Affordable Vintage: 1970 Grand Seiko 61GS 6145-8000

While Seiko is probably best known for their dive watches, they are also masters of creating high-end dress watches. Their Grand Seiko (GS) line made its debut in 1960, and continued until the 1970s (the mechanical Grand Seiko was revived in 1998 and continues production to this day). The most iconic of all the Grand Seiko case designs began as the manual wind 44GS in 1966 , and culminated in the automatic 61GS in 1968. The 61GS line was the result of refinements over the years including technology from the Astronomical Observatory Concours of the late 1960s.

Reviewed here today is a 1970 Grand Seiko 6145-8000. The watch was designed by Taro Tanaka, the first graduate of a college design program hired by Seiko. He wanted to design a watch that would “sparkle brilliantly” while on display, one that would compete with the Swiss watches of the time. He came up with a set of rules that would come to be known as the “Grammar of Design.”