polished finishing and very sharp edges.. it truly amazing to wear.. with light sparkling from all angles.

Please post your King Seiko watches and thoughts!

Thanks for starting a thread.

Here's my 44-9990 from 1965. With a case size of about 36.5 mm, I find it to be very wearable. I'm also quite fond of the lugs on this reference, and the movement is a pleasure to wind.

Beautiful watch! I saw several of those 44KSs on display.

Agree, with the complex lugs the watches do seem to wear a bit bigger than 36mm.