CaseBack Codes

Vintage Seiko: families and calibers

The vintage Seiko families we cover, in one table: when each was made, which caliber it uses, and what it sells for once we’ve sampled it. Prices come only from our own sampling.

Each disc is one caliber. Pick one to jump to its family.

FamilyYearsCaliberCasePrice rangeHow to tell, what to watch for
62MAS1965–196862178000, 8001—Crown at 3 and no crown guard: a small crown on the 8000, a big one on the 8001. Check the crown tube and case side as well as the crown.
Willard1970–197761058110, 8119—A crown guard and an arrow-and-LOCK crown held by a pin, not a screw-down. The slimmer 6105-8000 and 8009 (1968 to 1970) came first, without the guard.
Turtle1976–198863097040, 7049—Big cushion case, crown at 4, day and date. A date window with no bevel points to a replacement dial.
300m Hi-Beat1968–196961597000, 7001—HI-BEAT on the dial and a one-piece case opened from the front. The ring on the 7001's back isn't a screw-off back; don't try to open it.
7002 diver1988–199670027000, 7009—Date only, no day, in a slim case with a small crown guard. The first 150 m 7000 and 7009 differ from later 200 m 7002s; go by the case number.
7548 quartz diver1978–198575487000, 7009—Quartz, day and date. Seiko USA no longer services the 7548, and the battery-change marks on the back aren't the production date.
Pogue1970–197861396002, 6005—Yellow dial, red and blue tachymeter. Seiko USA no longer services the 6139; check that the chronograph resets and keeps full time.
Bullhead1973–197961380040, 0049—Crown and pushers at the top of the case. Aftermarket dials, hands and bezel inserts turn up, and Seiko USA no longer services the 6138.
7A28 chronographpending7A287000, 7010, 7020, 7040—Seiko's first analog quartz chronograph, launched in 1983. A non-runner may need a new circuit board, which owners found hard to source by 2016.
Lord Matic1968–197856067000, 7010, 7070, 8010—Day-date automatic with a quickset. Seiko's guide says not to use the quickset between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m.; Seiko USA no longer services the 5606.
LM Specialpending52168010—A 28,800 bph automatic that also hand-winds. It shares the Lord Matic name, not the 5606 movement.
King Seiko 45KS1968–197445027000, 7001—Hand-wound 36,000 bph Hi-Beat from Daini, with a KS medallion on the back. Check for a polished-down case and a refinished dial.
King Seiko 56KS1968–197556257000, 7110—Automatic at 28,800 bph from Suwa: the 5625 has a date, the 5626 a day and date. Compare the case facets for polishing.
Bell-Matic1966–197840067000, 7010, 7020, 6027—A mechanical alarm watch. Dials, hands and rings get swapped between Bell-Matic models, and Seiko USA no longer services the 4006.
6119pending61198100, 8460—21-jewel day-date automatic. The A and B set only the date by pushing the crown; the C sets day and date. The 6119-8100 case is chrome-plated.
6106pending61068100, 8229—Day-date automatic that hacks, in Seiko 5 and sports cases. On the 6106-8229 Rally Diver, check the bezel: missing and replacement bezels are documented.
Women’s automaticpending22050240—Automatic with hand-winding and a date, 28,800 bph, 17 jewels in Seiko's guide.
Women’s 4206pending42060510—Automatic with hand-winding, day and date, 21,600 bph, in Seiko's guide.

The table grows as each reference page goes live. A family that isn’t here yet isn’t forgotten; it’s queued.

What counts as a vintage Seiko

There’s no agreed cut-off. Fratello and Hodinkee both say there’s no single definition of neo-vintage; Hodinkee uses roughly 1980 to 2000, Fratello the 1980s to the early 2000s.

This site covers Seiko from the 1960s to the mid-1990s, mechanical and early quartz: the families in the table above, from the 1965 62MAS to the 7002 diver that ran until 1996. Some of that, like the 7002 and the 7A28 quartz chronograph, is what others call neo-vintage. We include it because the questions are the same: what is it, what should an original look like, and what is it worth.

Dress, sports and quartz

Seiko’s own history gives the starting points. Grand Seiko launched in 1960 and King Seiko in 1961. The Sportsmatic 5, the first Seiko 5, came in 1963, and Japan’s first diver’s watch, the one collectors call the 62MAS, in 1965. Seiko 5 Sports followed in 1968, and on December 25, 1969, Seiko released the Quartz Astron.

The filters above sort the table into five groups:

  • Divers: the 62MAS, 6105, 6159, 6309, 7002 and 7548, plus the 6106 and 6119, which also went into sports divers.
  • Chronographs: the 6139 Pogue, the 6138 Bullhead and the 7A28.
  • Dress: King Seiko, Lord Matic and LM Special, the Bell-Matic alarm, and the 6106 and 6119 in their Seiko 5 cases.
  • Quartz: the 7A28 chronograph and the 7548 diver.
  • Women’s: the 2205 and 4206 automatics. Our women’s guide covers Queen Seiko, Credor, Lassale and the other women’s families.

These are our groupings, not Seiko’s, and a family can sit in more than one.

What each family costs today

We publish a range only after sampling sold eBay listings by hand over 90 days, extended to 180 days when a reference has fewer than 15 sales, with the date and the number of sales shown next to the range. Asking prices don’t go into the range, and neither do modern re-issues. Our first sampling runs in November 2026; until then the price column stays empty rather than guessed. The price guide explains the method.

What to avoid

A watch Seiko won’t service, at a price that assumes it will. Seiko USA’s list of calibers it no longer services includes the 5606 (Lord Matic), 6138 (Bullhead), 6139 (Pogue) and 4006 (Bell-Matic), and the 7548 and 7549 quartz divers, because parts have run out. It warns that other old calibers may be returned unrepaired too. An independent watchmaker can often still help, but price the watch for that.

Worn gold plating. Plating can be redone, but a plater will tell you it doesn’t hide dents or scratches underneath, and the result is no longer the original finish. Opinions on value differ: a collector’s guide at WahaWatches says replating takes away value, while a plating company claims it can raise it. WahaWatches suggests checking the lugs and the case flanks, where plating wears through.

A dead 7A28 sold as needing only a battery. When a 7A28 won’t run, the circuit board is one suspect. An owner on the Seiko7A38 forum was told in 2016 that replacement boards had dried up and was advised to find a working donor movement. Don’t assume a non-runner only needs a battery.

Rebuilt and redialed watches. Replacement dials, hands and bezel inserts are documented on the Pogue, the 6105 Willard and the 6309 Turtle, among others. Each reference page lists what to check.

How to verify before you buy

Start with the serial decoder: it reads the production month and the last digit of the year from the serial, and when you add the caliber it keeps only the years that movement was made, which often leaves one. Then compare the case back number with the movement and dial, and work through the checks on the reference page. The authenticity check compares the serial and case number against what we’ve recorded for each reference.

Sources

Years in the table are the ranges our sources give, and some are approximate. The Bullhead’s end year is when Fratello says it was last sold, the 7548’s comes from serials The Seiko Guy has seen, and for the 45KS Mizeni ends the movement in 1973 while Beyond the Dial says the watches were sold until 1974. Where we have only one community source, as for the 6106 and 6119, the year stays pending.