Vintage King Seiko 5625-7000 Hi-Beat Watch Automatic 1970 Serviced UK Warranty

SPECIFICATION

Reference: King Seiko 5625-7000
Movement: Seiko cal. 5625 automatic, 25 jewels
Age: September 1970
Case Size: 37mm
Case Thickness: 10mm
Lug to Lug: 42mm
Lugs: 18mm
Condition: Used Seiko watch
Box and Papers: No
Case Material: Stainless steel
Warranty: 12-month UK warranty

POINTS TO MENTION

• In great pre-owned condition, with light wear 
  
• Case and bezel have some light scratches and marks
• Sunburst dial
  
• Fully serviced Hi-beat automatic movement
  
• Upgraded metal quickset gear
  
• KS signed crown
  
• Paired with an unworn grey leather strap with deployant buckle
  
• Gold medallion in good condition
  

THE WATCH

There's a rather good twist in the King Seiko family story. The name began with the watchmakers at Daini Seikosha, but when the first automatic King Seikos arrived in 1968 they were made by Suwa — the factory behind Grand Seiko. The 56KS was a new chapter, and its date-only 5625 was a particularly straightforward expression of what Suwa's engineers could do.

By 1970, Seiko was making watches with an identity entirely its own. This wasn't a Swiss design translated into Japanese; it was an assured piece of Japanese watchmaking, designed to be part of someone's life rather than kept for a special occasion. That is part of what makes these early automatic King Seikos so interesting now.

A BIT OF TRIVIA

The same year this King Seiko was made, Seiko was keeping time on a much grander scale. For Expo '70 in Osaka, it built a radio-controlled clock system with a master clock synchronising 110 clocks at 50 locations across the exhibition site. Seiko records it as the world's first such system. While the crowds at Osaka were being shown a vision of the future, Seiko's watchmakers were still making beautiful mechanical watches for the years ahead. Two rather different ways of looking at time.

OUR THOUGHTS

We like the idea of owning a watch from the opening years of this King Seiko generation. It gives you something more personal than a famous name or a list of technical achievements: a little piece of an extraordinary moment in Japanese watchmaking that can simply become your own watch. You might wear it for years without ever telling its story, but we think there's a real pleasure in knowing it's there.