Ricoh Dynamic Wide

was it from India? they mix and match like crazy. Like an Oris for under a hundred bucks.

The seller was here in the US. Not sure as to where he got it from. The dial is stamped “Japan Mvmt” and the pics I’ve seen from other Ricoh movements online look pretty similar.

Pics of the movement?

Could you post a picture of the movement? I have taken apart and serviced many Ricohs. What you describe unfortunately sounds like the dial and movement did not originally go together. Ricoh used an automatic 21 jewel movement that did not change much from the late 1960s through about 1990. The only Ricoh 17 jewel movement I have seen is their handwind winder, not an automatic. If I can see pics of the movement I can have a better idea. The auto wind rotor under the case back should be stamped "Ricoh 21 Jewel Auto". There should be no other jewel number reference on the movement. What causes you to think it is a 17 Jewel movement?

Here are two pics for reference. When you take the case back off you should see something like this first pic. The printing on the auto rotor will be the only jewel reference you will see on the movement. The second picture has that rotor removed to show what the rest of the 21 jewel movement looks like under the rotor/if you move the rotor around. This is Ricohs 21 jewel movement and except for very minor tweaks this was it.

Here’s the picture of the 17j manual wind movement.

My manual wind movement looks very similar to your movement without the automatic works.

Ok you have a real 17 jewel hand wind movement by Ricoh. However, that dial did not originally come with that movement. For Ricoh, the additional 4 jewels went into their auto works, so only their auto works had 21 jewels.

Now for speculation on my part. I think the dial may not be a real original dial. I can't be certain but I'll explain why I think this. The "Dynamic Wide" reference was used in the later 1960s. The day date style with the day at the top they made in a "presidential" model. It is one of the more popular and expensive vintage Ricohs today. But the Ricoh script on the dial is all wrong for the later 1960s. They didn't go to that script until the early to mid 1970s. It might be someone tried to cash in on the expensive "presidential" watch by putting this fake dial into a 17 jewel hand winder. Again, this is not certain as Ricoh may have re-used the dynamic wide name later in time. But I've just never seen it before with that later script variant.

I do not intend to come across as discouraging. Just telling you what I know (the movement and the dial did not leave the factory together) and what I think (the dial may be a complete fake). If you like the looks of the watch you should just wear it and enjoy it for what it is. If you do more searching and find that the dial itself is genuine Ricoh, I might suggest you buy a cheap 21 Jewel automatic movement/watch that has a damaged or stylistically weird dial (lots of them around 30 dollars on ebay just make sure it is a running example) and swap in the 21 jewel movement to go with the dial.

Hope this helps you some.

Edit: I did some more searching it I do see some examples of the later script and 9 emblem with the dynamic wide reference. So Ricoh maybe resurrected the dynamic wide name later on. So perhaps the dial is a real dial. But again, it definitely did not come with that movement. As noted above, wear and enjoy or buy a cheap running 21 jewel movement and do a swap so it all matches more closely.

Talk about a wealth of knowledge! Thank you so much. I may just end up wearing it as is. If I come across a 21 jeweler on eBay I may pick it up. For now I’m just enjoying it.

Perhaps you can tell by my profile picture and some other posts, but I really like Ricohs. If you have not already, search on YouTube for "Urban Gentry and Ricoh Watches." TGV did a nice job talking about some Ricoh history. Although not widely known for watches today, at one time they were right behind Seiko and were one of the 4 big Japanese watch brands. Ricoh designed and produced their movements in-house. While the movements were not ornately finished, they are smartly designed and sturdy. They have some stunning designs in my opinion. But they also have some very, um, 70s and 80s period designs that are really funky. I really like the looks of your watch. Nice dial and the case is classic. I have several with that case. If you want to wear a oyster or jubilee style bracelet on it, you can with a little work. The lugs are 19.8ish mm wide. I buy 20mm bracelets from Honcos with the curved end links to hug the case and use a dremel tool with a grinding wheel to remove just a little material from the sides of the end links and it then fits great.