Watch of the Week - Seiko 7a28-710A

It’s 1982. The Commodore 64 8-bit home computer is launched in the USA. Heuer are still making watches like the digital Chronosplit and the Swiss watch industry is being stabbed to death with quartz crystals. But, even though some people think it is acceptable to wear a watch that is also a calculator, a compass, a barometer and a TV combined, there is a sense that digital watches aren’t quite where it is at anymore. And that’s where Seiko – as they so often do – come in.

Now, I know some watchie people are sniffy about Seiko. But it’s hard to be convincingly rude about a brand that makes one of the most accurate movements in the world (the 9F series – that’s +/- 10 sec pa) and that not only grows its own quartz crystals, but ages them for three months to maximise stability. If that ain’t a manufacture movement, I don’t know what is.

Back in the early ‘80s, Seiko decided that all this LCD technology was splendid, but how about building an analogue quartz chronograph? One that didn’t go ‘beep’ and flash a lot of scrolling numbers at you. So, being Seiko, that’s what they did. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the very first analogue quartz chronograph.

They weren’t shy either. Contemporary ads proclaimed “Watch history being made” and with the watch photographed against the dashboards of Porsche 911s and Ur Quattros, it was clear Seiko were pitching it high. And they didn’t mess about. The 7a series does that wonderful Seiko thing of seeming simple but actually being eye-wateringly impressive. Let’s start with the movement…