Seiko Introduces new Astrons, Including a Limited Edition, for their 145th Anniversary
This year marks the 145th anniversary of Seiko, and while 145 isn’t exactly the most notable round number anniversary, it’s still, well, a very long time. And as we’ve mentioned countless times in these pages, the watch industry simply doesn’t let an anniversary year go to waste. Seiko has just announced a new collection of watches in the Astron line to mark the occasion, because of course it makes a lot of sense to commemorate longevity and a proud history with the most modern contemporary line in the catalog. Right? Kidding aside, the Astron holds a special place in the Seiko collection for a few reasons. It was the name of the brand’s very first quartz watch, famously introduced on Christmas Day in 1969. It was a watch, and a technology, that not only changed the company, but the watch industry altogether. It ushered in the Quartz Crisis across most of the watchmaking world, except of course in Japan, which rose to a level of prominence in watchmaking as a result of quartz. Today, the Astron is special as it is reserved for the most newfangled Seiko technology available, very much in keeping with the tradition inherent in its name. That means, primarily, tech forward GPS enabled timekeeping, as well as the use of Seiko’s solar technology. Astron watches typically inhabit a very contemporary design language, which tends toward sporty, angular, and often oversized. The anniversary watch introduced this week is the new GPS Solar Dual Time Chronograph, ref...