Footnotes

精工，「1964年東京奧運」5718-8000型號，非常罕見精鋼手動上弦計時鏈帶腕錶，配跑步圈及日期雙功能顯示，年份約1964。

Considered as the 'holy grail' of Seiko vintage timepieces, the legendary and exceedingly-rare Ref. 5718-8000 was produced in 1964 for the Tokyo Olympics and was sold during the Olympic Games. The 5718 functions as an effective sports stopwatch, counter and tachymeter. The two iconic push buttons on the left of the watch allow wearers to easily adjust the 1's and 10's positions of the count graph. The aperture functions as both a lap-counter and a date display as it auto-advances at midnight. There are only a handful of 5718-8000 examples known to exist in the market, with only one other example released at auction as of today. Despite the limited information in the market for this watch due to its rarity, with the great help from the Seiko expert and collector Gerald Donovan, we were able to find the detail of this model which was featured in the 1964 edition of an internal Suwa magazine.


Translation of the article:

"The Seiko Chronograph, a wristwatch featured with a stopwatch functionality, a tachymeter to display speed, a counter, waterproof treatment and shock resistance. It was sold at the Olympic Village during the Olympic Games.
The stopwatch employs an additive calculation system identical to the stopwatches used at the Olympic Games. When one presses on the button located at the top right of the watch, it causes the second and minute hands to move, while the button at bottom right button returns them to the starting position. The outermost edge of the dial is the tachymeter, with the second hand indicating the speed travelled in kilometers. In addition, by pressing the button on the top left advances the counter (as seen through the window located at the top center of the watch) up to 99. This counter can also be used as a calendar.
(Retail price: 35,000 JPY)"

Photo Credit: Gerald Donovan for the scanned excerpts from the Suwa November 1964 magazine


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