SOLD - Seiko Astronomical Observatory Chronometer
4520A movement
The Seiko Astronomical Observatory Chronometer
“We choose to go to the Moon Switzerland”
There is a rather interesting parallel - one that has only just occurred to me as I sat down to write the introduction to this listing - between the progress made in the field of chronometry by Seiko in the 1960’s and that made in a rather larger “field” by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the same decade.
NASA was founded in 1958 - the same year that Seiko commenced production of what is considered to be the precursor to the original Grand Seiko, the Lord Marvel.
Two years later, on December 18th 1960 Seiko debuted the Grand Seiko Chronometer (as it was referred to back then, since there was at the time no ‘second’ Grand Seiko!), and less than 5 months after the launch of Grand Seiko, NASA had a launch of their own, achieving the United States’ first human spaceflight with astronaut Alan Shepherd aboard Mercury-Redstone 3.
That first Grand Seiko was the Japanese company’s attempt to create the ideal watch - one that combined precision, practicality and beauty, and one that compete with the very best that Switzerland had to offer.
Even as early as 1962, both Seiko and NASA clearly had their sights set on greater goals. For NASA, the goal was very publicly announced by US President John F. Kennedy in his famous “We choose to go to the Moon” address on September 12th 1962 at Rice University. Here’s an excerpt from that speech -
“We choose to go to the Moon... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.”
Now replace “the Moon” in that speech with “Switzerland”, and you can imagine it being the rallying call to Seiko’s watchmakers.
Seiko’s participation in the Swiss Observatory Chronometer trials - which commenced the very next year after JFK had made his legendary address - has been extensively written about in the past (most eruditely by Anthony Kable over at Plus9Time1), so there is no need for me to repeat it here.
Jumping to the final year of the decade (there are plenty more analogies between the two projects that can be made in the interim period, but for the sake of brevity I will save them for another day), and we can say “Mission Accomplished” both for NASA, and for Seiko.
Feel free to share this newsletter!
It is still very early days for this new Substack, so if you know of anyone who you think might enjoy reading this newsletter - even if they are not interested in purchasing the watch offered for sale - please do feel free to share it with them!
Seiko 4520-8020 case serial number 960024, movement serial number 002906
Apollo 11’s successful mission to the Moon (and back!) came about as the result of a decade of innovation and relentless progress, and is arguably humankind’s greatest ever achievement that, to this day, has not been surpassed.
Seiko’s successful mission to Switzerland was also the result of a decade’s worth of effort, with Seiko filling positions 4-10 at the 1968 Geneva Observatory competition with their mechanical movements. Positions 1-3 were taken by quartz models submitted by C.E.H.
The Neuchatel Observatory competition for wrist watches was cancelled in 1968, but - as Anthony explains in his seminal article2 on the Seiko Astronomical Observatory Chronometer, Neuchatel continued to accept movements outside of competition for testing and certification as Observatory Chronometers for a number of years.
One month prior to Neil Armstrong stepping foot on the Moon, the watch I am offering for sale here was completed, its 4520 caliber movement having successfully passed the Neuchatel Observatory Chronometer test the year previously.
And in parallel to the significance of the Apollo 11 mission, not only was this reference indisputably the pinnacle of Seiko’s mechanical wristwatch chronometry mission of the 1960’s, but a very strong argument could be made for its achievement never having being bettered since.
And now, the video presentation -
For those who are reading this who are not familiar with seeing watches presented like this when they are offered for sale, it’s probably worth my explaining why - despite many years of experience in photographing watches - I no longer take any still images at all (the lead photo in this listing is simply a cropped frame-grab from a section of the original 8K resolution video that wasn’t used in the final edit).
Quite simply, I have come to the realisation over the last couple of years that this is by far the most optimal way of presenting a watch so that prospective buyers can make a true and honest assessment as to the watch’s inherent quality. One very highly regarded collector on seeing this video earlier in the week commented “Mon dieu! It’s better than handling a watch in person at an auction preview!”.
The quality of photographs used by many renowned companies and dealers is, quite frankly, lamentable. I have commented on this in passing in my Instagram stories in the past, but will take a deeper look at this subject in a future newsletters later in the year.
Suffice to say, I honestly don’t believe any descriptive words regarding the condition of the watch are required - pretty much everything you need to know is there in the video (and of course you can pause the video at any point should you wish to take more time to examine a particular aspect of the watch). If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me - if you received this newsletter by email, you can simply reply to the mail. Alternatively, drop me a fresh email to watchdxb@substack.com.
