Japanese Railway Pocket Watches by Seiko - a different kind of birth year watch
I’ve just put some money down on an ex-issue Japanese Railway pocket watch to correspond to my birth year; 1975. This is indicated on the watch back as Showa 50.
(If you aren’t sure of your birth year in the Japanese calendar, see https://www.ewc.co.jp/en/information/569/)
I believe the movement might be Seiko 6110A.
I’m really thrilled with this. A different kind of timepiece. I likely won’t use it a lot but will get a nice pocket watch display to sit it in. I think that will look really neat.
If anyone out there has made a hobby of collecting these - I understand some folk have a bit of a thing for collecting different Japanese trains/lines engraved on the case backs - I’d be appreciative of your help to decipher the bottom line on the case back and work out where this watch was being used in service. I’d find that really quite fascinating.
(EDIT: I've managed to learn something; see later in the thread...)
These remain very well priced vintage pieces in my opinion - probably because people don’t have much use for pocket watches, so there's no huge demand for them. But like I say, you can get really good displays for pocket watches these days. So between the ability to display this, and the history and uniqueness of each piece being numbered and related to a particular train service/train line, I think it's HUGELY interesting.
It's also pretty wild that Japanese train workers are still issued with, and use, Seiko pocket watches today. They look almost identical to my 1975 model visually (but are now quartz based), and in the next post you can see some examples of how there's a place in the console of the trains for the drivers to put their watch. It's very quaint, but cool.
I've loved watches all my life, going back to the 1980s. Current watchbox: Seiko, Bulova, and Casio.
Do you have an Android phone? If so, you can use the translate feature in Google image search (Google Lens )
Do you have an Android phone? If so, you can use the translate feature in Google image search (Google Lens )
Sadly not. I might be able to find a website that does similar.
Very cool. I’d love to see the movement.
Very cool. I’d love to see the movement.
It's still winging it's way to me, but this is another watch; same year though.
It will look the same as this, I believe...
Very cool. I’d love to see the movement.
Found another example, too.
Do you have an Android phone? If so, you can use the translate feature in Google image search (Google Lens )
Using an OCR package, I've extracted that bottom line. The first piece of Kanji is Asahi, which I'm thinking may relate to a train service that ran from the 1960s to early 2000s. My guess is this watch was issued to someone working that line.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asahi_(train)
Quite likely issued at the start of someones employment with the train company.
Quite likely issued at the start of someones employment with the train company.
I would say so, or a replacement for a lost or broken watch. There are also some really cool models from the 60s and early 70s that pre-date mine and look largely identical, but have a small seconds complication. I need to be careful, or I'll grab one of those, too. But I'm glad my first was a birth year watch.
And all of them, relatively speaking, can be bought for peanuts, versus what they represent.
This is a really interesting post thank you! They sound highly collectable and mo doubt addictive! Good value as well. Interesting that they are still issued all be it in quartz. Still seiko I presume?
This is a really interesting post thank you! They sound highly collectable and mo doubt addictive! Good value as well. Interesting that they are still issued all be it in quartz. Still seiko I presume?
Yes, as far as I can see (even via the text for this non-issue model), Japan Rail uses Seiko for their crew's pocket watches even today - https://www.seiyajapan.com/products/seiko-rail-road-pocket-watch-quartz-svbr003?_pos=2&_sid=98f0c3745&_ss=r It's a pretty incredible thing, when you think about it.
It's a real rabbit hole I probably shouldn't go down, but it would be neat to have, say, a 50's Seikosha dial version, a 60s model with the small seconds complication, a 70s model (like I have), and an 80s quartz model. All with the case backs officially engraved, of course. There are a lot of 'blank' ones out there.
"cool" translates into any and every language....and this is definitely cool
My wifey did linguistics at university, and is Japanese. I won’t see her for about 10 days but DM me in April if you’ve got any tough ones you’ve not sorted out 👍
Yes, I love how serious and diligent the JR employees are 👏
The slot on the train to hold the pocket watch is way cooler than it needs to be!
The slot on the train to hold the pocket watch is way cooler than it needs to be!
They do things right in Japan :)