Teddy Baldassarre
Why the Seiko Astron Might be the Most Important Watch of the 20th Cen
Among today’s Seiko watch models and collections, it’s fair to say that the Seiko Astron does not receive nearly the amount of love from enthusiasts and collectors as do its contemporaries, like the Prospex and Presage models and even the budget-friendly 5 Sport series. And yet I believe a substantial case can be made that the Astron — at least, the first watch to bear that name, way back at the collection’s inception in 1969 — is the most important watch of the 20th Century. The first watch to the market with a quartz movement, the Seiko Astron was a game-changer for the entire watch industry, with an impact that is still being felt today. When Seiko revived the Astron in 2012 after a long hiatus, it was with the recognition that the model represented a quantum leap in watchmaking technology and the determination to take it to the next level. Seiko has fulfilled that promise with subsequent editions of the modern Astron, which brought GPS technology into watchmaking much as the original brought quartz. Here is the story of the Seiko Astron and its 50-plus-year journey to the cutting edge of technology. The Road to Quartz: 1952 - 1968 The quartz watch movement, as with many other groundbreaking inventions, did not emerge from a single burst of creative vision, but ultimately proved to be the most workable version of many such mechanisms, all aimed toward addressing the same industry-wide challenge. As I explore in greater depth in my article on the History of Tim...
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