Its place in history
The Seiko Astronomical Observatory Chronometer was the only watch ever made by Seiko that was sold to the public having been subjected to the exacting Observatory Chronometer testing regime that the competition movements submitted to Neuchatel chronometry trials underwent. It was launched in the very same “Seiko Special Luxury Catalogue” in which the first four Grand Seiko VFA’s debuted, for the price of 180,000 Yen.
Over a three year period, a total of 283 movements were submitted by Seiko to undergo the strict 45 day Observatory Chronometer test at Neuchatel. Of those 283 movements, 226 passed the test, and were subsequently cased up and sold.
The earliest batch of 103 movements, submitted in 1968, utilised the Grand Seiko 4520A caliber, whilst the two later batches in 1969 and 1970 used the 4580 VFA movement.
73 of those 4520A movements passed the test, and examples of the reference from this initial batch of watches - cased up in June 1969 - are naturally much more sought after by collectors than the later 4580 caliber pieces, and it is extremely rare for one to come to market. Once these find homes in collections, they very rarely surface again.
What happened to the 30 movements that did not pass the test remains a mystery, but it is interesting to note that the Neuchatel submitted movements had the last four digits of the movement number engraved on the movement baseplate just to the right of the balance wheel.
Very possibly there are some regular Grand Seiko references utilising the 4520 caliber “out there” similarly engraved (regular 4520 movements are not marked here with the movement serial number), but to my knowledge none have ever surfaced.
Whilst we know for certain that there were originally 73 of these watches made available to the public in 1969, what we don’t know is how many of them have survived to this day. As I’m sure everyone reading this will be aware, 1969 was a very important year not for just space exploration, but also in horology, with Seiko launching the first commercially available quartz wristwatch - the Astron - on Christmas Day.
Sadly as a result of the significant increase in the value of gold through the 1970’s, many wristwatches from around that period with cases made from 18K gold met an untimely demise at the smelters, as people cashed in on the fact that the scrap value of their watch was almost certainly greater than what it was at the time worth as a timepiece. The rapid development of quartz watches in the early 1970’s just exacerbated the situation as it became possible to purchase a wristwatch with a precision previously unimaginable (although it is worth noting that at launch, the chronometric performance of the Astronomical Observatory Chronometer was actually on a par with Seiko’s own Quartz Aston3).
Because of these two factors, it is not unheard of to come across Astronomical Observatory Chronometers sans their cases4, or indeed with aftermarket crystal casebacks5, where - presumably - the original case and caseback were melted down for scrap value many years ago, and subsequently a case from a Grand Seiko 452x-8010 was “borrowed” as a replacement (although of course, one could hardly include the caseback from the same watch, hence the decision to resort to a custom fabricated display back).
So, just how many of the other 72 watches that accompanied the watch available here to Neuchatel still remain in existence is unknown, but it is probably safe to assume that many have been ‘lost’ down the years.
With the watch coming to market at the same time as the start of the quartz revolution, it is perhaps not surprising that the Seiko Astronomical Observatory Chronometer represents the absolute pinnacle of mechanical chronometry in a wristwatch.
Following the epoch-defining step that Neil Armstrong famously made on July 21st 1969, NASA went back to the Moon again in 1970, 1971 and 1972. With the Astronomical Observatory Chronometer, Seiko returned to Switzerland in 1969 and 1970 with additional movements - this time the 4580 VFA - and a further 153 Astronomical Observatory Chronometers were created.
Looking back, it seems that for both Seiko and NASA, there was perhaps a feeling of “been there, done that”, as not only has no human set foot on the Moon since December 1972, no watch brand - to the best of my knowledge - has submitted a series production wristwatch to the exacting standards of the Observatory Chronometer test since Seiko did in 1970 with those final 4580 movements.
But it is of course the first step that is historically the most important, which is why a 4520A caliber 4520-8020 Seiko Astronomical Observatory Chronometer, from the very first production batch of the reference, is so highly regarded and sought after.
One thing that can be said is that there are orders of magnitude more significant and important watch collections around the world that deserve an example of this reference in them, than there are Astronomical Observatory Chronometers in existence to go around.
Price and delivery - SOLD
Congratulations Gerald. Must have been tough to let it go (unless you have like three of them)