The Astron is Back!

[CombatID]

It’s an interesting article. But only 50 will be made and the price is waaaay expensive.


https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/th...eid=a1daeb966f




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[simonp]

And it’s ugly unfortunately. I’m sure all 50 will sell & go into safes until owners can make money selling them.


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[zeke441]

I'm sure they'll sell too, but I still don't understand buying a re-issue, or a new limited edition of anything when the real deal can be bought for a fraction of the cost.

[Grammarofdesign]

I believe the whole point of Seiko going to all the trouble to design and tool up and create a hidden GPS movement is to show they are an upscale brand.


They don't care if they sell 25 of them and the other 25 sit in every Boutique's window case. They will show they play in the $50,000 range and have an 18K gold trophy watch.


It they create a new watch that makes them $100 margin out their factory door and sell 100,000 of them they make $10,000,000 profit.


If these 50 watches only cost $2500 to build and they sell them all in captive retail channel at full list they only bring in $2,500,000 and I'll bet the entire project to design and tool up cost that much so it's revenue neutral.


This is an Upscale Brand Play and while few on this forum would want one if we could even afford it, they were not worried about any of us when they took this on.

[bradurani]

Does anyone on this forum own an original Astron? That's something I'd love to see. Share 'em if you've got 'em!

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[DonJ53]

If I had $36K to spend on any watch then what others thought would not be a concern because, like any jewelry, it would be a personal taste.

If I were able to spend that sum then I would buy one. Like the original, it's a fantastic looking object.

Of course this is my opinion.

I would enjoy telling people it's power reserve...10.8 billion years give or take a few billion.

[Phil_G]

I do like that one! Of course I can't afford it (not even the thought of thinking about it) but I really do like it.

[TheTigerUK]

Love it, love the case finish on the Astron's, a few zero's out of my price range though.

[akable]

I am really disappointed with this release. I think you can easily argue that the original Astron was the most influential watch produced during the 20th century beginning a revolution that would completely change the watch industry and with technology developed impacting many segments of the modern electronics industry. For such an iconic model it is disappointing that this anniversary release strays so far from the original.

The finish on the new case looks great and the craftsmanship demonstrated in the production is impressive, but it is not even close to the original design. The original does not have engraved finish shown here and even the direction of the pattern flowing around the dial is different. A quick look at photos of the original vs the new will show the case finish differences.

In the Hodinkee article they state "However, for the new The 1969 Quartz Astron 50th Anniversary Limited Edition, Seiko has developed a new movement which provides all the convenience of a GPS watch – very high precision..." This movement (3X22) was not specifically designed for the 50th Astron but has already been used in three ladies Astron models (STXD001, 002, 004) released earlier this year. As others have pointed out the original Astron ad an accuracy of ±5 seconds per month. This new model built 50 years later has a native accuracy of ±15 seconds per month. Obviously it has the ability to sync to the GPS satellites and correct itself, so in practice the internal accuracy may not be as relevant, but it is an interesting how the importance of native accuracy has changed over the years.

The proportions of the new model are not representative of the original at all. It is not that just the size has changed but the new model has the dial set much deeper and proportionally looking much smaller. I understand that this is because of the need for the GPS antenna to receive a signal and this has required the use of the large rehaute, as the ceramic bezel used on other models is not employed here.

I know that Seiko is proud of their GPS Astron technology and it is a nice solution for many travelers but I do think that its use here was a little out of place. I have an original 35SQ, as well as the Historical Collection Year 2000 (SCQZ002) and an original GSP Astron model. The GPS Astron is nice but the connection to the first was always a marketing stretch. For the reissue something closer to the original or 2000 model would have been much more appropriate. A no date 9F model would have allowed this and could have been marketed as the accuracy moving from ±5 seconds per month to that per year.

[DonJ53]

I think the wording 'Seiko has developed a new movement' is misconstrued.

They are not implying the movement has been especially developed for it, they are saying they have used a recently developed movement.

I fully understand the purists point of view, which as we know has been expressed on a few LE issues.

[DAHASCO]

Originally Posted by zeke441

I'm sure they'll sell too, but I still don't understand buying a re-issue, or a new limited edition of anything when the real deal can be bought for a fraction of the cost.

[mwadner]

oh is that all? For that cost I can send my kid to three full years at the University of Washington (or pay to have their SAT scores corrected).

Somethings wrong here.

[Vette Enthusiast]

I think this is an attractive piece from Seiko but $36K for a quartz movement. I just cannot fathom that kind of coin for a quartz timepiece. So many other significant and collectable mechanical watches out there one could have with that kind of spend. Good luck to Seiko.

[bradurani]

An original quartz-astron sold.on YJ earlier this year and only fetched $11,000. See: http://wristsushi.proboards.com/thre...on-full?page=1
Why would anyone buy a reissue when they could have that for less? (Ok, to be fair, good luck finding one for sale)

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